Middle East Media and Critical and Cultural Studies

This chapter focuses on the Iraqi Kurdish response to the rapid and devastating advance of ISIS. Of course, the Iraqi Kurdish response to the ISIS advance has been a multifaceted, complex, and evolving one that includes military strategy, pragmatic politics, and aspirations of independence. Leaving aside the fact that the ISIS advance has granted the Iraqi Kurds unprecedented access to Iraq’s rich oil reserves and the fact that the initial Kurdish reaction was to ramp up their rhetoric toward complete secession from Iraq, this chapter focuses on two further dimensions of the Iraqi Kurdish response. Firstly, it documents the Iraqi Kurdish seizure of the so-called “disputed territories,” especially
Kirkuk, and their stated intent to hold a referendum on the future of these
regions (effectively to force a resolution to Article 140 of the constitution). Secondly, the chapter documents the Iraqi Kurdish use of the ISIS advance as leverage to enhance Kurdish relations dramatically with the US and Europe via direct military support (including airstrikes and weapons supply) and to become the key launchpad
in the fight against ISIS planned for 2015. The chapter concludes by briefly assessing the efficacy and wisdom of the Kurdish strategy of leveraging the ISIS onslaught to advance their own interests.

COMM 4090 / MC 5090 International Communication, Fall 2016

The course explores the structure of international communication, the process of globalization, and the political, economic and cultural contexts of communication. The course maps the historical paths of international communication, looks at global communication theories, and examines global economy and its impact on communication. It critiques the Anglo-American domination within global communication and looks at less industrialized nations’ calls for equality in global information flow. It examines the politics of global communication, global communication law, global advertising and public relations, and critical citizenship in international communication. Overall, it addresses international issues in communication and culture.

This course provides a detailed overview of research on political communication and its role in informing, influencing, and legitimizing decisions is crucial to both domestic and international politics.  By analyzing the relationship between political actors, communication channels, and the public, students will gain an understanding of the ways in which dominant ideologies shape communication strategies, an understanding of the ways in which communication strategies shape political public opinion. Students will evaluate the effects of political communication campaigns on people’s attitudes, opinions and systems of beliefs.

Analyzing the actors, technologies, and forms of communication that together constitute public debate, the course focuses closely on the processes of political communication, with an eye to how the state, press, political parties, civil society organizations, social movements, campaigns, and the public interact to shape public life and produce political culture. It considers the social and technological contexts that shape the production, distribution, and reception of political communication. At the same time, the course situates political communication broadly to encompass the vast range of symbolic political expression, from political advertisements to protest events.

This course sets itself off from those situated in mediated communication as it focuses on how politics shapes our identity, our relationships, and our communities, and highlights relational/interpersonal, rhetorical aspects of politics, and the role of engaged citizenship in political processes and deliberative democracy.

French rule over Syria and Lebanon was premised on a vision of a special French protectorate established through centuries of cultural activity: archaeological, educational and charitable. Initial French methods of organising and supervising cultural activity sought to embrace this vision and to implement it in the exploitation of antiquities, the management and promotion of cultural heritage, the organisation of education and the control of public opinion among the literate classes. However, an examination of the first five years of the League of Nations-assigned mandate, 1920-1925, reveals that French expectations of a protectorate were quickly dashed by widespread resistance to their cultural policies, not simply among Arabists but also among minority groups initially expected to be loyal to the French. The violence of imposing the mandate 'de facto', starting with a landing of French troops in the Lebanese and Syrian coast in 1919 - and followed by extension to the Syrian interior in 1920 - was met by consistent violent revolt. Examining the role of cultural institutions reveals less violent yet similarly consistent contestation of the French mandate. The political discourses emerging after World War I fostered expectations of European tutelages that prepared local peoples for autonomy and independence. Yet, even among the most Francophile of stakeholders, the unfolding of the first years of French rule brought forth entirely different events and methods. In this book, Idir Ouahes provides an in-depth analysis of the shifts in discourses, attitudes and activities unfolding in French and locally-organised institutions such as schools, museums and newspapers, revealing how local resistance put pressure on cultural activity in the early years of the French mandate

`This excellent study is a welcome addition to the scholarship on the inter-war mandates of Syria and Lebanon. Ouahes focuses on the cultural institutions through which the French authorities imposed their rule, ably demonstrating the ways in which the mandate system was transformed into a political and cultural framework akin to colonialism. While tracing the disillusion and contestations that ensued, he nonetheless discusses the impact and disparate legacy of the period on both the French and the diverse populations of the two mandates.' - Patricia M.E. Lorcin, Professor of History and Samuel Russell Chair in Humanities, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, `Resisting the imposition of French imperial control in 1920s

