MER Article Books on Oman Fredrik Barth, Sohar: Culture and Society in an Omani Town (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1983). Unni Wikan, Behind the Veil in Arabia: Women in Oman (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1982). Nico Kielstra • 4 min read
MER Article Ghalem, A Wife for My Son Ali Ghalem, A Wife for My Son (trans. G. Kazolias) (Chicago: Banner Press, 1985). Pat Aufderheide • 3 min read
MER Article Hundreds of Communities Hold "Speak Out" Activities It was a small but brave demonstration. On October 23, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 20 people marched down a major street during lunch hour, carrying an Israeli and a Palestinian flag. Sponsored by a local coalition of Jews, Palestinians and peace activists, the group distributed leaflets and postcards a Dorie Wilsnack • 3 min read
MER Article The Fall of Safran Nadav Safran will step down as director of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) this summer, following a three-month investigation into his acceptance of over $150,000 from the Central Intelligence Agency. Michael Spence, dean of faculty for arts and sciences, accepted Safra Jack Trumpbour • 1 min read
MER Article Israeli Spies in the US November 21, 1985, was a remarkable day. FBI agents arrested a civilian terrorism analyst working for the US Navy, Jonathan Jay Pollard, outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, where he had gone seeking political asylum. Six days later, Pollard was arraigned in federal district court on several c Jeff McConnell • 13 min read
MER Article Baku's Shaikh-ul-Islam Shaikh-ul-Islam Pashazada Allahshukur Hummatoglu is chairman of the Board of Management of Caucasian Muslims. Fred Halliday and Maxine Molyneux interviewed him in Baku in July 1984. How are Soviet Muslims organized? There are four separate Islamic religious bodies in the Soviet Union. Three of the Maxine Molyneux, Fred Halliday • 3 min read
MER Article Letter from Baku Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, lying on the west coast of the Caspian, embodies many suggestive contrasts with other areas of the Soviet Union and with the neighboring countries of Iran and Turkey. On the esplanade running along the seashore, restaurants sell kebabs, local pancakes (kutab) Maxine Molyneux, Fred Halliday • 7 min read
MER Article The Wing of the Patriarch The relationship of women’s emancipation to liberation parties or movements raises a number of questions. The basic one is whether or not women are making their own revolution in their own name or being handed it by “another revolution.” [1] Sondra Hale • 20 min read
MER Article No Going Back? During the early stages of national political formation in the Middle East, when crises prevail and mass mobilization is a major organizing strategy, political movements often recruit women and the domestic sector into the political arena. Continuous crises, from which the domestic sector is not imm Julie Peteet • 15 min read
MER Article Political Roles of Iranian Village Women Masses of Iranian women, many of them “traditional,” relatively uneducated and from the lower classes, were politically quite active in the Iranian revolution. Many observers assume this to be without precedent. There is, however, a tradition of political participation and struggle in community poli Mary Hegland • 20 min read
MER Article Insurrectionary Women The study of women and politics has usually focused on the participation of women in the formal political arena -- that is, in politics as practiced by political parties, by people holding political office or, at most, by political opposition movements. In the Middle East context in particular, the Judith Tucker • 16 min read
MER Article Women and Politics in the Middle East How are Middle East women political and how do they participate in states, movements, revolts and revolutions? Few activities of ordinary people are inherently political. How something comes to be seen as political at times and non-political at other times, and who gets to define it as such, are bas Suad Joseph • 11 min read
