MER Article Women in the Shadows of Democracy “Life would get better.” Women throughout Iraq told themselves that constantly during the first, cautiously hopeful months of the US-British occupation of their country. As the electricity blinked on and off, the water stopped running and desert-camouflaged tanks churned up the narrow streets of th Huda Ahmed • 7 min read
MER Article Women in Iraq At a press conference two weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq, flanked by four “Women for a Free Iraq,” [1] Paula Dobriansky, then undersecretary of state for global affairs, declared: “We are at a critical point in dealing with Saddam Hussein. However this turns out, it is clear that the women Nadje Al-Ali, Nicola Pratt • 17 min read
MER Article "Model Employees" Twenty-two year old Leela made a promise to her family in Sri Lanka: she would earn enough money working abroad as a maid or a nanny to build a new house back home. Living thousands of miles from her husband and young son would be difficult, but Leela thought she would be able to send them money whi Monica Smith • 8 min read
MER Article Jordan's New "Political Development" Strategy “We have a problem here. There is no real [opposition] party except for the Muslim Brotherhood.” [1] So an official of Jordan’s new Ministry of Political Development and Parliamentary Affairs summed up the raison d’etre of his place of employment. Anne Baylouny • 11 min read
Current Analysis Iranian Women Take On the Constitution Activists for women’s rights are prominent among the many Iranians who fear a reinvigorated crackdown on personal and social freedoms in the wake of the surprise election of the ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency of the Islamic Republic. Though Ahmadinejad sought to soften his Mahsa Shekarloo • 10 min read
Current Analysis Women's Rights and the Meaning of Citizenship in Kuwait Prosperous and possessed of a spirited parliament, Kuwait has prided itself on being a standard setter among the Arab monarchies on the Persian Gulf. With respect to women's rights, however, today Kuwait ranks just above Saudi Arabia. Kuwaiti women are allowed to drive and they occupy positions in p Mary Ann Tétreault • 13 min read
MER Article Fatemeh Haqiqatjoo and the Sixth Majles On February 23, 2004, two days after the conservative victory in the elections for the Seventh Majles, for which the Guardian Council banned over 2,000 reformist candidates, including some 80 current deputies, the reformist-dominated Sixth Majles accepted the resignation of Fatemeh Haqiqatjoo. Ziba Mir-Hosseini • 15 min read
Current Analysis Off the Grid Air-conditioned transportation in Tehran is notoriously difficult to find. For pampered visitors such as the cultural anthropologists and documentary filmmakers from New York and Los Angeles who seem to converge on the Iranian capital every summer, a cool taxi ride to the northern parts of town reca Negar Mottahedeh • 18 min read
Current Analysis Kuwait's Parliament Considers Women's Political Rights, Again When Kuwait's parliament reconvenes in late October, it will be facing a full agenda. Member initiatives include an ambitious redistricting bill and threats to interpellate at least two cabinet ministers. The government's wish list is equally contentious; it includes a wide-ranging privatization pro Mary Ann Tétreault • 10 min read
MER Article Acts of Refusal Rela Mazali, an Israeli writer and feminist peace activist, is a founder of New Profile, a group challenging the militarization of Israeli society and opposing the occupation. Joel Beinin, an editor of Middle East Report, spoke with her in Herzliya, Israel on January 6, 2004 and continued the conver Joel Beinin • 9 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Spring 2004) "An educated wife and mother is a better wife and mother. No husband is better off because she is chained by ignorance. No son is better off because his mother cannot read." Students of Middle East history might guess that these are the words of Qasim Amin, the Egyptian lawyer whose writings at the The Editors • 7 min read
MER Article "Honor Crimes" and the International Spotlight on Jordan With the runaway success of Norma Khouri’s Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan, “honor crimes” -- killings of girls or women accused of sexual transgressions, in order to cleanse family honor -- are firmly equated in the eyes of the West with Jordan. Khouri’s book sold Janine A. Clark • 12 min read