'Syria was never solely a matter of violent opposition. Ranging from classrooms and museums, to archaeological sites and vernacular journalism, in this richly evocative text Idir Ouahes reveals how Syrians contested the imposition of French Mandate rule in the realms of cultural heritage, educational provision and print media.' - Martin Thomas, Professor of Imperial History, University of Exeter

Irak Türkmenleri denildiği zaman hafızamızda ilk olarak Kerkük ve Musul canlanır. Fakat Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun dağılmasından sonra maalesef Türkler için hüznün ve acının adeta merkezi haline gelmiştir. Bu acılar dokunaklı bir şekilde halk edebiyatına ve o bölgenin türkülerine de yansımıştır;

“Yıktılar kal’amızı
Sürdüler balamızı
Daha can boğazdayken
Çektiler sâlamızı
Ah Kerkük yüz ah Kerkük
Her zaman yüz ak Kerkük
Ölseydim düşmeseydim
Men senden uzak Kerkük...”
 
Türkünün dizelerinden de anlaşılacağı gibi Türkmenler maalesef kaderine terkedilmiş ve geçen yıllar boyunca adeta bir mum gibi yavaş yavaş bölgede asimile politikaları ile erimektedirler. Bu konuya değinmeden önce bölgedeki Türk varlığını incelemekte fayda vardır. Türklerin Irak’a ilk girişleri H. 54 / M. 674 tarihlerine kadar uzanmaktadır. Emevi Halifesi Muaviye tarafından Horasan’a gönderilen Ubeydullah bin Ziyad ile Buhara prensesi Hatun emrindeki Türk kuvvetleri arasında yapılan çarpışmadan sonra bir barış yapılmıştır. Bu barıştan sonra Ubeydullah yanına aldığı Türk askerlerini Irak’a götürüp, Basra’ya yerleştirmiştir. Türklerin Irak’a gelişleri Abbasi döneminde, Halife Memun ve Halife Mutasım’ın iktidarı sırasında meydana gelen siyasi gelişmelerden dolayı daha da sıklaşmıştır. Emevi ordularında olduğu gibi Abbasi ordularında da yer alan Türkler, üstün savaşçı yetenekleri ile maharetlerinden dolayı üst mevkilere getirilmişlerdir. Ayrıca H. 211 / M. 836 ’da Halife Mutasım’ın emriyle Türk kumandanı Türk hassa askeri için Somerna şehri kurulmuştu. 25 Aralık 1055’te Bağdat’a giren Selçuklu hükümdarı Tuğrul Bey Büveyhoğulları’nın Irak’taki hakimiyetine son verilmiştir. Tuğrul Bey Bağdat ve Oğuzların yayıldığı Irak’ı Selçuklu Ülkesine katmıştır. Bu tarihten sonra Oğuz boylarına mensup birçok Türk, bu bölgeye yerleştirilmiştir. Böylece bölgede Büyük Selçuklular ile Türk hakimiyeti başlamıştır. Türklere daha önce yalnızca Etrak (Türkler) diyen Araplar, “Etrak-u Bağdat” (Bağdat Türkleri) demeye başlamışlardır.  1258 Moğol istilası ile Abbasi hilafeti son bulmuş, bölge Moğolların eline geçmiştir. Ayrıca bu bölgede Moğollarla birlikte çok sayıda Türk askeri gelmiştir. 1258 – 1336 İlhanlılar, 1338 – 1360 Celayirliler, 1360 – 1469 Karakoyunlular ve 1470 tarihinden itibaren de Akkoyunlular hakimiyetinde kalan bölge 1508 yılında Safevilerin eline geçmiştir. Safeviler’in Çaldıran’da (1515) Yavuz Sultan Selim Han’a yenilmesi ve Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Han’ın da 1534’te Bağdat’ı almasıyla bugün Irak olarak anılan bölge Osmanlı hakimiyetine geçmiştir. Osmanlılar Irak’ı, Bağdat, Basra, Musul, Şehrizor ve el-Ahsa olmak üzere beş bölgeye ayırarak idare ettirmişlerdir. 1623’te bölge tekrar Safeviler’in eline geçmiş ve Safeviler binlerce kişiyi katletmişlerdir. Sultan IV. Murad Han’ın 1638’de Bağdat’ı tekrar geri almasıyla Kasr-ı Şirin Antlaşması yapılmış ve kesin sınır çizilmişti. Böylece Musul-Kerkük bölgesi de dahil olarak I. Dünya Savaşı sonuna kadar bölge Osmanlı hakimiyetinde kalmıştır. Sonuç olarak Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Han ve Sultan IV. Murad Han zamanında Anadolu’dan getirilen çok sayıda Türk de bölgeye yerleştirilmiştir. I. Dünya Savaşından itibaren Irak’ın işgal edilmesi ve 1926 Musul Meselesi görüşmeleri sonucu Musul ve Kerkük’ün Irak’a bırakılmasıyla Musul ve Kerkük Irak’la birlikte İngiliz sömürgesi haline gelmiştir. 1920 – 1932 yılları arasında Irak’ın İngiliz Mandası altında bulunduğu dönemde Türkler baskı ve zulüm dolu bir devre yaşamışlardır. Irak’ın 1932 ’de Milletler Cemiyeti’ne kabul edilip bağımsızlığına kavuşmasından sonra da Irak Türkleri rahat yüzü görmemiş, baskı ve şiddet daha da artmıştır. Bütün bu baskı ve sindirme politikalarının Irak’ta bulunan Türk varlığını yok edemediği 1937 Sadâbâd Paktı’yla ortaya çıkmıştır. 27 Haziran 1937’de imzalanan Sadâbâd Paktı için bölgedeki Türkler büyük bir sevinç yaşasalar da pakttan sonra polis tarafından yapılan işkence ve zulme maruz kalmışlardır. II. Dünya Savaşı’nın sıkıntıları sebebiyle savaşı sakin geçiren Türkler savaştan sonra yeni bir katliamla karşılaştılar. 1946 yılında Gavurbağı’nda Kerküklü işçiler polis kuvvetleri tarafından yaylım ateşine tutulmuşlardır. Yine Bağdat Paktı’nın imzalanacağını duyan Türkler, bölgelerinde büyük bir sevinç yaşamışlardır. Fakat yine paktın imzalanmasından sonra Türklere yapılan baskılar artmıştır. Irak’ta 14 Temmuz 1959 Cumhuriyet’in birinci yılı kutlamalarında sokağa dökülen Kerkük Türkleri komünistler tarafından katliama uğramışlardır. 3 gün süren bu katliamda soydaşlarımız inanılmaz derecede zulüm ve işkenceye maruz kalmışlardır. Yaklaşık 1500 yıl kadar bu topraklarda varlığını gösteren Türkler I. Dünya Savaşı’ndan sonra batılı devletlerin bölgedeki çıkarlarından dolayı sistematik olarak çeşitli haksızlık, baskı ve katliama uğramışlardır. Emperyalist güçlerin özellikle yer altı bakımından zengin olan kuzey Irak’taki emellerinden dolayı bölgede yaşayan Türkler birçok zorlukla karşılaştıysa da bunlar karşısında Türk hükümeti ise maalesef hiç bir etkinlik göstermemiştir.

