Middle Eastern Societies Research Articles

Up for Grabs: Writing Women in the Middle East

The social upheavals which recently took place in a number of North African and Mid dle Eastern societies have shattered the myth of passive populations subjected to autocrat ic rule by leaders who draw their legitimacy from the support of Western geopolitical interests in a post-Cold War era focused on the management of global security and pre emptive wars. These events should be an opportunity for social scientists, especially those studying women, to pause and think through the theoretical and methodological approaches we use on societies with distinct histories, cultures and sexual mores. When the Iranian Revolution broke out in 1978, Foucault hailed it as an historic break through ushering in a new era.1 His contro versial stance, quickly abandoned, was dictated as much by his rejection of the Marxist conception of religion as by his read ing of the role of religion in Western (espe cially French) history. He did not address the role of women in the Iranian revolution, nor did he suspect that women might be its victims when it became institutionalized. Foucault's (well intentioned) mistake is a reminder that how we study a society before change erupts is as important as how we study it during or after change has occurred. Women have been at the forefront

New media and Islamism in the Arab Winter: A case study of Huda TV in pre-revolutionary Egypt

Although Islam promises to play an increasing role in the public life of Muslim societies, scholarly analysis often falls short in comprehending the complex and diverse nature of this revival. As Middle Eastern societies open to wider public participation, the emergence of an active Muslim polity seems irrepressible. Yet onlookers from afar worry that Islam will only find political expression through narrow and intolerant ideologies that subvert democratic principles. This article seeks to understand the complex evolution of Islamism, and explain how its restricted and often superficial expression through media may reflect a stunted beginning rather than a permanent state of regressive fundamentalism. Through a case study of Huda TV in the era immediately preceding the rise of social media, this article shows how the powerfully repressive context of Middle Eastern media ensured the enduring stagnation of a nascent political discourse.

Women in Middle Eastern Societies and Churches

The Ecumenical ReviewVolume 64, Issue 1 p. 54-60 Original Article Women in Middle Eastern Societies and Churches Mary Mikhael, Mary MikhaelSearch for more papers by this author Mary Mikhael, Mary MikhaelSearch for more papers by this author First published: 12 March 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6623.2012.00146.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume64, Issue1March 2012Pages 54-60 RelatedInformation

Behind the 'Spring': Egyptian Labor Law Reform and the Industrial Workers' Movement, 2003-2010

The eruption of Arab uprisings has certainly transformed the socio-political scene of contemporary Middle Eastern society. While the uprisings have created the space for political and legal contestation, through for example political party reform, constitutional amendments, and the institution of free and fair elections, they have, to a certain degree, left many of the socio-economic predicaments to a ‘post-transitional’ phase. The role of labor in fueling many of the uprisings seems to be an interesting site that does not only probe questions of ‘civics’ but also questions relating to social status and income disparities. This is reflected in initiatives on labor law reform, labor organizing, independent trade union movements, and the campaign for the institution of a fair minimum wage and its effective legal enforcement. Certainly, the significant contribution of labor movements in the uprisings are embedded within an historical and socio-economic context that created the necessary impetus for a wider movement that culminated in the main squares of Arab capitals. This paper will investigate the role of the Egyptian labor movement in resisting intolerable socio-economic conditions that were effectuated by existing labor legislation, which although problematic in and of itself, provided minimal protections to workers that were never effectively enforced. This was largely the result of a fundamental bias that geared the entire economic system towards privatization, austerity measures, and a more robust investment climate. The paper will specifically examine the most recent labor legislation and the corresponding dynamic in the Egyptian labor movement from 2003, when the Unified Labor Law was finally adopted by parliament after a decade of stalling, followed by the appointment of a neoliberal cabinet in 2004, until January 2011. I will first map out the central arguments on labor legislation, including its theoretical basis, and practical enforcement, proposed by the different actors and observers. Second, I will focus on the Unified Labor Law, adopted in 2003 and its implications combined with the repercussions of Ahmed Nazif’s 2004 neoliberal cabinet, which embarked upon an unrelenting program of privatization, austerity, and curtailment of workers’ rights. Third, I will argue that the extremity of neoliberal policies has reignited the workers’ movement after decades of low-profile activism. In doing that, I bring out the main legal problems facing Egyptian workers including minimum wage enforcement, the law on collective bargaining and trade unions, dismissals, fixed-term contracts, among other issues. Finally, I conclude with the prospects of re-imagining the Unified Labor Law, a step that requires a systemic approach to capital-labor relations, further increasing the role of government regulation and embedding the social component of labor economics and labor law within the macroeconomic national agenda as opposed to a mere philanthropic disposition to labor matters, or as part of corporate governance policy and corporate social responsibility propaganda. While the labor movement was to a great extent behind the eruption of the Egyptian “Spring”, it is pertinent to recognize that it should not be left behind in the post-uprising public agenda.

