Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons^™

The Graffiti Of Mohamed Mahmoud And The Politics Of Transition In Egypt: The Transformation Of Space, Sociality And Identities, Nouran Al-Anwar El-Hawary

Theses and Dissertations

This study is concerned with the spatial transformations taking place in Mohamed Mahmoud that branches from Midan el-Tahrir; the official site of the Egyptian January 25 Revolution. Since the revolution, this street has witnessed a great deal of violence during several bloody clashes between protesters and security forces. It has also become famous for the dissenting graffiti murals wrapping the walls of it entrance. By conducting ethnography of this block of Mohamed Mahmoud Street, my study focuses on the residents and shop owners in the area, who I frame as the graffiti's ‘unintended audience,’ to understand how these spatial and …

From The Forefront To The Sidelines: Youth In Post-Revolution Egypt, Khadiga Omar

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the reasons for the declining role of youth as effective political players since the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. Particularly looking at the “Revolutionary Youth”, this study investigates why their activism over the course of the past four years could not translate into political power that would lead to the realization of the goals of the revolution. Resource Mobilization Theory, Political Opportunity Structure and Framing constitute a tri-lens through which the political experience of the youth is analyzed in this research. This thesis argues that a) the youth’s organizational dilemma; b) their reliance on protest as the exclusive …

The Art Of Lebanese Verbal Dueling: The Battle Of Beit Mery And Beyond, Paula Marie Haydar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the living and vibrant oral tradition of verbal dueling in Lebanon, also known as Lebanese zajal. The introductory chapter explores the historical, sociolinguistic, and musical-metrical roots of today's Lebanese zajal contests and festivals, which feature teams of up to four poets who compete against each other in improvised, sung verse in colloquial Lebanese, carrying a sort of dialogue within which they argue opposing sides of universal themes and topics of current social interest. Though time, tradition, and culture in the Lebanese mountainside have nurtured the development of sung oral poetry into its current form and status …

The State And Civil Society In The Arab Middle East, Stacey E. Pollard

Dissertations

While the notion that civil society organizations can democratize authoritarian regimes from below has become an article of faith among many policy makers and democracy promoters, some area experts warn that practitioners and advocates should not overestimate civil society's democratizing role. This dissertation challenges a large body of scholarship on civil society by arguing that while civil society may constitute a democratic force in any given polity it may also be comprised of less democratic, even radically undemocratic forces as well. Therefore, commensurate with the research yielding that finding, this project argues that on an account of the nature of …

Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Impediments And Challenges In The Process Of Sustainable Reconstruction And Development In Post-2014 Afghanistan, Mohammad Ilyas Payab

Open Access Theses

Armed conflicts have left numerous marks on the history of mankind and still continue to do so. They have resulted in considerable damage to the social and physical fabric of the society. Millions of people both in the past and present have been suffering from the consequences of this unfortunate man-made disaster. Yet we see a continuing trend that seems to be resistant to any change despite efforts on a global level. This study sets out to understand the nature of reconstruction and development after armed conflicts with a focus on Afghanistan. After more than a decade of expended …

Revisiting The Spiral Of Silence In A Social Media Environment: Egypt’S 2014 Presidential Election As A Case Study, Heba T. Saleh Elshahed

Theses and Dissertations

With the advent of the Internet and anonymous features of online media, users have established novel platforms to voice their opinion freely without fear of negative feedback. This thesis explores the application of a long-standing public opinion theory– the spiral of silence by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann–within the prevalent Social Networking Sites (SNS), particularly Facebook. When applying spiral of silence to online mediated environment, it seems intuitive that the lack of verbal cues and anonymity offered would serve to undermine the fear of isolation and restlessness that results in unwillingness to express minority views. This research contributes to understanding how the spiral …

Countering Radicalization And Recruitment To Al-Qaeda: Fighting The War Of Deeds, Paul Kamolnick

