Middle East Monitor Conversations

The internet has always been the place for free expression in Arabic and Arabs eagerly embraced the possibilities offered by the online world. However, since the Arab Spring, MENA governments have ruthlessly clamped down on the internet and used spyware, fake profiles and disinformation on social media. In 2011, people took to the streets in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Syria to demand change and for an end to corrupt rule. They did so aided with technology created in the West but the protestors innovated the digital platforms and showed the world what could be done with online content. It's often been argued social media revolutionised the Middle East, but what if it was the other way around? Join us as we speak to Laila Shereen Sakr, who is more commonly known aby her moniker VJ Um Amel, as we discuss how or if the Middle East revolutionised social media. The internet has always been the place for free expression in Arabic and Arabs eagerly embraced the possibilities offered by the online world. However, since the Arab Spring, MENA governments have ruthlessly clamped down on the internet and have utilised spyware, fake profiles and disinformation on social media. Sakr writes, develops software and produces multimodal art to theorise technology, language and the body. Author of 'Arabic Glitch: Technoculture, Data Bodies, and Archives' (Stanford University Press, 2023), Sakr is Associate Professor of Media Theory & Practice at the University of California, Santa Barbara. At UCSB, she co-founded Wireframe, a studio promoting collaborative theoretical and creative media practice with investments in global social and environmental justice. She is Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Feminist Studies, Department of Media Arts and Technology, Centre for Responsible Machine Learning, Centre for Middle East Studies and the Centre for Information Technology and Society. Over the last two decades, she has been a leading voice in the open-source movement, particularly for Arabic localisation. In 2009, she launched the R-Shief media system that went on to archive over 70 billion social media posts in 72 languages and developed software to analyse multi-dimensional data. She is Co-Editor for the open-access journal Media Theory, and for After Video published by Open Humanities Press. She is also an editorial board member of Punctum Books. 

Much of the Middle East's archaeological treasures are battling man-made climate change, over-development, wars and receding coastlines, but there are those who are working to save them.Gaza's heritage is being lost to the sea. Oman's ancient cities are taking a beating from cyclones. Archaeological treasures across the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East are battling man-made climate change, over-development, wars and receding coastlines. The preservation of heritage sites needs urgent support from local communities and working with the people of the region is what archaeologists are seeking to do. Join us as we speak to UK-based Cypriot marine archaeologist Dr Georgia Andreou about working on the Gaza Maritime Project, which aims to monitor the deterioration of Gaza's heritage sites and find solutions, and the impact cyclones are having on Oman's ancient sites. Georgia is an associate lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at UCL. She is also a senior researcher at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton. Her research combines archaeology with data science to examine the impact of natural and cultural processes on coastal archaeological sites in the Middle East. Her book project titled 'Critical Heritage Under Water' explores the potential, but also the ethical challenges of big dataset analyses in the context of maritime archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The international humanitarian body UNRWA was created to support Palestine refugees functioned as a surrogate state, however Palestinian refugees have continued to demand their political rights while resisting the UN’s categorisation of their plight as an apolitical humanitarian issue. Join us as we speak to Dr Anne Irfan about her book 'Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the international refugee system' to discover how engagement with world politics was driven as much by the refugee grassroots as by the upper echelons of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), making refugee groups important actors in global politics, not simply aid recipients.Dr Irfan is a historian of the modern Middle East, specialising in migration and socio-political history in Palestine and the Levant. She has a BA (Hons) from Oxford University and a Dual MA/MSc in International History from Columbia University and the LSE. Irfan won the 2017 Ibrahim Dakkak Award for Best Essay on Jerusalem for her work, 'Is Jerusalem international or Palestinian? Rethinking UNGA Resolution 181'. She has also spoken in the UK Parliament and at the UN Headquarters in New York about the situation of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.She was awarded a PhD in International History in January 2019 and taught in the department as a Graduate Teaching Assistant until June 2019.She is currently a Departmental Lecturer at the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University.