In "Arab Critical Culture and Its (Palestinian) Discontents after the Second World War," Adey Almohsen historicizes the consolidation of a particular understanding of iltizam (literary commitment). By exploring specific Palestinian literary and cultural critics, Almohsen brings to the fore those writers that did not subscribe to that understanding or who otherwise wrote from a different set of concerns they viewed as central to the Palestinian reality. In doing so, Almohsen forces us to rethink the chronologies and categories that have emerged in the historiography to narrate Arab literary and critical output since the Second World War and the 1947-9 Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe).

Muslims have been the primary targets of Daesh's attacks since 2014 in different countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. These attacks were based on its takfiri ideology. As Daesh official media and documents indicate, kufr (unbelief, infidelity) in Daesh's approach is not limited to non-Muslims (original disbelievers), but Muslims are the most significant parts of kuffar (unbelievers) in its view and defined as incidental disbelievers. Through studying Daesh's official documents and various Arabic, English, and Persian media productions, in an explanatory research, this article attempts to display Daesh's takfiri approach toward Muslims and explains its historical and ideological roots, difference with Al-Qaeda's takfiri approach, different approaches to takfir inside Daesh, main targets of Daesh's takfir, and the reasons behinds its takfiri view. This article displays that for Daesh, the Muslims are limited only to Sunni Muslims who are accepting and following its approach. Other Sunni and non-Sunni Muslims are thus kuffar. This study also shows that the assertion of takfir has become a method for Daesh to discredit its opponents, such as Shi'a Muslims and other Muslim groups.

Disgusted with ISIS, some Kurds turned away from Islam following the fall of Mosul in 2014. Many became atheists, while others sought comfort in Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism, according to converts, was the “original” religion of the Kurds before they embraced Islam. In 2015, two Zoroastrian centers opened in Sulaimani, both of which are recognized by the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq. Notably, neither has tried to recreate Zoroastrianism the way it is currently and has been historically practiced in Iran and South Asia. Instead, they have created their own versions of Zoroastrianism, which is nationalist, postmodern, and liberal. Kurdish Zoroastrians argue that the reason Kurds are “backward” is Islam. They seek to rectify the present situation through a Kurdish “authenticated” and “original” form of Zoroastrianism. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at these two centers, the present article examines this new religious movement in Sulaimani, an important city in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. It analyses the rise and distinctiveness of Kurdish Zoroastrianism looking at how Zoroastrian Kurds articulate their views on Islam, women’s rights, human rights, and Kurdish independence.

