On October 17, 2019, protests began in Lebanon with angry and largely disenfranchised citizens calling for a complete overhaul of the country’s unique political system. In the year that has followed, Lebanon has suffered through one disaster after another, with seemingly unending political shifting. On October 22, 2020, former Prime …
Read More »Info-Deficiency in an Infodemic: The Gender Digital Gap, Arab Women and the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract: This commentary tackles the complex struggles faced by Arab women, including multiple layers of invisibility, marginalization and inequality,[1] all of which have significantly worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. This examination includes a special focus on how and why the “digital divide,” defined as the gap between the technological haves …
Read More »Infantilizing Arab politics: A quick reading of the viral Ramadan 2018 Zain telecom ad
Since 2011, the Kuwaiti telecom company Zain Group, one of the largest in the Middle East, has produced a series of popular ads broadcast annually during Ramadan. The ads are songs, usually featuring celebrities singing and dancing with children. Since 2015, the ads have become noticeably more political. In 2016, …
Read More »Mohammed Assaf’s victory five years on: Arab Idol and the Zionist colonization of Palestine
Abstract This essay, based on the author’s fieldwork on Palestinian music and oral history, examines the position of singer and Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf in relation to the contemporary Palestinian struggle and the wider play of power in the Arab world. The issues discussed gravitate towards three main themes: …
Read More »The Ambassador: Mohamed Salah and the Future of Xenophobia in Football
While a post-Brexit United Kingdom continues to struggle with xenophobia and anxieties about the Arab/Muslim diaspora, a new hero has emerged in the country’s most popular sport. He’s wildly talented, he’s from Egypt, and he’s Muslim. Known as “The Pharaoh”, “The Egyptian King”, and even the “Egyptian Messi”, 25-year-old Mohamed …
Read More »Shining New Light on the Palestinian Cause: The Unintended Consequences of Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration
A few days before U.S. President Donald Trump declared that America would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a number of Arab heads of state—including the leaders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian Authority (not yet a state but one in the making since Oslo)—were informed that Trump …
Read More »Challenges for U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Age of Trump
American diplomats responsible for public diplomacy working in the Middle East have always faced a number of challenges. Most arise from criticisms of U.S. policy; for example, the Arab-Israeli conflict, American intervention in Iraq, or the US posture toward the civil war in Syria. In today’s climate, such substantive criticisms …
Read More »Combating Hate Speech and Youth Radicalization
On December 30, the UK's Security Minister Ben Wallace harshly criticized tech giants like Google, Facebook, and YouTube for not doing enough to combat "terrorism online". He called on them to remove online content that could lead to radicalization. "2018 is a time to deliver. We know they can do …
Read More »Media and Crisis: An Arab Media & Society Symposium
On Wednesday, November 15, 2017, the Adham Center and Arab Media & Society hosted a symposium on “Media and Crisis”. The event involved a panel discussion with Makram Mohammed Ahmed, head of the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, Dr. Abdel Monem Said, renowned writer and political analyst, and Zeid Al …
Read More »Public Culture and Islam in Modern Egypt
On November 21, 2016, the Middle East Centre of St Antony’s College, Oxford hosted the roundtable and launch of Public Culture and Islam in Modern Egypt: Media, Intellectuals and Society (London: I.B.Tauris, 2016) with myself and Morgan Clarke (Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford) who is a social anthropologist …
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