Arab Revolutions and the Study of Middle Eastern Societies

The speed, spread, and democratic thrust of Arab revolutionary uprisings conjure up the revolutionary waves of 1848 and 1989 in Europe. Spearheaded by educated youth, the Arab uprisings have been brought to fruition by the masses of ordinary people (men, women, Muslims, and non-Muslims) who have mobilized at an astonishing scale against authoritarian regimes in pursuit of social justice, democratic governance, and dignity. If this broad observation is valid, then these social earthquakes are likely to unsettle some of the most enduring perspectives on the region. To begin with, they should undermine “Middle East exceptionalism,” with its culturalist focus informed by assumptions of “stagnant culture,” “fatalist Muslims,” and “unchangeable polity.” In political science, students of “regime stability” and the “authoritarian resiliency” of Arab states may have to reevaluate their conceptual premises. The analytical relevance of the concept of “rentier state” as the political basis of authoritarian stability might likewise need serious reformulation. The blatant cash handouts by some Arab Gulf states to “buy opposition” during the wave of protests in February and March 2011 do not seem to have worked.

What Makes Civilization?: An Interview with David Wengrow

What Makes Civilization?An Interview with David Wengrow Donald A. Yerxa David Wengrow, a reader in comparative archaeology at the University of London's Institute of Archaeology, has recently written a book about the birth of civilization in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. In What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of the World (Oxford University Press, 2010) he pursues two themes: the interconnectedness of ancient Near Eastern societies; and the paradoxical nature of our understanding of the ancient Near East as both the birthplace of civilization and its cultural antithesis—a remote and exotic world. Senior Editor Donald Yerxa interviewed Wengrow in late October 2010. Donald A. Yerxa: What are you trying to accomplish with your book? David Wengrow: I am trying to show that new findings about the ancient Near East, in which I include Egypt and Mesopotamia, pose important challenges to our contemporary notions of history and civilization. The recent destruction of antiquities and archaeological sites in Iraq should have prompted a debate about what has been lost, and why it still matters. It's not a matter of reasserting old ideas about "cradles of civilization" or pitting one civilization against another. As I am trying to show in the book, new research is transforming our image of the ancient Near East, and this has implications for understanding the place of the Middle East, and of Africa, in world history. Yerxa: How has recent archaeological fieldwork altered our understanding of the ancient Near East? Wengrow: The aspect that I focus on most strongly is interaction: cultural transfers and exchange over large areas, the extent of which—even before the first writing systems and cities—is still surprising to many historians and social scientists. New evidence for these networks and relationships is accumulating all the time. We can follow their growth through the flow of particular materials—metals, scented oils and woods, colored stone—and also particular practices from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean and beyond. Whole areas that were once blanks on the archaeological map—Turkmenistan, the Iranian Plateau, Arabia—are now filled with evidence of walled cities and complex societies. These were connected to the river-based societies of the Indus, the Nile, and the Tigris and Euphrates, which we've known about for much longer. And who knows what remains to be discovered around the Horn of Africa, or what is being drowned forever beneath the waters of hydraulic dams in Sudan or Turkey. Unfortunately, when archaeological sites and museums are looted and destroyed, we lose forever evidence of past connections between faraway regions and communities. These very old connections were often completely forgotten in later periods of antiquity, but they nevertheless formed part of the fabric of Middle Eastern and African societies from the earliest times. Click for larger view View full resolution The capture of the city of Astartu by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III, about 730-727 B.C., as depicted on a palace relief now kept on display at the British Museum. From Henry Smith Williams, The Historians' History of the World: Prolegomena, Egypt, Mesopotamia (The Outlook Company, 1904). Yerxa: Why have these archaeological findings failed to penetrate our grand narratives of the past? Wengrow: That's a very interesting question. Grand narratives have enjoyed a recent vogue—think of Jared Diamond's and Ian Morris's books. But they tend to neglect the Near East. Daniel Lord Smail's recent book On Deep History and the Brain seems particularly intent on downplaying the significance of the ancient Near East, which he thinks has been exaggerated because of a lingering attachment to a sacred (biblical) view of world history. As an archaeologist I have a lot of sympathy with his aim of promoting a unified account of the human past that puts prehistory and history on an equal footing. But for exactly the same reason I would argue that we have to look critically at the points of transition between nonliterate and literate societies, or between village-based communities and the first cities, or uncentralized and centralized political formations. These transitions must surely be part of the deep human history that he is advocating, and there is still a...

