A Bilingual Bourgeois: The Class Politics behind Morocco’s Language Debate
“Je ne connais pas l’arabe”—I don’t speak Arabic. While the former Moroccan education minister didn’t realize it at the time, these seemingly innocuous words wo...
Category: Middle East
Environmental Implications of the Belt and Road Initiative: Geopolitics and Climate Change
In his 1958 campaign speech, former United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared, “We are busily engaged in the construction of a gigantic road system ...
Allies First, Deals Second: An Analysis of the Iran Deal
From the onset of the Biden presidency, the administration has promised the American people a renewed agreement, or “Iran Deal,” to cull nuclear proliferation b...
A Precarious Situation: The Taliban’s Uyghur Dilemma
Since the Taliban’s return to power, the U.S. Federal Reserve has frozen just under $10 billion of Afghanistan’s assets. With a harsh winter about to settle in,...
An Emerging Catastrophe: Implications of Climate Change on the MENA region
In recent years, the state of countries in the Middle East and Northern African (MENA) region have painted a disturbing picture of the world ragged with em...
Religion, Culture, and Legal Reform in Saudi Arabia
The guardianship system in Saudi Arabia consisted of a set of legal norms that, until recently, restricted women’s liberties. Previously, a woman needed the con...
“Our Art is Global”: Sultan Al-Qassemi on Art and Protest in the Middle East
On February 15th, the Yale Arab Students Association hosted Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, Emirati columnist, researcher and the Founder of Barjeel Art Foundation, to...
Queer Biopolitics in Authoritarian Iran
This piece was published in the Spring Issue Print Edition (Volume 11) As photographer Laurence Rasti depicts above, queer life in Iran is fraught with tension....
The Atomic Bomb is What States Make of it: A Constructivist Approach to Sanctioning Iran
This piece was published in the Spring Issue Print Edition (Volume 11) “There is no “logic” of anarchy apart from the practices that create and inst...
Revisiting Lebanon: Dual Crises Linger Long After Beirut Explosion
On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion shook Beirut, Lebanon. Viral videos of the blast circulated around the world, triggering a global outpouring of sympathy ...