MER Article Doctors and Brothers There are few obvious reasons to visit Basatin, a poor district off the Ring Road at the southern edge of Cairo. Getting there requires a driver willing to bob and weave through a succession of potholed lanes barely wide enough to accommodate pedestrians and the tiny shops that spill into the street Steven Brooke • 8 min read
MER Article The Muslim Brothers Take to the Streets On August 14, 2013, supporters of deposed President Muhammad Mursi were massacred at two protest camps in Cairo and Giza. In the subsequent four months, the Muslim Brothers have regrouped to launch a wave of popular protest the likes of which has not been seen in Egypt since the January 25 revolutio Neil Ketchley • 14 min read
MER Article The Struggle for Syria's Regions In August 2013, as the United States was preparing to attack Syria over the use of chemical weapons, a chant echoed through ‘Alawi areas of Homs: “Strike, strike, buddy, we want to loot Tel Aviv” (idrab idrab ya habib, bidna n’affish Tall Abib). The couplet draws on a familiar position in Baathist d Kevin Mazur, Kheder Khaddour • 25 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Winter 2013) On January 25, 2011, thousands of Egyptians angered by police brutality, among other state abuses, took over Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, setting off the exuberant upheaval that unseated a dictator of 30 years’ standing and inspired democrats the world over. Spellbound observers (including us) p (Author not identified) • 5 min read
Letter (July-September 1984) Christopher Hitchens’ article “Uncorking the Genie: The Cyprus Question and Turkey’s Military Rule” (MERIP Reports 122) must be commended for approaching the complex issue of Cyprus from the vantage point of regional politics, rather than the more usual and not very enlightening arguments involving (Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Fall 2013) Albrecht, Holger. Raging Against the Machine: Political Opposition Under Authoritarianism in Egypt (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013). Al-Rasheed, Madawi. A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics and Religions in Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013). Antoon, Sina The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Graham Usher MERIP mourns Graham Usher, our long-time correspondent and contributing editor. Below are his obituary and two remembrances from our editors. (Author not identified) • 8 min read
MER Article Letter (Fall 2013) In her article, “A Makeover: Baghdad, the 2013 Arab Capital of Culture [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer266/makeover]” (MER 266), Nada Shabout gives a description of arts and culture initiatives being developed in three Iraqi “zones.” There are a few discrepancies regarding the non-profit Sada (Echo) fo (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article The Rerouted Trafficking in Eritrean Refugees When Sheikh Muhammad ‘Ali Hasan ‘Awad learned that nine kidnapped “Africans” -- eight Eritreans and one Ethiopian -- were being beaten, raped and starved in a compound in Sheikh Zuwayd, a Sinai village near the Israeli border, he wasted little time. Firing AK-47s in the air, the sheikh and his Bedou Dan Connell • 13 min read
MER Article Turkey's Woman in the Red Dress On June 1, the day after the brutal police attack to disperse the occupation of Gezi Park, thousands more protesters descended upon Taksim Square in central Istanbul. By the end of the week, demonstrators filled the plaza completely, with those in the park itself behind barricades should the police Neslihan Sen • 7 min read
MER Article Generation Y in Gezi Park Generation Y has figured large in the global pattern of protest beginning at the tail end of the 2000s. In marches against the fraudulent presidential election in Iran, against austerity in southern Europe, against autocracy in places from Morocco to Bahrain, and against greed and corruption in the Marcie J Patton • 16 min read
MER Article Syrian Drama and the Politics of Dignity Undeterred by pleas for mercy, the high-ranking intelligence officer Ra’uf pushes the junior ‘Azzam to his knees. Ra’uf forcibly shaves the young man’s head as other officers look on. He commands ‘Azzam to remove his shirt and pants, do pushups, jump up and down, and slide across the ground on his e Rebecca Joubin • 14 min read