As in the early 1980s which saw the emergence of women's studies in India and also the founding of IAWS, we are today, once again, debating the inter-linkages between the development process and gender relations. Be it the liberalization of the economy, the impact on sources of livelihoods, nature of work and earnings, the legal environment or for women in decision making and democratic processes-all address some fundamental questions which are as relevant today as they were in the early 1980s. These questions were posed when the startling findings of the government's Committee On Status Of Women (CSWI) in 1975 highlighted the declining position of women, particularly since independence. This decline was noted in trends such as the accelerated decline in women's employment since 1950s. Also noted was the growth of social attitudes and values, ' a regression from the norms developed during the freedom movement.' The questions posed were: whatever happened to the promises of equality that was built into the Constitution of free India ? What had led to increasing marginalization of women? Was is the problem of lack of implementation of programs or was it something deeper and intrinsic to the processes and plans of development?

Emirati filmmakers have produced more than 40 features since 1989. This chapter situates the question of locating Emirati filmmaking within the context of competing expectations about audience, drawing upon conventional models used throughout the MENASA regions alongside indigenous media, Nollywood, and Hallyuwood, arguing that the UAE opens our understanding of the broader region in relation to media industries and cultures.

Palestinian hip hop emerged when three Arab-­Israeli Palestinian hip hop rappers began rapping using the Arabic language for the first time, in a country of predominantly Hebrew speakers. Tamer Nafar, alongside his younger brother Suheil Nafar, and their friend Mahmoud Jreri, formed the first Arab rap group, DAM (Da Arabian MCs) in 1999 (Lovatt 2011: 14). Based in Al--Llyd, also known as Lod, a mixed city of Arab and Israeli citizens, DAM were inspired by American rap to speak against years of oppression, inequality and social injustice. Palestinian hip-­hop can be situated within a longer history of hip hop music, originating from the United States. The hip hop movement can be traced back to 1979, when studio recorded hip hop music was first created for circulation beyond the underground (Watkins 2006: 10). Rappers from the Bronx identified hip hop’s commercial potential and became pioneers of the hip-­ hop movement that “would make it a cultural and economic juggernaut” (Watkins 2006: 10). The relationship between music and resistance has been fundamental to cultural studies especially in the case of Palestinian popular culture.

This paper seeks to explore hip hop as a specific area of cultural production that disseminated the idea of resistance in the Palestinian context. Using key theories surrounding culture and resistance, songs from two artists with similar expressions will be analysed, focusing on a politically charged cultural form in the Palestinian community: hip hop music.

“Carnivalesque” is perhaps the best, if not the only way to describe what was going on at the Bab al-Saghir Cemetery that hot summer afternoon in 2008.  In front of the graves of the Prophet’s wives, Shi‘i pilgrims could buy Viagra, sex-enhancement creams, and massage oils.  Sexual mores were normally strictly guarded in Syria and medicines were usually available only at pharmacies.  Yet, there in one of the most historically and religiously significant cemeteries in Damascus, makeshift vendors sold an array of sex-related items.  In order to analyze this phenomenon, this article draws on Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the “carnivalesque.”  First, it provides a short background of Twelver Shi‘ism in Syria and explains how Shi‘i religious tourism encouraged the development of black markets.  Then, it examines how Shi‘i pilgrimage, which occurred all year around, but peaked during Muharram, fostered an attitude that liberated Shi‘is from prevalent social norms and emphasized “grotesque” imagery and practices, including blood, death, and sex.  In short, it follows Michael Taussig’s call for anthropologists to attend to the transgressive aspects of religious ritual.

The Legacy of Iraq critically reflects on the abject failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. It argues that mistakes made by the coalition and the Iraqi political elite set a sequence of events in motion that have had devastating consequences for Iraq, the Middle East and for the rest of the world.

Today, as the nation faces perhaps its greatest challenge in the wake of the devastating advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and another US-led coalition undertakes renewed military action in Iraq, understanding the complex and difficult legacies of the 2003 war could not be more urgent. Ignoring the legacies of the Iraq war and denying their connection to contemporary events could means that vital lessons are ignored and the same mistakes made again.

According to Giorgio Agamben, a “state of exception” is established by the sovereign's decision to suspend the law, and the archetypical state of exception is the Nazi concentration camp. At the same time, Agamben notes that boundaries have become blurred since then, such that even spaces like refugee camps can be thought of as states of exception because they are both inside and outside the law. This article draws on the notion of the state of exception in order to examine the Syrian refugee camp cum shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab as well as to analyze questions of religious authority, ritual practice, and pious devotion to Sayyida Zaynab. Though Sayyida Zaynab and many of her Twelver Shiʿi devotees resemble Agamben's figure of homo sacer, who marked the origin of the state of exception, they also defy Agamben's theory that humans necessarily become animal-like, leading nothing more than “bare lives” (or zoē) in states of exception.

