Middle East - Topics & Arguments
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003
<p>META's geographical focus is the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). The journal is concerned with the states of Northern Africa and West Asia.</p>Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS)de-DEMiddle East - Topics & Arguments2196-629X<h3>Copyright-Vermerk</h3>Perspectives on Gender Studies at the Universities of Manouba and Sousse, Tunisia
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8273
<p>In Tunisia, the University of Manouba and the University of Sousse each offered a master’s program in Gender Studies in 2019. This essay examines these programs’ structures and foci, providing some comments on their contexts. Based on fieldwork including four expert interviews, this provides <em>one</em> limited attempt to introduce readers to specific perspectives on and narratives about two Gender Studies programs.</p>Jamie Woitynek
Copyright (c) 2020 Jamie Woitynek
2020-07-132020-07-131412713510.17192/meta.2020.14.8273Ottoman Diplomacy and Hegemonic Masculinity during the Great Eastern Crisis of 1875-78
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8241
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 200%;">This article will examine Ottoman and British diplomatic correspondence and the satirical press and argue that during the Eastern Crisis of 1875-78, representatives of the Great Powers conceived of a hierarchy of masculinities that became a major part of their diplomatic rhetoric. At the top of this order was the masculinity that European statesmen saw in themselves and legitimized their imperialist projects; they particularly emphasized honor, and a logic-based intelligence which enabled them to order their governments, economies, and households so that noble, white, Christian men controlled the people of presumed lesser classes, races, religions, and genders. Until the end of this crisis, Ottoman officials sought to convince their European counterparts that they should accept them as, if not equals, at least junior partners. Therefore, Ottomans did not challenge the European belief in a hierarchy of masculinities but sought instead to prove that the new Ottoman statesman was a modern and rational man both capable and in possession of the moral imperative to rule over the lesser peoples of the Ottoman Empire. In particular, Ottoman officials depicted Christian separatists as cruel, savage, and too ignorant for independence, mirroring the arguments that anti-Ottoman Europeans made about the Ottomans.</p>Kyle Clark
Copyright (c) 2020 Kyle Clark
2020-07-132020-07-1314273910.17192/meta.2020.14.8241The Leader as Groom, the Nation as Bride. Patriarchal Nationalism under Nasser and Sisi
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8232
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">This article surveys and analyzes the gendered symbols and imageries in the hegemonic nationalist discourse in Egypt, under Nasser and under Sisi. It advances that gender binaries are projected onto the relation between ruler and ruled, state and nation, military and civilian, as a means to demobilize and subordinate “the people” following </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US"><em>coups d’état</em></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">. The article also analyzes the negative feminization of the Egyptian populace under Sisi, which serves to discredit demands for political participation and social justice and to legitimate their suppression, especially following the mass mobilizations of January 25, 2011.</span></span></span></p>Rim Naguib
Copyright (c) 2020 Rim Naguib
2020-07-132020-07-1314405510.17192/meta.2020.14.8232A Thug, a Revolutionary or Both? Negotiating Masculinity in Post-Revolutionary Egypt
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8265
<p>During the eighteen days of the Egyptian revolution, some hundred police stations in popular quarters in Cairo were burned down. Official accounts reported this as the work of baltagiya (thugs). The question of who burned the police stations serves as an entry point to problematizing the identity of baltagiya. Thus, examining the gendered affective registers linked to the baltagi (thug) is essential in understanding the potential of the revolutionary moment and the urgency with which the state had to reinstate the narrative of the baltagi as a dangerous criminal to justify mass violence and speed urban transformation projects.</p>Dina Wahbe
Copyright (c) 2020 Dina Wahba
2020-07-132020-07-1314566510.17192/meta.2020.14.8265Shame a Litmus Test to the Revolutionary Affects: the Female Protestor and the Reconfiguration of Gender Normativity
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8247
<p>Tahrir Square was the critical event that prompted a new generation of Egyptian feminist and human rights activists to join citizens in the streets to claim a new social and gender contract. While female protestors were an essential part of the revolution, their bodies powerfully triggered the economy of shame to ostracize some activists and to underpin, as Williams explains structures of feeling that sidelined the need to address rape in the square. This paper argues that the female protestor is a focus of political violence whose experiences illuminate the matrix that sustains and normalizes sexual violence in a society. This allows us to connect female body politics with broader socio-economic and political conflicts and with processes of state reconfiguration in marginal/liminal spaces.</p>marta agosti
Copyright (c) 2020 Marta Agosti
2020-07-132020-07-1314667610.17192/meta.2020.14.8247Body, Gender and Pain in Moroccan Prison Memoir Ḥadīth al-‘Atama
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8259
