Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Prisons

Editors’ Picks—Reading and Watching the Prison in North Africa and the Middle East — The book covers of Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison by Ahmed Naji, The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer by Mustafa Khalifa, and The Purple Color of Kurdish Politics: Women Politicians Write from Prison Edited by Gültan Kışanak.

MER Article

Editors’ Picks—Reading and Watching the Prison in North Africa and the Middle East

The editors of MER issue 312, “Carceral Realities and Freedom Dreams,” assembled a list of literary works and films (available in English) that take up the prison across space and time. These works capture the themes of the issue: carceralism—that is, forms of un-freedom—and organized resistance against it.

(Author not identified) • 10 min read

Cell Phones Behind Bars in Lebanon — Inside a Lebanese prison. Photo by Haitham Moussawi.Artwork by Yassin Mohamed.

MER Article

Cell Phones Behind Bars in Lebanon

Exploring a new era of prison communication.

Chafic Tony Najem • 12 min read

Morocco’s Kingdom of Police — Protesters stand off before police during a demonstration against corruption, repression and unemployment in the northern Moroccan city of al-Hoceima in the early hours of June 10, 2017. Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images

MER Article

Morocco’s Kingdom of Police

The growing reach of Morocco's carceral system.

Samia Errazzouki • 12 min read

Resisting Carceralism and Fighting for Freedom—A Roundtable — An Egyptian policeman near watch towers at Tora prison on the southern outskirts of Cairo. Picture taken during a guided tour organized by Egypt’s State Information Service on February 11, 2020, Khalid Desouki/AFP via Getty ImagesA demonstration in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, on August 3, 2024, in solidarity with Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons and the people of Gaza. Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images

MER Article

Resisting Carceralism and Fighting for Freedom—A Roundtable

Four activists reflect on building a global anti-carceral movement.

Sahar Francis, Asim Qureshi, Kaouther Ferjani, Yara Sallam • 19 min read

A Note on the Cover Image — Suspended Souls by Yassin Mohamed.

MER Article

A Note on the Cover Image

The cover art for MER issue 312, “Carceral Realities and Freedom Dreams,” is titled “Suspended Souls,” by Egyptian artist Yassin Mohamed. It depicts a scene from the third and fourth floors of Ward B in Egypt’s maximum security Tora prison in 2017, where the artist was imprisoned. Serving two

(Author not identified) • 2 min read

State Secrets and Crimes—Rape at Israel's Sde Teiman Prison — Knesset members Limor Son Har-Melech (right) and Yitzhak Kroizer (in white) from the far right-wing Otzma Yehudití party stand with armed and masked reservists from Force 100. Israeli right-wing activists demonstrated with masked IDF reservists and broke into Beit Lid military police base following the detention of 9 military reservists from the unit today, who were suspected of sexual abuse of a detainee at the Sde Teiman compound. Matan Golan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Current Analysis

State Secrets and Crimes—Rape at Israel's Sde Teiman Prison

A timely preview of MER's fall issue, 'Carceral Realities and Freedom Dreams.'

Lisa Hajjar, Basil Farraj • 7 min read

'A Place Without a Door' and 'Uncle Give me a Cigarette'—Two Essays by Palestinian Political Prisoner, Walid Daqqah — Portrait of Walid Daqqah by artist and architect Hazem Abutawila.Protesters gather to hold a demonstration demanding the release of Walid Daqqa in Bethlehem, West Bank on June 7, 2023. His wife and daughter appear in the poster behind him. Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Current Analysis

'A Place Without a Door' and 'Uncle Give me a Cigarette'—Two Essays by Palestinian Political Prisoner, Walid Daqqah

Essays, smuggled out of prison, have been translated as part of the campaign for Daqqah's release.

Walid Daqqah, Dalia Taha • 8 min read

COP27, Alaa Abd El-Fattah and the Dreams of the Revolution—A Conversation with Omar Robert Hamilton and Ashish Ghadiali — Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s sisters, Mona and Sanaa Seif, at the sit-in outside of the UK Foreign Office on October 30, 2022. Alisdare Hickson. CC 2.0.

Current Analysis

COP27, Alaa Abd El-Fattah and the Dreams of the Revolution—A Conversation with Omar Robert Hamilton and Ashish Ghadiali

On November 6, 2022, COP27 will begin in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with the aim of delivering on the Paris Agreement and the intention to acknowledge the disproportionate effects of climate change on the Global South, through "Loss and Damage." On the same day, British-Egyptian political prisoner and

The Editors • 12 min read

Current Analysis

Striking for Dignity and Freedom

More than 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners began a hunger strike on April 17 for better conditions inside Israeli jails. Their demands include access to education, proper medical care and an end to the practice of solitary confinement. They are striking to make their families’ lives easier, too—for regular

Amahl Bishara • 6 min read

MER Article

Wadi Natroun and Worse

On January 25, 2014, Karim Taha and Muhammad Sharif organized separate marches about five miles apart in Cairo to commemorate the third anniversary of the uprising that toppled Husni Mubarak. Both demonstrations were quashed, and the two men met up to share a cab home. The driver took a detour that

Nadeen Shaker • 4 min read

MER Article

The Plight of Egypt's Political Prisoners

On December 2, 2013, Mahienour al-Massry organized a protest on the corniche running along the Mediterranean seafront in Alexandria, Egypt’s second city. The human rights attorney’s raven ponytail and oversized black glasses made her easy to spot amid the dozens of people with their backs turned to

Nadeen Shaker • 14 min read

MER Article

Slahi, Guantanamo Diary

Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary is a powerful indictment of the cruel regime of torture at the heart of darkness that is the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay.

Lisa Hajjar • 4 min read