Interrogating the European Union’s Democracy Promotion Agenda: Discursive Configurations of ‘Democracy’ from the Middle East

Following the electoral victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections of January 2006, the international community reacted by suspending aid to the democratically elected Hamas government. Across Middle Eastern societies, this move and the events that followed since ushered in a complete loss of credibility in the discourse of external actors like the European Union (EU) and their declared quest for promoting democracy in the region. Are we witnessing the demise of the EU’s democracy promotion agenda given the perception from the Middle East (ME) in regard to its inconsistent discourse? This article aims to address how a critical engagement with the ways in which the EU constructs itself as a normative power, in its attempts at exporting its model of liberal democracy, might shed light on questions central to contemporary EU-ME relations. In particular, it surveys discursive configurations of ‘democracy’ in the ME. By way of conclusion, the article holds that the EU should reflect on these internal and diverse debates, which may in turn necessitate a reframing of its own discourse on democracy promotion in the ME: this process of reframing need not negate its principles.

Newsworthiness and Islam: An Analysis of Values in the Muslim Online Press

This study examined how the values of the Islamic faith may have an impact on news reporting in several Middle Eastern nations. An analysis of 1,773 stories from 10 online Middle Eastern newspapers indicated that Islam as a way of life has an effect on how domestic news was structured in the presentation of news topic, the actors in the news, the positive or negative orientation of the news, and the use of sources. Previous explanations of newsworthiness in Middle Eastern societies that do not consider the impact of Islamic values may be incomplete in their evaluation of the press.

A tiny membrane defending ‘us’ against ‘them’: Arabic Internet debate about hymenorraphy in Sunni Islamic law

In the Sunni Arab world, hymen repair has become a subject of considerable controversy due to a public statement of Egypt's Mufti Guma˛a in 2007. This paper analyses Guma˛a's position and the ensuing public debate about it as a means to study the larger conceptions of virginity and the hymen in Middle Eastern societies. In line with critical feminist studies it is shown that supporters as well as critics of the operation rely heavily on patriarchal arguments, views and rhetoric. Both share the societal vision that sexuality can only be lived out licitly in the framework of marriage and both agree that this ideal is in crisis. Where the two sides disagree is over the way in which this ideal should be protected, which derives from their conceptualisation of creation in general and female nature in particular. As a result, debate about hymen repair is not only not transforming social structures but is perpetuating them.

Health as a Context for Social and Gender Activism: Female Volunteer Health Workers in Iran

Having reversed its pronatalist policies in 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran implemented one of the most successful family planning programs in the developing world. This achievement, particularly in urban centers, is largely attributable to a large women-led volunteer health worker program for low-income urban neighborhoods. Research in three cities demonstrates that this successful program has had a host of unintended consequences. In a context where citizen mobilization and activism are highly restricted, volunteers have seized this new state-sanctioned space and successfully negotiated many of the familial, cultural, and state restrictions on women. They have expanded their mandate from one focused on health activism into one of social, if not political, activism, highlighting the ways in which citizens blur the boundaries of state and civil society under restrictive political systems prevalent in many of the Middle Eastern societies.

Biology Professors’ and Teachers’ Positions Regarding Biological Evolution and Evolution Education in a Middle Eastern Society

This study investigated three questions: (1) What are Lebanese secondary school (Grade 9–12) biology teachers’ and university biology professors’ positions regarding biological evolution?, (2) How do participants’ religious affiliations relate to their positions about evolutionary science?, and (3) What are participants’ positions regarding evolution education? Participants were 20 secondary school biology teachers and seven university biology professors. Seventy percent of the teachers and 60% of the professors were Muslim. Data came from semi‐structured interviews with participants. Results showed that nine (Christian or Muslim Druze) teachers accepted the theory, five (four Muslim) rejected it because it contradicted religious beliefs, and three (Muslim) reinterpreted it because evolution did not include humans. Teachers who rejected or reinterpreted the evolutionary theory said that it should not be taught (three), evolution and creationism should be given equal time (two), or students should be allowed to take their own stand. Two professors indicated that they taught evolution explicitly and five said that they integrated it in other biology content. One Muslim professor said that she stressed ‘the role of God in creation during instruction on evolution’. It seems that years of studying and teaching biology have not had a transformative effect on how a number of teachers and professors think about evolution.