ETSU Authors Bookshelf

This Letort Paper proposes that actions, policies, and deeds—those of the U.S. Government and al-Qaeda—be leveraged as a means of delegitimizing al-Qaeda terrorist propaganda. Two chief fronts—changing deeds and challenging deeds—is proposed. Changing deeds requires that the United States carefully and systematically examine its own foreign and military policies and their specific consequences for the Arab and Muslim world. Challenging deeds comprises systematically countering with evidence and fact al-Qaeda’s two greatest propagandistic fabrications: that the United States is a crusader at war with Islam, and that al-Qaeda is the vanguard defender of a besieged and oppressed Muslim Umma. Provocative at …

Human Diversity In Jordan: Polymorphic Alu Insertions In General Jordanian And Bedouin Groups, Daniela Zanetti, May Sadiq, Robert Carreras-Torres, Omar Khabour, Almuthanna Alkaraki, Esther Esteban, Marc Via, Pedro Moral

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Jordan, located in the Levant region, is a crucial area to investigate human migration between Africa and Eurasia. Even thought, the genetic history of Jordanians is far to be clarified including the origin of the Bedouins today resident in Jordan. Here, we provide new genetic data on autosomal independent markers in two Jordanian population samples (Bedouins and general population) in order to approach the genetic diversity inside this country and to give new information about the genetic position of these populations in the frame of the Mediterranean and Middle East area. The analyzed markers are 18 Alu polymorphic insertions characterized …

On Self-Declared Caliph Ibrahim’S May 2015 Message To Muslims: Key Problems Of Motivation, Marginalization, Illogic, And Empirical Delusion In The Caliphate Project, Paul Kamolnick

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: On May 14, 2015 a 34-minute audio message was released by the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s media arm al-Furqan.

The Moroccan Women's Rights Movement, Amy Y. Evrard

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Among various important efforts to address women’s issues in Morocco, a particular set of individuals and associations have formed around two specific goals: reforming the Moroccan Family Code and raising awareness of women’s rights. Evrard chronicles the history of the women’s rights movement, exploring the organizational structure, activities, and motivations with specific attention to questions of legal reform and family law. Employing ethnographic scrutiny, Evrard presents the stories of the individual women behind the movement and the challenges they faced. Given the vast reform of the Moroccan Family Code in 2004, and the emphasis on the role of women across …

Political Transition In A Post-Arab Spring Middle East: A Comparative Analysis Of Tunisia, Egypt, And Yemen, Dominic Martin

HIM 1990-2015

The Arab Spring that began in Tunisia and spread throughout the Middle East shook the region. These populous movements unseated authoritarian rulers whose power and position were well entrenched, potentially setting numerous countries on a path towards democratization. This project seeks to explain why the democratic transitions within the countries of Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen have been largely unsuccessful. The large amounts of literature that flooded the academic forums through articles and books are analyzed, providing numerous explanations as to why these transitions have been unsuccessful such as polarization, deadlock, sectarianism, violence, and institutional conflict. This literature focuses on either …

Living In Afghanistan On The Eve Of The Russian Invasion, Crystal Kelly

Senior Theses

In my Senior Project I intend to illustrate the differences between cultures juxtaposed with the similarity of humans from those cultures. Also, this paper will demonstrate how experience of and contact with other cultures can broaden and change one’s perspective and engender compassion and understanding. By recounting stories of my time and travels in Afghanistan in the late 1970s and my experience of the people, set against the historical backdrop of political upheaval accompanying the impending Russian invasion, I will demonstrate the beauty and wonder of a fascinating country and her people that have, sadly, been ravaged by invasion and …

"Beirut Speaks": New Graffiti Sub-Cultures Of Beirut, Lebanon, Jaime Alyss Holland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modern graffiti is an ever-present part of urban space. It has become globalized and has adapted to different environments and social contexts. Today in Beirut, Lebanon a phenomenal street art movement is infiltrating public space. This particular movement questions the common understandings that have constructed Western graffiti artists and graffiti culture for so long. A new group of street artists is working to make the art form more inclusive of Beirut's many communities by writing messages that speak to the whole of Lebanon. They are making their work known in the presence of law enforcement, different sects, and generations. How …