The past two decades have witnessed a dramatic growth in Middle Eastern satellite television. The corresponding diversification of content and restructuring of media power in the region raise many important questions for research. This dissertation is a case study of Huda TV, an English-language Islamic satellite channel broadcasting from Cairo, Egypt. The author collected participant observation data as an employee of the channel in 2005-2006. The primary research question asks how Huda TV asserts an Islamic presence in the satellite television arena. Many areas of media research, including the broad historical debates on culture and power, contemporary conceptions of hybridity, and the analysis of media institutions in the Middle East, share an overarching secular bias. Consequently, this dissertation plots out relevant bodies of theoretical and empirical research that both inform and constrain the kind of questions that can be asked about Huda TV as a Muslim institution. With a conscious effort to overcome the reductionist secularism of media studies, this work offers empirical data on the manner in which orthodox Sunni Islam operates within the global mediascape--the increasingly integrated, geographically expansive, and globally accessible media environment of which satellite television is one important component. This dissertation first examines the concrete manner in which Huda TV attempts to define Islamic satellite television as a distinct set of content and practices. Next, it turns to the channel's engagement with dominant discourses and bodies of knowledge that may compete with Islam for ultimate authority. Finally, it examines the impact of cultural and political-economic factors on the channel's work. This dissertation offers original insights into the study of contemporary Islam and contributes to significant, enduring questions of media research.

During the onslaught of the Islamic caliphate on Kobanî, Syria, media outlets across the globe broadcast pictures of brave and often unveiled Kurdish women fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a quintessentially male force of destruction. The images of women fighting Islamist male aggressors aroused outrage, admiration, and pity among observers. But had all Kurdish fighters been male or had women fought for ISIS, viewers might have reacted differently. To examine some of the most widely disseminated gendered pictures and videos of the Syrian uprising in the media, this article draws on Mohja Kahf’s three categories, which typify how Muslim women, Arab women, or both are perceived by the Anglophone reading and viewing public: the first is victims; the second, escapees; and the third, pawns of patriarchy and male power. While this typology helps in examining gendered images of the Syrian uprising, it also obscures the socioeconomic realities on the ground.

The advent of New Media has not only made considerable contributions to the cannon of art but has in essence shaken its very foundations. Anxieties appear when New Media role players, artists and 'commercialised users' have to "play nice". Disrobing the participatory process of art and design through the use of communication technologies fucking provides an interpretation of New Media in the locale of sexual consumption. South Africa is still grappling with the technologies of a post industrial age. Access is not a matter of fact and literacy of such media cannot be taken for granted. Fucking around with sexual (re)presentation is a dangerous liaison. There is an inherent hesitation to equate South African erotic with colonial imports of uncivilised sexual prowess. This risky enclosure investigates the uncomfortable intercourse of discourse on Art, Design and Queer theory. In a techno-socio-sexual economy where information is readily available and almost nothing is unattainable, is fucking the common ground for these uncomfortable bedfellows? Within the lines of computer code and pixel can we, as artist and designers, remap an(other) erotic? Can we (re)present that which has remained mis-represented?

With the death of Annemarie Schimmel on the 26th of February 2003, an epoch has truly come to an end in the dialogue between Germany and the Islamic world. This doesn’t mean that cultural dialogue as such will come to an end or break off, but rather that it will take on completely new, hitherto unknown forms, possibly differing greatly from our previous understanding of such involvement. These new aspects will be outlined after an attempt at more precise delineation of how cultural dialogue was comprehended during the epoch that has now concluded, an epoch initially shaped at the start of the 19th century with Annemarie Schimmel as its last great representative.

Dābiq is an electronic magazine (e-zine) utilising strategic utopianism and savagery messages supported by exemplary leadership, eschatology, and current events reports. This project analyses narrative themes present within Dābiq and how relevant and prevalent these themes are across issues. The project applies Thematic Network Analysis of the first six issues of Dābiq, laying foundations for understanding ISIL’s culture and counter-narrative development. It argues present terminology and first generation research constrain understanding of ISIL’s cultural specifics. This project establishes that rhetoric within Dābiq contains both political and religious narratives. Finally, this project establishes that ‘Exemplary Leadership’ theme dominates ISIL’s Dābiq rhetoric.