Amalgamating Sustainable Design Strategies into Architectural Curricula

In the era of climate change, rising sea levels, the hole in the ozone layer and current food crisis, sustainability is no longer a matter of choice; it is a must. While the term sustainability manages to embed itself in all aspects of contemporary life, sustainability in the built environment requires special attention. Designs created by architects and planners play a fundamental part in shaping the way we live, behave and interact with our surroundings. Smith (2001) argued that instilling sustainable design in curricula at schools of architecture is a significant method of encouraging sustainable architectural design in practice. This is particularly important in non-sustainable societies such as those of the Middle East. For these reasons, this study aims at exploring ‘sustainability strategies,’ as they may be described, adopted in different schools of architecture. The research surveys architectural curricula at different Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) exempted schools of Architecture, at part 1 and 2 levels. Meanwhile, it also observes the contradiction and difficulties of teaching sustainable architectural design in Egyptian and Middle Eastern societies, whose cultural fabric does not encourage environmental awareness. Finally, the study attempts to investigate, in an increased level of detail, how sustainable design education fits into the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula of the Architectural Engineering and Environmental Design Department (AEED) at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Alexandria, Egypt. The paper concludes that the proper application of sustainable design strategies at early stages of architecture education has developed architects with sturdy understanding of their environment, climate and local identity, which can never happen if this is addressed in postgraduate studies or at later stages of the Architecture career.

The Diachronic and Synchronic Study of the Use of Language and the Written Record in Middle Eastern Society

The Diachronic and Synchronic Study of the Use of Language and the Written Record in Middle Eastern Society

Arab Women and Work: The Interrelation Between Orientalism and Historiography

AbstractThis essay examines the approaches and themes in two overlapping historiographical areas on women and labor since the sixties. The first area examines the scholarship on Lebanese women and modernization. The second area covers the scholarship on women, labor and the family in Arab Middle Eastern society. Despite their general critique of Orientalist representations of the “Muslim” woman, several scholars continue to invest cognate features of the modernization discourse and West-centered models of womanhood. For one, scholars have persistently stated that the social structures in Middle Eastern/Islamic society do not lend themselves to class or gendered divisions. Using classical Eurocentric criteria for gauging women's “empowerment,” these scholars tried to show that Arab working-women are unable to organize themselves on the basis of gender due to cultural taboos, sectarian affiliations, provincial loyalties, family authority, and lack of education. At times, “Islam” or “culture” is presented as operating from above-creating social attitudes that limit women's public activities and involvement in waged work. The primacy given to cultural difference prevents comparability between Western and Middle Eastern/Muslim women on the basis of shared socio-economic experiences. Several studies overlooked the complex interconnections among family, sect, class and gender expressed through the range of activities and experiences linking women's domestic and waged work. There is indeed an overwhelming focus on the ideas and attitudes of bourgeois woman and their legal rights, which are rarely analyzed in connection to historical context, economic arrangements, productive patterns, or social interest. Rather, they are discussed in connection to women's education and work and ultimately levels of modernization. These prevalent features of the historiographical literature give shape to new and subtle Orientalist narratives about Muslim/Middle Eastern women.

Kenneth Bailey's Theory of Oral Tradition: A Theory Contested by Its Evidence

AbstractThis is a critique of Kenneth Bailey's theory of oral tradition, a theory which he calls 'informal oral controlled tradition'. Bailey contends that informal oral controlled tradition is an oral methodology employed historically by Middle Eastern societies to preserve and transmit accurately the essential, fundamental components, per Bailey, of their oral traditions. Bailey posits that the same methodology was utilized by the Jesus movement from its outset to at least the time of the Roman-Jewish War in order to preserve accurately and transmit faithfully the essential historical core of its remembrance of Jesus. However, this critique finds that the evidence Bailey marshals in support of his theory not only fails finally to support it but at critically important points witnesses against it.

