Islamic World and Near East History Commons^™

Bahar And Zarrin, Bahar, Zarrin, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Bahar and Zarrin are friends living in Oinofyta Refugee Camp. They are both from Afghanistan but fled very different circumstances. Bahar lived in Iran with her husband until he passed, and she was rejected by her family. As a single woman she faced a life with little rights. Despite major health complications she fled to Greece in a boat. She now lives in the camp, struggling with repeated hospitalizations.

Zarrin left a life of comfort and privilege in Afghanistan and misses home greatly. Her husband was a wealthy businessman and Zarrin taught school. Thinking back on what they lost causes …

Nevin, Nevin, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Nevin is a civil engineer from Afghanistan who worked with an American company and local government. The Taliban threatened him and demanded he work for them instead and ultimately attacked him on his journey home. After this he began a dangerous journey to Europe full of smugglers, trafficking, encounters with police, poor living conditions and a trip across the Mediterranean in an overcrowded raft.

Nevin ultimately made it to Greece, where he lived in a camp for several months. He received medical care but faced new problems of closed borders and difficulty obtaining papers. He was transferred to a camp …

Aeham, Aeham, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Aeham Ahmad is a pianist from Yarmouk, Syria who gained internet fame from videos posted of him performing on the streets. Because of this, he was targeted and forced to flee to Germany, leaving his wife and two sons behind. Since this interview, his family has joined him.

Aeham’s talent and fame opened up opportunities to perform in various cities in Germany. To share his story during these performances, he learned English. He wants to use music to make a difference in the world. During his time in Yarmouk, there was an underground area where children practiced music because it …

Hamed, Hamed, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Hamed and his family are from Afghanistan where he worked as a diplomat and interpreter for the U.S. Army after having studied international relations and diplomacy. As the situation with the Taliban worsened it became too dangerous for Hamed and his family to stay in Afghanistan. They began the difficult journey with the help of smugglers, first to Iran, then Turkey, and then to Greece in a dangerous, overfilled boat.

Hamed explains the despair and frustration faced by many refugees. They feel as though very little is actually done for refugees once they’re admitted, and explains they need more assistance. …

Zarrin, Zarrin, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

My name is Zarrin. I was an English teacher. In Afghanistan I had a big house and a garden. My husband was a rich man; he had lots of money. My children studied in a private school.All the time the Taliban was warning my husband, “Why does your wife go to school and teach children? If your wife goes to school, we’ll throw acid on her face and take your children.” They don’t like education —they don’t like women attending school.Zarrin left a life of comfort and privilege in Afghanistan and misses home greatly. Her husband was a wealthy businessman …

Ilhan & Family, Ilhan, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Ilhan, his wife Nura, and their children resided near Kabul, in a region where both the Taliban and ISIS were active. As Shias, Ilhan’s family faced numerous menaces, including threatsfrom ISIS that they would be beheaded if they did not display ISIS flags. Ilhan’s sister Radwa, who is deaf and mute, was forced to marry a regional leader. In addition to being threatened on religious grounds, Ilhan’s family was also threatened by anelder of their town. Out of desperation, Ilhan’s family sold their house appliances, escaped Afghanistan, and arrived at the Oinofyta refugee campin Greece. Ilhan’s family fled with Radwa, …

Kamaria Bakes, Kamaria, Twila Bird, Lindsay Silsby, Yasmine Kataw, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Amina is from Aleppo, where she was a math teacher. She is married with four boys. Her family fled to Turkey from Syria after losing their home in the war. Amina and her youngest son then sailed on an inflatable boat to Greece. Using cars, buses, and trains, they traveled from Greece to Macedonia, then on through Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria before finally arriving in Germany. They stayed for two months in Camp Hamburg before being transferred for a short time to Lemberg. Lemberg was followed by another camp for three and a half months and then to Eisenberg …

Bahram & Camila, Bahram, Camila, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Bahram tells the story of the Afghanistan's 1992 government collapse and subsequent civil wars that destroyed the city of Kabul. "There was war in every alley, every house, every area and every village. 60,000 people were killed." Their family emigrated to Pakistan and after living there for some time, some relatives of a friend from their village travelled to Pakistan and required lodging so they stayed with Bahram's family. In some developing and under-developed countries, the custom of arranged marriage to child and infant daughters is practiced. These house guests demanded their one-year-old daughter be given in marriage to a …

Mina And Gulyar, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Mina:

Mina was the second polygamous wife to her husband in Afghanistan. After her husband’s death 16 years ago, her husband’s first wife and children took all the husband’s belongings as their own, including the house and land. Forced to find another place to live, Mina and her sons fled to Pakistan, where they lived until returning to Afghanistan to ask for their share of Mina’s husband’s property. In response, both Mina and her children were beaten, resulting in the death of her oldest son. Mina and her younger son, Gulyar, escaped, and as Gulyar hid, Mina buried her older …

Lima And Hanif, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

In Afghanistan, Lima worked as a teacher, and her husband worked (and continues to work) for the government as an agricultural manager. She has a fourteen-year-old son who is deaf and has related speech problems; he could not be treated for them properly in Afghanistan. Because her uncle was very wealthy, Lima received daily threats that her son would be kidnapped and held for ransom. Her uncle went to Germany with his own children and her son to protect them from the kidnapping threats.

Although Lima’s son was safer in Germany, she still faced threats because of her work as …

Sondage Autour De L’Exposition Internationale Pour La Palestine De 1978, Nasser Soumi

Artl@s Bulletin

En 1978, une Exposition Internationale pour la Palestine se tint à Beyrouth dans le but d’exposer les œuvres d’artistes internationaux solidaires du peuple palestinien, dans un quartier contrôlé par les Palestiniens et fréquenté par des militants libanais et arabes pro-Palestiniens. Lors de l’exposition, Nasser Soumi réalisa un sondage auprès du public palestino-libanais. A cette époque, son travail artistique ne correspondait pas à l’art révolutionnaire pratiqué par la majorité des artistes palestiniens. Sa préoccupation était la problématique existentielle de l’être humain—y compris celle des Palestiniens. Au-delà du public, il s’agissait donc à travers ce sondage de mieux se comprendre lui-même.