Kahire Radyosu’nun ilk programı olan Arapların Sesi radyo programı döneminin en etkili medya araçlarından birisiydi. Arap dünyasında medya politikasının başlamasına sebep olan söz konusu radyonun verdiği mesajlar 1950’li yıllarda bölgede siyasi haritayı yeniden şekillendirirken aynı zamanda Arap milliyetçiliği kavramının halk kitleleri tarafından benimsenmesinde etkili olmuştur. Öte yandan Kahire Radyosu’nda şarkıları yayınlanan Ümmü Gülsüm de Mısır’ın Pan-Arapçılığına üst düzeyde hizmet etmiştir. Bu çalışmada Arapların Sesi radyosunun, emperyalist ve sömürgeci devletlere karşı nasıl bir propaganda siyaseti izlediğine değinirken Abdünnasır’ın milli egemenlik, bağımsızlık, Arap birliği mesajlarını ve bu mesajlar çerçevesinde yürütmüş olduğu ideolojik kampanyayı ve Ümmü Gülsüm’ün bu kampanyaya katkılarını temel araştırma yöntemleri ve ilgili literatür ışığında incelenecektir.

“Voice of the Arabs” which is the first program of Cairo Radio, was one of the most effective media organs of its time. The messages of the radio, which led to the beginning of media policy in the Arab world, reshaped the political map in the region during the 1950s and it was also effective in influencing popular masses with the idea of Arab nationalism. This article aims to discuss how the Voice of Arabs conveyed the propaganda policy of Nasır carried out against the imperialist and colonial states and his ideological campaign to spread his messages regarding national sovereignty, independence and Arab union etc. to the public masses and the Umm Kulthum’s contribution to this propoganda in the light of basic research methods and literature review.

The Legacy of Iraq critically reflects on the abject failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. It argues that mistakes made by the coalition and the Iraqi political elite set a sequence of events in motion that have had devastating consequences for Iraq, the Middle East and for the rest of the world. Today, as the nation faces perhaps its greatest challenge in the wake of the devastating advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and another US-led coalition undertakes renewed military action in Iraq, understanding the complex and difficult legacies of the 2003 war could not be more urgent. Ignoring the legacies of the Iraq war and denying their connection to contemporary events could means that vital lessons are ignored and the same mistakes made again.

RUḤAWŻI, a comic type of traditional folk musical drama in Iran, often characterized by improvised funny remarks with social and/or cultural overtones and usually performed by professionals at ceremonies and festivities such as wedding and circumcision celebrations. It was traditionally performed on boards that were placed on the top of a small pool (ḥawż) in the courtyard and covered with rugs, thus serving as the stage, hence the designation ruḥawżi (lit. [done] on the top of the pool). This paper provides an overview of this performance form

Public opinion about sexual abuse of minors is greatly shaped by mass media and the way individual cases are reported. This paper examines Australian print media"s representation of sex offenders, focussing particularly on the sex of the offenders and aiming to shed light on some of the misconceptions and deep-rooted prejudices within the population at large. Given the multi-faceted nature of sexual offences, this paper focuses on sexual offences committed by both males and females against minors in the context of a companion breach of duty of care. In order to explore the effect that linguistic tools can have in the Australian print media"s way of reporting sexual abuse cases, twenty-nine newspaper articles published in Australian dailies were selected for analysis. The analysis of these articles reveals a marked bias in the manner in which sexual offences perpetrated by males, as opposed to females, are reported, suggesting a male monopoly on sexual abuse. We argue that this biased representation, which hinders adequate profiling of sexual offences against minors, may stem from an androcentric view of sexuality and from the systematic denial of female agency when it comes to sex.

The portrayal of women in the media presents a confusing picture. On the one hand, women are portrayed in stereotype roles -submissive; while on the other hand they are projected as aggressive -modern and liberal. Unfortunately the portrayal of aggressive -the portrayal of aggressive -modern and liberal image is often done with an intention to discourage them to venture out. The media projects the two extreme characters of women regardless of their religion, class and stature. Either they are portrayed as cigarette smoking; alcohol drinking or sari clad, silent, devotional, submissive ones. While the first image is driven by the market and is an offshoot of the consumerist society, the second one represents the continuation of stereotype -traditional image.

This chapter seeks to re-interpret Iraqi politics after the US-led intervention of 2003 by examining the alternative discourses of democracy emanating from within Re-Colonial Iraq. It details the complex public sphere of the post-Saddam era and points to the inclusive nature of the positive developments that have occurred across the nation since 2003. The first part discusses the post-Saddam media landscape which has played a positive role in covering the nation’s difficult transition to democracy. The second part of this chapter documents and examines the Iraqi people’s exercise of their democratic right to protest and the influence these protests have had on the politics of the post-Saddam era. The chapter concludes that Iraqi citizens who play an active role in their own governance and participate in democratic mechanisms such as elections and mass demonstrations are helping to create a more robust democracy.