Effect of opium addiction on lipid profile and atherosclerosis formation in hypercholesterolemic rabbits

In some Asian and Middle Eastern societies, opium consumption has traditionally been regarded as a way to lower blood lipids and to prevent heart diseases. This could eventually lead to addiction. In this study, the effect of oral opium consumption on serum lipids and atherogenesis in rabbits was investigated. Twenty-eight male New Zealand white rabbits were divided into control, hypercholesterolemic, addicted, and hypercholesterolemic-addicted groups and were studied for 3 months. Serum lipid profile was determined at the beginning of the study and at 1 month intervals thereafter. At the end of the study period, aortic plaque formation was assessed. Compared with control, in the hypercholesterolemic and hypercholesterolemic-addicted groups, cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were significantly increased ( P<0.01). The increases in lipids and lesion areas in the aorta were higher in hypercholesterolemic-addicted than hypercholesterolemic group ( P<0.05). Our findings suggest that opium consumption can have aggravating effects in atherosclerosis formation related with hypercholesterolemia, mainly affecting lipid profile.

The Costs of Youth Exclusion in the Middle East

This paper explores the costs associated with youth exclusion in the Middle East by providing estimates of the economic costs to society related to youth unemployment, youth joblessness, school dropouts, adolescent pregnancy, and youth migration. The paper provides country-specific estimates of the costs of youth exclusion by using the human capital approach to valuing economic costs. In addition, the paper develops a new empirical methodology that benchmarks the costs of youth exclusion in Middle Eastern countries against a common hypothetical international best-practice in which the overall costs of youth exclusion are comparable across countries. Results show that youth exclusion poses major economic costs to Middle Eastern societies, reaching in 2006 as high as US$53 billion in Egypt and about US$1.5 billion in Jordan. Moreover, Middle Eastern countries are among the group furthest away from the best practice frontier as it relates to reducing youth exclusion, and their performance has deteriorated in recent years. Middle Eastern countries could decrease youth exclusion by at least 60 percent if they were to use their available resources more efficiently.

Richelieu in Arabic: The Catholic Printed Message to the Orient in the Seventeenth Century1

Throughout most of the seventeenth century, the printer and publisher Antoine Vitré dominated the printing of Arabic in Paris. He produced mainly religious texts, intended for use by missionaries in the Orient. One of these books was the Arabic translation of Cardinal Richelieu's famous catechism Instruction du Chrétien. This article looks at the story behind the preparation of the Arabic edition, its printing, and its use by missionaries. It explores the role written texts played in conveying a religious message to an essentially illiterate society. In addition, it uses the story of Richelieu's text in Arabic to attempt to explain why Middle Eastern societies declined to adopt mass printing before the nineteenth century, even though there were apparently no interdictions against its implementation.

Islam Obscured

Daniel Martin Varisco’s Islam Obscured: The Rhetoric of AnthropologicalRepresentation provides a very sound and well-informed literary critique ofClifford Geertz’s Islam Observed (1968), Ernest Gellner’s Muslim Society(1981), Fatima Mernissi’s Beyond the Veil (1975), and Akbar Ahmed’s DiscoveringIslam (1988). The author, an experienced ethnographer of MiddleEastern societies, examines the treatments and representations of Islam inthese seminal texts. After presenting his topic and background in the introduction,he demonstrates how these four authors obscured, misrepresented,and elided the everyday lives of Muslims. In the epilogue, Varisco gleanssome important lessons for the study of Islam from his entertaining andwitty exploration of these social science texts.In the book’s introduction, the author briefly discusses the intellectualhistory of anthropology and ethnographic studies of Muslims. He notes thatthe discipline of anthropology has encountered numerous problems, includingits recognition of Victorian traveler’s reports, Spencerian “evolutionism,”and the postcolonial critique of Eurocentric textual representations ofnon-western others. Addressing the current state of anthropological theory,Varisco mentions the blurring of boundaries between established disciplinesas well as the particularly American problem over whether to maintain thefour-field approach of holistically studying human beings.In keeping with this Eurocentric slant toward “primitives,” he observesthat there were very few ethnographic studies of Muslims, except Evans-Pritchard’s 1940s work on Cyrenaican Bedouins and those by others followinghis example, until ethnographers began to produce Robert Redfieldinfluencedcommunity studies.Yetmany of these latter studies were done byresearchers who, with little proficiency inArabic, wrote from a distance andthus barely penetrated the surface of Islam in local Muslims’ lives. Varisco ...

Islamic Reform and Social Transition in the Middle East: A World History Approach

A study of the social development in the Middle East from the perspective of world civilization history will help us better understand the complex Middle Eastern society today and grasp the trend o...