Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa is a region that is difficult to delimit and define, and various authors use different configurations of nation-states to comprise their Middle East and/or North Africa. Being mostly arid, the degradation narrative evolved from the nineteenth-century French colonial presence in North Africa has continued to be used to interpret desertification in arid regions. Hence, conflict over water is common, and water wars are always a possibility, between villagers using an irrigation system or between states sharing the same water basin. Edward Said’s conception of Orientalism was centered mainly on examples of the Middle East, and he contributed as well as an activist for Palestinian rights. The Islamic city model also evolved from Orientalists and can be seen as the loss of past glories, a narrative of loss. More recent urban studies include the influence of Islamic law, waqf (endowed property) documents, and the qibla (direction of pray to Mecca). Rapid urbanization in the region has been fueled by globalization, although the petroleum urbanization of the Gulf represents an unparalleled pace of rapidity and ostentatious urban development. The long-standing Arab–Israeli conflict has engendered a number of perspectives from geographers, including the examination of urbicide and identicide, policies which have been used for the destruction of the urban fabric and cultural identities of the Palestinian people. Gendered space and purdah are prevalent in North Africa and the Middle East, where private and public space tends to have rather distinct boundaries between the sexes. However, the public sphere is changing rapidly, particularly influenced by the new media and the transformation of communications the last several decades.