Public Sphere in the Arab world has been under rapid and steady transformation with social media becoming an alternative medium of interactive communication. In 2011-12, Facebook had emerged as the main site
of these interactions and user-producer convergence
that helped the Arab uprisings to be communicated to
a wider audience by their actors directly to the people
who were equally able to interact with the process. On
the other hand, the satellite channels like Al Jazeera and
Al Arabiya found themselves challenged by the reach
and interactivity of social media and were forced to
meet the expectations of an over-ambitious Arab street.
Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Al Sharq Al Awsat, Al Hayat,
and many transnational Arab news organizations became active on cyber-sphere, none of them achieved
the popularity of social media, nonetheless. The Arabic
page of Kulluna Khaled Said, for example, was created
in June 2010 in reaction to a local police case became
a global news maker when it became the leading media against Hosni Mubarak after the uprisings erupted.
This paper discusses the role of social media as a New
Medium when most of traditional mediums were trying
to censor or remain wary of covering the anti-regime uprisings. The new medium became a new message in itself where new ways of interactions and new discursive
traditions started appearing. A case study was conducted on the Facebook campaign of Kulluna Khaled Said
along with other pages which were actively engaged in
staging anti regime protests. The paper refers Jurgen
Habermas’ Public sphere as a theoretical point to what
the Arab street used to be at the time of the uprising.
Key words: Al Jazeera, Arab Uprising, Facebook,
Public Sphere, Social Media

A partire dal 2008, le soap opera turche hanno investito il mondo arabo come un tornado, con l’esportazione di più di cinquanta serie solo negli ultimi cinque anni. Alle musalsalat  come vengono chiamati gli sceneggiati nella regione, viene attribuita la responsabilità di alcuni rilevanti trend sociali: l’affermazione di un nascente movimento di emancipazione femminile, l’aumento dei divorzi, il ricorso sempre più diffuso alla chirurgia estetica tra gli uomini che vorrebbero assomigliare ai divi turchi, un boom di bambini chiamati Muhannad, Noor o simili, come i protagonisti delle fiction più popolari.

L’ascesa dei media turchi nella sfera pubblica araba dà un’idea delle fondamenta geopolitiche che stanno alla base della circolazione della cultura popolare turca in Medio Oriente, un fenomeno ben sintetizzato dalla definizione assolutamente ironica di cool neo-ottomano.

This book examines Egypt’s turbulent and contradictory political period (2011-2015) as key to understanding contemporary politics in the country and the developments in the Arab region after the mass protests in 2010/11, more broadly.

In doing so, it breaks new ground in the study of political representation, providing analytical innovation to the study of disenchantment with politics, democracy fatigue and social cohesion. Based on five years of intense fieldwork, the author provides rare insights into local and national ideas on politics, justice and identity, and on how people situate themselves and Egypt in the regional and global context. It analyzes how the creation of an alternate, political system was discussed and negotiated among the Egyptian population, the military, the government, public figures, the media, and international actors, and yet nevertheless today, Egypt has a new political regime that is the most repressive in the countries’ modern history. Finally, it recalls the emotions and perceptions of individuals and collectives and interlinks these local perspectives to national events and developments through time.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of democratization and authoritarianism, Middle East Studies, political representation and informality, collective action, and more broadly to cultural studies and international relations.

In addressing the de-Baathification in post-2003 Iraq, this article outlines the efforts by Iraqi lawmakers to codify de-Baathification in Iraq’s new constitution of 2005 as well as in subsequent pieces of more detailed legislation. The article then goes on to study the actual implementation of these laws in relation to the Iraqi parliamentary elections of 2010 and 2014, as well as the local elections of 2013. Throughout the chapter, special emphasis is given to the considerable discrepancies between the principles enshrined in the formal de-Baathification legislation and the way those principles are applied in practice. Finally, this chapter concludes by suggesting that Iraq needs to openly and honestly deal with its Baathist past if it is ever to move beyond patterns of political
sectarianism, violence and autocracy.

Orientalist and colonial representations of harems have resulted in the association of North African women with domestic confinement. North African authors such as Assia Djebar (1980), Malek Alloula (1981) and Fatima Mernissi (1994), however, suggest that this view is biased. While focusing largely on Fatima Mernissi's memoir, Dreams of Trespass, this article builds on these authors' exploration of the various ways in which women of the Maghreb are portrayed, in order to provide a clearer understanding of the dynamics of women's space in the context of colonial North Africa.

First published in American Chronicle, Buzzle and AfroArticles on 30th December 2010
...............................................
Here, I would like to merely ask the following question:

When Islam's worst enemies, namely the Zionist - fake Freemasonic regimes of England and France, permeate and penetrate an Islamic country from border to border and determine every aspect of its daily life and international position, does it really matter whether the local people pray five times per day, fast in Ramadan, and abstain from alcohol, pork and premarital sex?