Ali Pasha revolutionised nineteenth century Egypt, but was a violent and controversial figure In 1805, an illiterate Turkish-speaking Greek-born military officer, Muhammad Ali Pasha, became governor of Egypt. He reigned for 43-years and by the time of his death in 1848 Egypt was a profoundly different place. Hospitals, schools, law courts, factories and many new institutions sprang up. Muhammad Ali Pasha, who often likened himself to Napoleon and Alexander the Great, was also brutal. In 1811, he invited the heads of Egypt's military aristocratic elite, the Mamluks, to celebrations at the Cairo Citadel, where Ali's troops gunned them down. MEMO speaks to historian Khaled Fahmy to help us understand this violent, controversial and enigmatic man and his impact on Egypt. Fahmy is Edward Keller Professor of North Africa and the Middle East at Tufts University. Educated at the American University in Cairo and the University of Oxford, and having taught at Princeton, NYU, Columbia, Harvard and Cambridge Universities, he is a historian of the modern Middle East with specific emphasis on nineteenth century Egypt. His books and articles deal with the history of the Egyptian army in the first half of the nineteenth century, as well as the history of medicine, law and urban planning. Through working on such topics as conscription, vaccination, quarantines, forensic medicine and legal torture, he charts the specific ways in which a modern state was established in Egypt and the manner in which Egyptians accommodated, subverted or resisted the institutions of this modern state.In addition to his academic publications, which have appeared in both English and Arabic, Fahmy uses his social media platforms to share ideas about his new academic project: a military, social and cultural history of the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Middle East and North Africa are facing rising temperatures almost twice as quickly as the rest of the world, but how is climate changing impacting policy in the region?Dr Mohammed MahmoudDirector of the Climate and Water Program, Middle East InstituteJoin us for a conversation with climate change expert Dr Mohammed Mahmoud as we discuss the impact of water shortages on the Middle East and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)'s effect on Egypt's water supply and COP28 being hosted in the UAE.Mohammed is the Director of the Climate and Water Program and a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. His areas of expertise include climate change adaptation, water policy analysis and scenario planning.He has conducted water management research and work for the Middle East and North Africa region; most extensively on the Nile River Basin. His research on the Nile River Basin focused on the development of water resources in the Basin, analysis of Nile water- sharing agreements and solutions for current and future challenges in the Nile River Basin.Mohammed has held a number of leadership positions, most recently as Chair of the Water Utility Climate Alliance; a coalition of 12 of the nation’s largest water utilities that collectively provide water to over 50 million people in the United States, with the purpose of providing leadership and collaboration on climate change issues that affect water agencies. Prior to that Mohammed was President of the North American Weather Modification Council; an organization dedicated to advancing research and development activities that increase the scientific knowledge and proper use of weather modification applications.He has provided numerous subject matter interviews in press, radio and video media on climate-associated topics such as regional climate change impacts, water resources management, extreme heat, droughts and the food-water-energy nexus.Mohammed holds a BSc and MSc in Civil Engineering from Michigan Technological University, and a PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources from the University of Arizona. 

Shlaim recalls a time when indigenous Jews resided in Muslim-majority lands harmoniously alongside their Muslim and Christian neighbours and how Israel worked to destabilise their ties Born in Iraq, Avi Shlaim spoke Arabic at home and says he had more in common with his Arab compatriots than his coreligionists from Eastern Europe, but Israel won't allow people to believe Arab Jews lived safely in the Middle East, he says. Join us as we speak to Professor Shlaim about his new book 'Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew' and how he uncovered proof that Israel was behind bombings in Baghdad that led to the mass exodus of Jews from Iraq.Avi Shlaim is an Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and fellow of the British Academy. His main research interest is the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has authored numerous books, including 'The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World', 'The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948' and 'The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Origins and Consequences'.Professor Shlaim is a frequent contributor to newspapers and commentator on radio and television on Middle Eastern affairs.

here is a drive to have the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism used by all political parties and civil society groups, but its use is silencing debate on human rights abuses committed by Israel against Palestinians. Join us for a conversation with Giovanni Fassina as we discuss how the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is increasingly being used to suppress advocacy for Palestinian rights. Fassina serves as Programme Director of the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) and oversees the legal team and the strategic litigation cases at the ELSC. Previously, he trained as a lawyer in Italy, specialising in cases related to mass torts litigation, Business and Human Rights and civil liability before domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights. Giovanni graduated in International Law from the University of Trento and worked for many years in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the development sector.

Using Afghanistan, Palestine-Israel and Kashmir as case studies we'll discuss how Islamic law is often misconstrued and mis-represented in the media Join us for a conversation with Kaleem Hussein as we discuss his book 'Peace and Reconciliation in International and Islamic Law' and how the sources of international law and Islamic Law help or hinder the pathway towards peace and reconciliation in selected conflicts.Focusing on Afghanistan, Palestine-Israel and Kashmir, we will discuss how the depiction, interpretation and understanding of Islamic law is often misconstrued and mis-represented across many mainstream media platforms. While also looking at the role of religion and faith in the process of conflict resolution, de-escalation of violence, conflict transformation, as well as creative non-violent contributions that can be inculcated through the prism of interfaith and intra-faith dialogue in the peacebuilding process. Hussain is a British writer, multi-disciplinary change management consultant and geo-political observer with an interest in the intersection of religion in public life, politics and international relations as well as programmes and initiatives fostering peaceful coexistence and reconciliation at a national and international level. He is an Honorary Fellow at the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham, and at the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (Muslim Heritage). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Global Diplomatic Forum Alumnus, and a Risk Assistance Network Exchange (RANE) Analyst. He completed his LLB Law (Honours), LLM in International Economic Law at the University of Warwick and a PDLGM at Warwick Business School.

While Rumi is an internationally renowned poet, his ties to Islam are often forgotten or ignored, one man is working to change thatThe 13th century Islamic jurist and mystic Jalal Al-Din Muhammad Rumi is frequently dubbed 'America's best selling poet' and 800 years after his death he has acquired a large following among wellness influencers and spirituality shoppers in the West. However, translations into English of Rumi's work often obscure or erase his Islamic background and Muslim beliefs, instead depicting him as an anti-religion and pro-spiritual figure. These erroneous depictions have sparked a conversation about who the real Rumi was and what his poetry really says. Join us as we speak to Muhammad Ali Mojaradi, founder of the Instagram and Twitter page Persian Poetics, which aims to provide authentic translations of Persian poetry into English, introducing new audiences to Persian-language literary tradition and heritage. We discuss the difficulty of translation, what Rumi means to different people and how living in the diaspora can lead to a loss of connection to the country of origins. Mojaradi graduated from the University of Michigan in 2020 and founded the #rumiwasmuslim campaign to challenge fake quotes attributed to Rumi.