Middle East Centre

Dr Abbas Kadhim (Atlantic Council) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre seminar series, charied by Toby Matthiesen (St Antony's College). Dr. Abbas Kadhim leads the Atlantic Council Iraq Initiative. He is an Iraq expert and author of Reclaiming Iraq: The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State. He earned a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. The subject of his dissertation was Shia political theology in Baghdad in the 5th A.H./11th C.E. century. Most recently, he was a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He was formerly an assistant professor of Islamic and Middle East studies at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and a visiting assistant professor at Stanford University. He also previously held a senior government affairs position at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, DC. His books include Governance in the Middle East and North Africa and The Hawza Under Siege: Studies in the Ba’th Party Archive.

Relli Shechter (St Antony’s College) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre, on 29th January 2019. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Egypt experienced swift economic growth-the result of a regional oil boom. Oddly, this economic growth hardly registered in Egyptian public discourse, which continuously claimed that the country was experiencing multiple economic crises that became social and cultural crises, as well. In my lecture, and based on a recently published book, I investigate this discrepancy. I document the massive socio-economic mobility in Egypt by analysing relevant statistical data and ethnographic evidence, indicating the changes in the employment structure and the spread of mass consumption. I later examine a wide array of cultural resources, such as Egyptian academic writing, the press, the cinema and the literature, in which critics lamented 'what went wrong' in Egypt. The narrative suggested here offers a local version of a wider, Middle Eastern and international story-the global formation of middle-class societies, whose members strive for respectable lives with only partial success.

Zep Kalb (UCLA) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre. Chaired by Yassamine Mather.

Dr Imane Chaara (QEH Oxford), Dr Doris Gray (Al Akhawayn University), Dr Nadia Sonneveld (Radboud University) take part in a discussion at the Middle East Studies centre. Chair by Michael Willis (St Antony's College). About the speakers: Dr. Imane Chaara (QEH Oxford) Title: Moroccan Mothers' Religiosity. Impact on Daughters' Education Abstract: The participation of mothers in decisions within their household has non-neutral effects and in many instances positive impacts, especially on children’s health and education. In this chapter, I focus on the participation of women in decisions concerning girls’ education, and I investigate whether mothers’ religiosity could be related to their involvement in education decisions. By analysing data I collected in Morocco in 2008, I found a positive and significant correlation between the intensity of religious practice of the mothers and their participation in decisions concerning their daughters’ education. This result is driven by women with limited or no formal education, which suggests that religion acts as a factor that compensates for the lack of education. I use qualitative information to explore one potential mechanism and question whether religion could play the same role as education regarding consciousness-raising about the importance of children’s education and self-valuation of women with respect to their capacity to play a key role within their household. I argue that, in the context of Morocco, the existence of a religious movement that is socially influential may drive the empirical results. Dr Imane Chaara is a micro-economist and Research Associate at the Oxford Department of International Development, where she was Departmental Lecturer in Development Economics between October 2012 and September 2017. Her research focuses on institutional transformations in developing countries, legal reforms and the change of social norms, access to justice and rule of law, gender issues and women’s rights, as well as intra-household decision-making. Her research investigates, among others, the role of legal reforms in confronting unfair customs and social norms, the impact of religious identity on people’s behaviour, and the interplay between justice systems (state formal and customary institutions). More recently, she contributed to the Refugee Studies Centre project “Refugee Economies” and she did research on the economic strategies developed by refugees in Eastern Africa. Her work is both theoretical and empirical, mostly using first-hand original data. Dr. Doris H. Gray Title: Women and Social Change in North Africa: What Counts as Revolutionary? Abstract: This presentation asks what social change – in women’s rights, religion, migration, and law – is, and when it counts as revolutionary. We argue that a highly contextual approach is needed to capture changes that are not always immediately visible, but which nevertheless contribute to human development. We discuss the cross-cultural collaboration that resulted in this book and present one chapter that illustrates the point of social change where least expected: “Moroccan Mother's Religiosity: Impact on Daughter's Education.” Dr. Doris H. Gray directs the Hillary Clinton Center for Women’s Empowerment at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco where she also serves as Associate Professor of Gender Studies. Her latest publication with the International Center of Transitional Justice in New York is entitled “Who hears my voice today? Indirect Women Victims in Tunisia.” She has published three books: “Women and Social Change in North Africa: What counts as Revolutionary?”, “Beyond Feminism and Islamism: Gender and Equality in North Africa” and “Muslim Women on the Move: Moroccan Women and French Women of Moroccan Origin Speak Out”. Before becoming an Academic, she worked as a journalist, 12 years as foreign correspondent first in South Africa and then Kenya. Dr. Nadia Sonneveld Title: Women and Social Change in North Africa: What is Social Change? Abstract: This presentation asks what social change – in women’s rights, religion, migration, and law – is, and when it counts as revolutionary. We argue that a highly contextual approach is needed to capture changes that are not always immediately visible, but which nevertheless contribute to human development. Dr. Nadia Sonneveld has an academic background in anthropology, Arabic, and law. She is affiliated to the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance, and Society, Leiden University, the Netherlands. The common factor in all her research activities is the focus on gender and law in Muslim-majority countries, particularly in Egypt and Morocco. In her new research project (“Living on the Other Side: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Migration and Family Law”) she focuses on the rights of migrants in Morocco, and North Africa, both in the books and in practice. Previously, she was a guest scholar at the School of Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London, and Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. She authored Khul‘ Divorce in Egypt: Public Debates, Judicial Practices, and Everyday Life (2012), and has co-authored Women Judges in the Muslim World: A Comparative Study of Discourse and Practice, with Monika Lindbekk (2017) and Women and Social Change in North Africa: What Counts as Revolutionary?, with Doris Gray (2018).

