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?

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

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 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is Hamas?

Controversial and polemic, a book review by Harvard scholar presents Hamas as a complex and evolving organisation.
Friday 3rd October

Egypt: the surreal painting

Anwar Sadat was killed on this day in 1981. What has changed in Egypt since? (archive)
Wednesday 30th July

Iraq, Iran and the United States: problems and prospects

Three countries with three elections in 2008-09 make a political strategy for Iraq's future urgent
Monday 16th June

Washington's choice: subdue Iran, secure Iraq

George W Bush's administration has unfinished business with Tehran and Baghdad
Thursday 29th May

The Syria-Israel talks: old themes, new setting

The Damascus-Jerusalem parley will need luck and skill to avoid becoming a lost opportunity
Friday 14th March

Halabja: the politics of memory

The poison-gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja on 16 March 1988 remains an open wound for many of its victims
Monday 18th February

Iraq's political space

Iraq's political system must be repaired at national level if local progress is to be made
Friday 15th February

Israel after Lebanon: warning siren, deaf ears

The reception of a report on Israel's Lebanon war suggests the next conflict may be near
Thursday 7th February

The quiet revolution: energy futures in Iran, the Gulf, and Israel

A transformation in energy policy will reshape the middle east's profile as a region defined by oil
Tuesday 25th September

Lebanon: short memory, system failure

The tangled roots of a troubled election

Friday 31st August

Arab Christians: a lost modernity

Arab Christians were agents of progress in the Arab and Muslim world. What happened?
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