Politics Of Health: The 2013 Integration Policy’S Effect On Immigrant Access To Care, Amy Chang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In September of 2013, King Mohammed VI announced a regularization campaign, implementing a new policy of integration with respect to undocumented immigrants in the country. Deviating from former official discourse, the new measure allowed in principle for—among provision of residence cards and lifted criminalization of undocumented immigrants—greater immigrant access to healthcare services. The purpose of the following research was to assess whether the effects of this new provision are being positively felt on the ground in ensuring inclusivity of health services.Individual interviews on personal experiences with the Moroccan healthcare system were held with members of various immigrant sub-populations: refugees, asylum …

The Mourides Of Senegal: A Gospel Of Work, Solidarity & God, Mark Titus Hoover

Ex-Patt Magazine

Islamic religiosity is a phrase that often conjures up images of patriarchal societies, conservative, bordering repressive moral tenents, angry demonstrations, even violence. But the Mourides are different.

When In The Maghreb: The Western Tourist’S Quest For Meaningful Experiences In Post-Colonial Morocco, Erin Willahan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this paper is to shed light on why Western tourists come to Morocco and to analyze how cultural tourism developed here as an institution. In doing so, the research hopes to explore the implications of cultural tourism in Morocco with respect to modernization and imagined geographies inherited from a colonial past. Through analysis of official tourism strategies, trip packages, online reviews, interviews, and personal experiences the research will examine tourists through a sociological lens and attempt to characterize the relationship between tourist and attraction. It will find that the tourists observed tend to place a great deal …

Lactase Persistence Variants In Arabia And In The African Arabs, Edita Priehodova, Abdelhay Abdelsawy, Evelyne Heyer, Viktor Cerny

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Lactase persistence (LP), the state enabling the digestion of milk sugar in adulthood occurs only in some human populations. The convergent and independent origin of this physiological ability in Europe and Africa is linked with animal domestication that had either started in both places independently or had spread from the Near East by acculturation. However, it has recently been shown that at least in its southern parts, the population of Arabia not only has a different LP-associated mutation profile than the rest of Africa and Europe but had also experienced an independent demographic expansion occurring before the Neolithic around the …

Syria And The Olympics: National Identity On An International Stage, Andrea L. Stanton

Religious Studies: Faculty Scholarship

Since its 1946 independence, Syria has fielded a team for every summer Olympic competition except 1956, yet has won only three Olympic medals. In contrast with its smaller, higher-powered neighbor Lebanon, its participation at the Olympics has been consistent but limited, with the country making little impact internationally. Yet the history of Syria’s involvement with the Olympics reflects key elements of its political and social history: its ambitious but short-lived partnership with Egypt, the Baathist-supported promotion of women as athletes and head of the National Olympic Committee, and its commitment to participation in the vexed but ideologically important Pan-Arab Games. …

`Israel Is An Apartheid State': An Examination Of Israeli Policies In Comparison With South Africa And International Law, Geoffrey Tennent

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The situation in which the Palestinians are living, both within Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories continues to worsen with little end in sight. The exact status of the Palestinians, however, has been the subject of much debate with terms such as `disputed territories,' `occupied territories,' and even a state of apartheid being used. This study seeks to examine whether the concept of apartheid applies to Israel/Palestine. Two methods were used to define apartheid, a South Africa case study and its definition under international law. Israel's laws, policies, and practices, both in its own territory and the West Bank, Gaza, …

Sovereignty And Intervention In The Middle East: From The Fall Of The Ottoman Empire To The Arab Spring, Raslan Ibrahim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research provides an institutional explanation of the practices of external intervention in the Arab state system from the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 to the Arab Spring.

My explanation consists of two institutional variables: sovereignty and inter-state borders. I examine the changes in regional and international norms of sovereignty and their impact on the practices of external intervention in the Arab state system. I also examine the impact of the level of institutionalization of inter-state borders in the Arab World on the practices of external intervention. I argue that changes in regional and international norms of sovereignty …