In fact, it is ridiculous to think that Islam exists after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. In reality, there is no Islam anymore. There is only a fabricated ghost - a spiritual elementary useful for the Satanic needs of the Zionist & Freemasonic gangsters who use printed pages of the Quran to clean their ass or to perform sexual rituals on them.

Without a cultural, educational, scientific, military, socioeconomic, and imperial rule effectuated under total control by the indigenous Muslim population and elite, there is no Islam.

To believe that Islam can possibly exist in a fake country whereby the criminal Freemasonic gangsters of England, France and America, disguised as diplomats, academia, and cultural advisors, move free, contact anyone, bribe and corrupt whomever they like, plot along with their local lackeys, and promote their agenda for total control of the former Ottoman province, is not simply idiotic; it is a crime against the interests of all the indigenous peoples irrespective of their religion, origin, language and culture.

What Kemal Ataturk understood and all the filthy Satanic sheikhs of Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Jerusalem, Amman, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis, etc. cannot understand is the conclusion about the gradual collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the key role played by the Anglo-French Freemasons and Zionists in this ominous process, which spread terror and death throughout the Ottoman territories that the Satanic Western Zionist and Freemasonic mass media mendaciously and ludicrously call "Middle East".

«La revolución del cine egipcio» propone un recorrido por la filmografía egipcia desde los años 90 que retrata la sociedad egipcia. Si bien la selección de películas refleja una variedad en cuanto a que hay desde cine comercial a cine producido en circuitos alternativos, películas taquilleras y otras cuyo estreno fue prohibido por la censura, directores consagrados y
otros nóveles, se puede ver una cierta homogeneidad en el tratamiento de los problemas sociales. Es una continuidad que se refleja en la constante presencia del escenario urbano, claramente identificado con la capital —que se convierte en ocasiones en un personaje más—, pero es también una continuidad que se revela en la ausencia de movilidad social de unos personajes arquetípicos, a veces más planos, en otras ocasiones más complejos, y que responden a los estereotipos de clase y de género. Olano navega a través de los guiones y de las escenas buscando las imágenes que expresan el momento
político y traza el itinerario de la frustración y el descontento, pero también de formas cinematográficas novedosas en el contexto cairota, aquellas que se alejan del cine comercial convencional y que él identifica con la movilización
escenificada en la plaza de Taḥrīr como momento entorno al que se expresan nuevas formas de narrar y de mostrar la frustración que se alejan de lo convencional porque también sus canales de distribución sortean las restricciones impuestas por la censura. Hay, por tanto, una nueva producción cinematográfica del momento político, o bien que surge de ese momento.

(fragmento)
Artículo completo / full article:
http://www.editorialcomares.com/TV/articulo/3005-(Dis)continuidades_arabes.html

This paper is an exploration of the large corpus of vlogs and short films (produced by migrants) that carve out a moral language of citizenship in the city of Dubai. These visual materials were created by Filipinos, Pakistanis, Indians, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, Iranians and Nigerians; they circulate and function as visual maps that help migrants 'see' and negotiate the city. Speaking to categories of formal citizenship that evade them, the 'undocumented' and 'illegal' often erupt into visibility through these peripheral media texts. Set against the backdrop of formal media production in the highly organized media production zones of Dubai, this article explores what forms of aesthetic practice and cultural production emerge from the precarious conditions of migrant life. In doing so, the paper analyzes intersecting concepts of lateral agency, aesthetic forms, media labor and citizenship in the post-oil Dubai economy.

Iranians lost two of the most popular figures in their contemporary history in 2020, Qassem Soleimani and Mohammad Reza Shajarian. Although Soleimani and Shajarian possessed distinct lifestyles, they enjoyed a common group of admirers who comprised a large number of Iranians. This article seeks to show why and how they shared the same fans and makes the case that one cannot understand their popularity based on an imagined polarized base.

Resumen
En este trabajo se abordará la pregunta por el estatuto y naturaleza de un eventual vínculo comunitario originario, el cual se torna una exigencia que interroga los modos de vivir en común. A partir de diversos cuestionamientos realizados por Jean-Luc Nancy a las metafísicas de la comunidad, se profundiza en el modo que para Nancy la admisión de la alteridad resulta ser un concepto ineludible para pensar el ser-en-común, indagando la dimensión ontológica subyacente al diseño sociopolítico occidental en una dirección no-esencialista. La perspectiva del análisis del diseño sociopolítico será puesto en relación con la estetización de la política cuestión que se ha abordado previamente desde Heidegger en artículos previos como:
“Heidegger y Sloterdijk: La política como plástica del ser, nacionalsocialismo privado y crítica del imaginario filoagrario”.
Palabras Clave:
Cuerpo, comunitario, política, religión, arte, comparecencia, singular-plural.
REVISTA OBSERVACIONES FILOSÓFICAS ISSN 0718-3712 – Vol. 11 – 2011