Past Disquiet: From Research To Exhibition, Kristine Khouri, Rasha Salti

Artl@s Bulletin

An exhibition of an exceptional scale and scope took place in Beirut in the middle of the civil war and today, its archival and documentary traces have been almost entirely lost. The International Art Exhibition for Palestine opened in the Spring of 1978, comprising some 200 works donated by artists hailing from nearly 30 countries, to be a seed collection for a museum in exile. This is a transcript of a presentation of the transformation of research into an exhibition format and a virtual walkthrough of the show Past Disquiet: Narratives and Ghosts from the International Art Exhibition for Palestine, …

More Than One Way To Measure: Masculinity In The Zurkaneh Of Safavid Iran, Zachary T. Smith

The Hilltop Review

The zurkhaneh of early modern Safavid Iran was an institution where men undertook physical training, in some ways reminiscent of a modern-day gymn. This paper attempts to theorize the zurkhaneh as a public space in which primarily non-elite men participated in the social economy of early modern Safavid Iran based upon their pursuit of the ideal of javanmardi, or young manliness. To accomplish this, this paper will combine the themes of publicity, the social utility of the body, and the authority of textuality with an examination of the physical culture of the zurkhaneh to theorize the utility, representation, and …

Towards A Theory Of Displacement Atrocities: The Cherokee Trail Of Tears, The Herero Genocide, And The Pontic Greek Genocide, Andrew R. Basso

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article examines how displacement is used as a tool of atrocity perpetration and offers initial observations that will be used to create a future typology of Displacement Atrocities. Perpetrators' uses of forced population displacement coupled with systematic deprivations of vital daily needs (i.e., food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical care) combine to kill targeted victims through primarily indirect methods. A preliminary theoretical framework of Displacement Atrocities is offered and the critical elements that comprise this crime are explored. I argue that the Displacement Atrocity crime is a new way of understanding lethal forced population displacement. This theoretical framework is …

Book Review: Social Relations In Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870–1915, Taner Akcam

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915 offers new, microhistoric and non-nationalist perspectives on the late 19th century history of the province of Diyarbekir. Focusing on a period dominated by violent conflicts between the authorities and various local elites and population groups of the region – urban Muslims, Kurds, Armenians, Syrian Christians and others – this book offers new insights into the social history of the region and the origins of the Armenian and Kurdish "Questions", which were to gain such prominence in the 20th century. This book is one of the important sources to understand the Armenian Genocide in the …

The World Of Elagabalus, Jay Carriker

History Theses

After his assassination in 222 the Roman Emperor Elagabalus served as Rome's whipping boy--an embodiment of all the vices that led to the decline and fall of Rome; but through placing his policies in the context of a a Julio-Severan Dynasty, the religious boundaries that he disregarded reveal a Varian Moment as a critical period in the Easternization of Roman religion which makes him one of the the most significant figures in Roman history.

The Current State Of Access To Basic Education For Syrian Refugee Children Living In The Za’Atari Camp, Theresa L. Frey

Capstone Collection

Using Rodman’s (2006) International Education Analytical Inquiry Matrix as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this study is to examine the current state of access to basic primary education for Syrian Refugee Children Living in the Za’atari camp. Within the scope of this study, access is examined in three parts, including:

(1) Who is accessing education within Za’atari and who is not?

(2) How are certain groups accessing education?

(3) What is the learning environment of Za’atari?

In addition to addressing existing issues of access to basic education in Za’atari, this study examines efforts made towards increasing access. By examining …

Rising Tide In The Gulf: The First Gulf War And Its Impact Upon Chinese Strategy, Patrick Griffo

Undergraduate Theses

Observing Chinese foreign policy means looking through a clouded lens. A foggy image can be made out, yet specific details are left undefined. The Chinese reaction to the 1990s First Gulf War is a case in point. The perspective is opaque, yet we can still gather an understanding of important changes in China’s policies. The author provides insights not only into China’s foreign and military policy but also on Chinese-Arab relations. In analyzing China’s reaction to the war, we can see it was indeed a transformative period for China’s strategy in the Arab world. China reacted to the Gulf War …

In Search Of Askia Mohammed: The Epic Of Askia Mohammed As Cultural History And Songhay Foundational Myth, Joe Wilson

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis offers a detailed historical analysis of The Epic of Askia Mohammed, a foundational myth that ranks among the more well-known global tales of cultural heroes and state formation. The sudden regime change that resulted in the collapse of the Songhay Sunni dynasty and the ascent of the Songhay Askia dynasty in 1492-93 is one of the most important events in West African history. This swift rebellion reversed decades of destructive economic and religious policies. As such, the memory of these dynamic and transformative times was captured by the griots, the oral historians of the Sudan. Nouhou Malio, …

Restoring Voice To The Mute Clay: Sumer And The Magoffin Collection Cuneiform Tablets, Benjamin Robertson

Graduate Theses

This thesis contains a history of Sumer from the earliest known periods through the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, a detailed investigation into the lives and careers of Sumerian scribes, a history of modern Mesopotamian archaeology, and the results of eighteen months' research into the cuneiform tablet component of the Magoffin Collection at the Columbia Museum of Art. It finds that the latter documents are Sumerian in origin, with most published during the late twenty-first and early twentieth centuries BCE, based on assessments from cuneiform specialists at institutions across the United States. It includes the first full translation …