<p>The article explores the themes of body, physical pain, and corporeal memory as framed by Fatna El Bouih’s and Latifa Jbabdi’s prison narratives contained in Ḥadīth al-‘Atama (Tale from the Dark). Members of the Marxist-Leninist movement, El Bouih and Jbabdi were subjected to sensory annihilation, brutal tortures, practices of gender erosion, and sexual abuses during the Moroccan Years of Lead (1965 – 1999). The article provides a critical reading of the memoirs by identifying a trajectory from a gendered inflicted suffering (abuses and tortures) to an agentive self-inflicted pain (hunger strike). Drawing on Banu Bargu’s perspective on the manipulative use of corporeality in the carceral framework, the article emphasizes the weaponization of women’s bodies in undertaking a hunger strike which ultimately improves the inmates’ conditions of detention. Furthermore, the body is defined as a crucial medium of memory as the two women approach the recollection of violent past experiences to restore historical truth about Moroccan state violence of the Years of Lead.</p>Martina Biondi
Copyright (c) 2020 Martina Biondi
2020-07-132020-07-1314778810.17192/meta.2020.14.8259The Kafāla System: Gender and Migration in Contemporary Lebanon
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8255
<p><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 496.647px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(1.09581);">With an estimated 250,000 migrant </span><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 513.416px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(1.0935);">domestic workers (MDW), migrant </span><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 530.184px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.981399);">women perform household chores normally</span><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 546.953px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.971205);"> assigned to Lebanese women in </span><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 563.722px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.9564);">their own households. Since labor laws </span><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 580.49px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.992641);">do not apply to MDWs, MDW from the </span><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 597.259px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(1.00876);">Global South in particular are affected by </span><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 614.028px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(1.01958);">exploitative regulations under the Kafāla </span><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 630.796px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.967078);">system. Due to gender-specific aspects of </span><span style="left: 275.014px; top: 647.565px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.996105);">migration and asylum and gendered and </span><span style="left: 510.983px; top: 496.647px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(1.06653);">racialized labor division, they inevitably </span><span style="left: 510.983px; top: 513.416px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.965482);">become a focus of public interest. This </span><span style="left: 510.983px; top: 530.184px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.991026);">paper conducts an overview of Lebanese </span><span style="left: 510.983px; top: 546.953px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.97678);">gendered and racialized labor laws under </span><span style="left: 510.983px; top: 563.722px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.980082);">Kafāla based on a materialist theory, ana</span><span style="left: 510.983px; top: 580.49px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.981918);">lyzing a range of local NGOs that address </span><span style="left: 510.983px; top: 597.259px; font-size: 11.9776px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(1.01637);">MDW’s rights.</span></p>Dimitra DermitzakiSylvia Riewendt
Copyright (c) 2020 Dimitra Dermitzaki, Sylvia Riewendt
2020-07-132020-07-13148910210.17192/meta.2020.14.8255An Intersectional Analysis of Syrian Women’s Participation in Civil Society in the Post-2011 Context
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8252
<p>Based on qualitative research conducted in Lebanon and Turkey in 2018, this paper centers on Syrian women working in various civil society organizations (CSOs) in the Syrian post-2011 context. It examines conflict and host-context impacts on Syrian women’s participation in CSOs. Using an intersectional framework derived from feminist studies, it argues that gender, socioeconomic status and ethnic/national identity are key intersecting social markers that influence the ability of Syrian women to participate in CSOs in these countries. Findings also demonstrate the value of intersectional approaches in improving our current understanding of discriminatory practices against Syrian women in civil society.</p>Dima Al Munajed
Copyright (c) 2020 Dima Al Munajed
2020-07-132020-07-131410311610.17192/meta.2020.14.8252Women’s Rights In Egyptian Law: The Legal Battle For A Safer Life
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8242
<p>Egypt’s history has witnessed notable strides in connection with women’s rights. Meanwhile, Egypt is a signatory of the significant international conventions on gender equality. Nevertheless, interference to change women’s position is faced with colossal failure sometimes. One of the reasons could be the lack of relevant legislation. Other essential obstacles include social practices and stereotypes that prevent the application of the rule of law. The absence of community support is the third reason. Finally, misconceiving <br>Islamic religious rules impacts women’s rights in Egypt. Solutions include legal reform and complementary policy actions; allowing real political participation; opening the door for women initiatives; teaching gender in schools and universities; and ensuring better access to resources when it comes to economic rights is another possibility.</p>Radwa Elsaman
