Digest of Middle East Studies最新文献

Prior to 1948, Arab Jews were an integral part of the Arab world and its traditional and cultural fabric and played a critical role in economic and political life. Though their presence in Arabic literature was remarkably limited, their image was relatively positive. However, this changed following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. There emerged a large corpus of literary works that deal with Jews, but this time the image was mostly negative. The main objective of this article is to explore Mahfouz's portrayal of Jewish women in three of his novels: Khan al-Khalili, Mirrors, and Midaq Alley. The article focuses on the portrayal of Jewish women in a predominantly Muslim society and the social and Islamic bonds imposed on them. It explores how these Jewish characters function in the three texts to disturb, disrupt, or offset the then-prevailing discourses. Though Mahfouz's Jewish female characters can be viewed as stereotypes, the present study will illustrate how Jewish women in these novels act differently, resist classism, and subvert the traditional gender roles. This is significant because it is the first time that Jewish female characters in Mahfouz's work are explored.

This study examines the resonance of resistant narrative discourse in Shams Awam (2022), a novel by Fikria Shahra. The novel stands as a prominent example of Yemeni resistance narrative, where Shahra employs language, storytelling, events, and narrative techniques to reflect her people's defiance against the civil war, the Houthi militias. She also expresses solidarity with Yemenis in their struggle for freedom and justice. By thoroughly examining the narrative elements, this study offers deeper insights into Yemeni literature and explores the various ways in which the resistant narrative discourse is expressed. The researcher employs a descriptive-analytical method, examining the novel through the lens of resistance literature. The findings reveal that the novel represents a creative contemporary work, closely aligned with Yemeni literature that resists the Houthi sectarian project. The novelist effectively utilizes resistant discourse to narrate the stories, address the issues, and convey her message. The political context in the novel reflects the nature of political conflicts and the intricate dynamics of the Yemeni crisis. Furthermore, the study highlights the significant role of Yemeni women in resisting injustice and struggling for their rights and values. Moreover, the place and time are present in the resistance narrative and contribute to the development of the characters and their evolving positions.

How does an economic crisis affect electoral turnout in authoritarian regimes? The paper examines the impact of economic crisis on political participation by studying Iran's post-Pandemic era. The statistical analysis of the public opinion polls indicates that a crisis of representation intervened between economic hardship and the unprecedented decline in voter turnout in Iran's 2021 presidential election. In this environment, the failure of political factions to address the economic hardship discredited the political establishment in Iran and transformed the pattern of political participation. This setting caused an unprecedented decline in the voters’ turnout and led citizens to resort to street protest as an alternative means of political participation. The paper further demonstrates the role of socioeconomic status in shaping voting behavior. The statistical analysis indicated that middle-income citizens are less likely to vote which aligns with the existing studies about the impact of sanctions on household expenditure in Iran. An overview of electoral mobilization sheds light on the findings of the statistical analysis by illuminating the shift in participation mode. This review demonstrates that electoral mobilization through youth campaigns transformed into street protests and strikes led by youth, teachers, and industrial workers. The findings of the paper suggest a new mechanism in which economic crisis affects political participation in authoritarian regimes.

The Arab Uprisings 2010/11 caused the removal of political leaderships in some countries, whereas no deep political change occurred in other cases. A critical discussion of two main competing approaches to explaining the (lack of) robustness of Arab regimes in the Uprisings—the oil rent stabilization thesis and the thesis of monarchical resilience—reveals that the oil rent stabilization thesis is theoretically sound but faces empirical challenges. To address them, we outline different rent concepts, which then serve as the basis for innovatively developing an approach of institutionalist rentierism. This approach pools an expanded, nuanced version of the rent stabilization thesis with insightful aspects of the thesis of monarchical resilience. After identifying Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen as critical cases for the present comparative study, we discuss them in more detail, highlighting the relevance of different institutional settings. A major empirical finding is that different experiences with European imperialism often had a significant impact on authoritarian robustness.

This article analyzes the strategies employed by translators to re-present women in the Qur'an, in light of contemporary feminist translation theory. Examining a range of Qur'anic translations, the study investigates how translators utilize feminist strategies to challenge patriarchal interpretations and align the sacred text with contemporary gender-inclusive discourse. The findings reveal that individual translations, even those produced by men not explicitly subscribing to feminism, can demonstrate a greater degree of egalitarianism than collective translations or those undertaken by women. Moving beyond the analysis of gender-inclusive language, this study focuses on the translation of conceptual constructs related to women's roles, like the subordinate creation narrative and the concept of wives in heaven promised to faithful men. By exploring how feminist translation strategies engage with these complex and culturally sensitive concepts, the article aims to highlight the role for translation in challenging traditional interpretations and mediate established religious and societal norms.

The death of Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, at the hands of Iran's Morality Police sparked months of protests, both domestically and internationally. This movement established “global Iran,” an interconnected network of people from diverse ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds who mobilize across identity-based and geographic fault lines. In this paper, I examine the ways Latin American feminist groups blended with the Jina protests and joined global Iran. From a decolonial and transnational feminist theoretical lens, I argue that this blend connected people in its recognition of a collective struggle that acknowledges intersectional difference. My South–South approach focuses specifically on Mexico and Chile due to their histories of Iranian immigration and gender activism. I analyze the protests in these countries and demonstrate how they generated spaces of plurality. Moreover, I claim that Spanish, Persian, and Kurdish-language songs and chants established a decolonial and transnational feminist praxis of solidarity between diverse communities. While most scholarly discourse on the 2022 protests has analyzed the movement's effects on Iran or on the diaspora, I consider the transnational implications. In doing so, I emphasize the communal, rather than national or individual, element of the movement. Through transnational solidarity may we strive towards a life of freedom.