the middle east: all articles

From Jordan and Syria to Egypt and Iran, openDemocracy writers track the issues behind the headlines. Gilles Kepel takes the temperature of the Muslim world after 9/11, Daniel Swift examines the deeper currents of Egyptian ‘democracy’, and Ali Shukri assesses the dilemma for Syria after the overthrow of the fellow Ba’athist regime in Iraq.

Wednesday 5th August

Damascus: on the road to peace?

Stephen Starr, 5 August 2009

Syria is now being courted by the US as the key to unlocking peace in its troubled region

Wednesday 22nd July

Women choosing to be

Rana Shubair, 22 July 2009

Have women’s lives in Gaza been constrained by a patriarchal ideology under the rule of Hamas? One Gazan resident says no: quite the reverse.

Sunday 12th July

Checkpoints and counter spaces

Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, 12 July 2009

Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian talked to Jane Gabriel about her latest book ‘Militarization and Violence against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East'. A Palestinian case-study. In which she analyses Palestinian women's agency and the many different ways in which they create counter spaces to the militarization of their daily lives.

Monday 25th May

How Do We Cope?

Fadi N.Skaik, 25 May 2009

As summit follows summit, the fate of the Gazan people once again hangs in the balance and reconstruction is still on hold

Wednesday 11th March

The Left and Hamas

Nadine Rosa-Rosso, 11 March 2009

Misreading resistance in the Middle East, the European Left risks consigning itself to irrelevancy

Tuesday 17th February

Beirut and contradiction: reading the World Press Photo award

Mai Ghoussoub, 17 February 2009

The writer and Saqi publisher died on 17 February 2007. Her last article - on Beirut - is here. Plus: memory trio, and life journey

Friday 13th February

Musawah: there cannot be justice without equality

Cassandra Balchin, 13 February 2009

Muslim scholars and activists from forty eight countries are today launching a global initiative insisting that in the twenty first century "there cannot be justice without equality" between men and women.

Thursday 12th February

Home truths in the Muslim family

Cassandra Balchin, 12 February 2009

Sky rocketing rates of women's employment in Muslim countries and recent scholarship that has developed a vision of Islam that insists on equality between men and women, mean that the global pressure to reform Muslim family law is mounting, writes Cassandra Balchin.

Sunday 4th January

A message from Israeli women's organisations: the time for women is now

4 January 2009

Statement by Israeli Women's Organizations

We women's organizations from a broad spectrum of political views demand an end to the bombing and other tools of death, and call for the immediate start of deliberations to talk peace and not make war. The dance of death and destruction must come to an end. We demand that war no longer be an option, nor violence a strategy, nor killing an alternative. The society we want is one in which every individual can lead a life of security - personal, economic, and social.

Thursday 1st January