Copyright (c) 2020 Radwa Elsaman
2020-07-132020-07-131411712510.17192/meta.2020.14.8242Reading Marx in Beirut: Disorganised Study and the Politics of Queer Utopia
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8021
<p>This article draws on ethnographic research carried out with Marxist reading groups run by a Lebanese revolutionary socialist organization. I examine the labor that Marxist theoretical practice was doing in a political conjuncture widely viewed as post-Marxist , discussing the relationship between theory and affect, and the role that affective infrastructures play in maintaining and reproducing social movements and political organisations. Drawing on Moten and Harney, I frame this intellectual labor as a form of dissonant , disorganized study - a mode of preparing for revolution by being together in brokenness and routinely generating a commitment to a particular political horizon. This form of political praxis as study unfolded within a <br>Lebanese activist scene dominated by a pragmatic conception of politics, within which the critical labor of the radical and revolutionary left was largely considered sterile , mired in something akin to what Berlant calls cruel optimism. Drawing on Munoz, his conceptualisation of the politics of queer utopia, and his defence of utopian imaginativeness, I argue that for radical and revolutionary leftists in counter-revolutionary times, cultivating solidarity and camaraderie by maintaining a space of study that could enable technologies of both self and collective constituted a productive political act.</p>Sophie Chamas
Copyright (c) 2020 Sophie Chamas
2020-07-132020-07-131414315910.17192/meta.2020.14.8021Neighborhood in Nablus City: The Formation of a Social Safety Network during the Siege
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8254
<p>In 2002, Nablus City in Palestine had to face more than one siege. The first siege affected all Palestinian cities; the Israeli army invaded the Palestinian territories and imposed a curfew for around a month in April. Later the same year between June and October, the city of Nablus witnessed a siege that was characterized by immobility and destruction. No one was allowed to leave their home; to do so put their lives under threat. This paper will reflect upon the role of the neighborhood in the construction of a social safety network. This network supported the inhabitants in their struggle to confront the occupational apparatus and to practice their daily activities despite the three-month siege that was imposed by the Israeli army. This paper focuses on neighborhood relations: describing their distinctive influence on peoples’ lives and reflecting on the meaning of being a neighbor, the obligations of neighbors within the same district, and how these relations manifested during the siege in 2002 and afterwards.</p>Noura Kamal
Copyright (c) 2020 Noura Kamal
2020-07-132020-07-131416017410.17192/meta.2020.14.8254Of Skin and Men
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8274
<p><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">This analysis discusses the sexual objectification of the Tunisian woman in the drama Of Skin and Men by director Mehdi Ben Attia. The film deals with the position of women in Tunisian society and offers an insight into the everyday life of the protagonist. In recent years, there have already been some academic discussions on feminist theories and publications on gender-based violence in the MENA <br>region. For this reason, the portrayal of women as the weaker sex should be considered from a media studies perspective. In this work it is argued that the protagonist is exposed to the sexual objectification, power and violence of the Tunisian man.<br></span></span></p>Julia Nauth
Copyright (c) 2020 Julia Nauth
2020-07-132020-07-131413714110.17192/meta.2020.14.8274The Minoritized Yazidi Body as a Signifier
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8257
<p>This paper reads the testimonies of Yazidi women who survived their slavery at the hands of ISIS (DAESH) to understand how this ‘minoritized’ body, a term coined by Arjun Appadurai, has become a worldwide signifier. Due to the circulation of images and technologies, the testimonies of those women who survived have become the only means that allows visibility; yet, the visibility of the violated minoritized body is a fact that still signifies power and instills worldwide horror. The paper attempts to understand how the minoritized individual body has become a body politic, onto which power relations are played out and where several discourses intersect.</p>Shereen Abouelnaga
Copyright (c) 2020 Shereen Abouelnaga
2020-07-132020-07-1314152510.17192/meta.2020.14.8257Īlāf Badr al-Dīn: ʿIndama hatafū “li-l-abad”. Lughat al-thawra al-sūriyya (When They Chanted "Forever": The Language of the Syrian Revolution), Damascus: Mamdūḥ ʿAdwān 2018.
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8269
Areej Allawzi
Copyright (c) 2020 Areej Allawzi
2020-07-132020-07-131417618010.17192/meta.2020.14.8269Sherine Hafez: "Women of the Midan. The Untold Stories of Egypt's Revolutionaries"
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8266
marta agosti
Copyright (c) 2020 Marta Agosti
2020-07-132020-07-131418118610.17192/meta.2020.14.8266Elisabeth A. Frazer: Mediterranean Encounters: Artists between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, 1774-1839
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8258
William Kynan-Wilson
Copyright (c) 2020 William Kynan-Wilson
2020-07-132020-07-131418719110.17192/meta.2020.14.8258Gender in Crisis
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/article/view/8275
Ines BrauneSaliha EnglerPatricia JannackAngela Krewani
Copyright (c) 2020 Ines Braune, Saliha Engler, Patricia Jannack, Angela Krewani
2020-07-132020-07-1314051310.17192/meta.2020.14.8275