The seminar will consider the Iraq Inquiry’s origins, terms of reference, mode of operation, and issues which arose in the course of its work, in framing its conclusions, and on its publication and reception.

Nick Westcott (Director Royal African Society and Associate at SOAS) gives a talk for the Middle East Studies Centre on 1st February 2019. Chaired by Eugene Rogan (St Antony's College). Since the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2011 and the European Union pledged to reinforce its foreign policy cooperation, it has struggled to articulate and implement a policy on the Middle East which effectively protects and furthers its interests in the region. It responded swiftly but not very successfully to the Arab Spring; it played a supporting role in the fight against Islamic terrorism, and championed the Iran nuclear deal; but otherwise became a bystander in the growing conflicts in the region; it tried hard to maintain stability and add some momentum in the Israel-Palestine peace process; but it became increasingly obsessed after 2015 with the challenge of migration from and through the region. The paper assesses why it has struggled to formulate a policy, what it has managed to achieve nonetheless, how national and European policies have interacted, why it is increasingly important for the EU to have a coherent policy on the region, and makes proposals for what that policy should be and how it could be made effective.

Joost Hiltermann (International Crisis Group), gives a talk for the Middle East Centre Friday Seminar Series on 25th January 2019. Professor Eugene Rogan chairs. In many places in the Middle East, and in various ways, the region’s people continue to thrive: in business, art, music and other fields. Yet Middle Eastern states are undergoing a profound social and political transformation in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings and the civil wars these sprouted. The region has seen the collapse of state systems and, in some cases, the return of inherently brittle 'fierce' states, while others are merely trying to stay afloat. Never coherent as a cultural, much less a political, entity, the region is coming apart at the seams. External actors, in Europe and elsewhere, are substantially affected by what is happening. But is there a role for these actors in halting and even reversing the downward slide, given the enormity of the challenge and a history of destructive external intervention? And if so, how should they go about doing so?

Karl Sharro (architect, satirist and Middle East commentator), gives a seminar for the Middle East Studies Centre. Chaired by Walter Armbrust (St Antony's College). The Middle East is the mysterious land of veils, minarets and Orientalist cliches. Karl Sharro, aka Karl reMarks, talks about his seven year journey of satirising how his enchanted native land is represented in Western media and punditry. From the Arab Spring to the rise and decline of ISIS, Sharro discusses how his online alter ego tackled those delicate topics in tweets, blog posts, memes, animations and badly-drawn cartoons. From a more realistic James Bond movie that depicts him delivering a shipment of tear gas to a repressive regime to his 'one sentence explanation of the rise of ISIS', the talk will cover an eclectic range of subject matter. It closes with Sharro's Occidentalist work, as he returns the favour to the West in the aftermath of Brexit and Trump. The talk is titled after his recent book which was published in July by Saqi Books in London.

Panel discussion with Harith Hasan (Central European University), Hayder al-Khoei (University of Exeter), Renad Mansour (Chatham House) and chaired by Toby Matthiesen (St Antony's College).

Dr Kamiar Alaei (Co-president, Institute for International Health and Education), gives a talk for the Middle East Studies Centre. Chaired by Dr Nazila Ghanea (Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law, Department for Continuing Education). Dr Kamiar Alaei's academic, medical and international public health project work has all navigated the art of advancing health (and later, also educational) concerns in conservative settings. When patients are condemned for having certain conditions in societies in which they are stigmatised, how can a step-by-step medical and humanitarian approach help in advancing responses and conditions? The record of Kamiar and Arash’s research and practice illustrates dramatic official u-turns in the provision of services for patients living with HIV/AIDS, STIs and IDUs in Iran and beyond. They broke down intransigent resistance in acknowledging the existence of such patients from government authorities, religious authorities and the wider public. This pioneering methodology that they have utilised is one that crafts a pragmatic way forward from the conservative realities on the ground towards internationally agreed human rights standards. As such, its implications go beyond the experience they themselves have gained and documented in Iran, the Middle East and Central Asia, and can be applied in relation to other cultural obstacles to the advancement of health for disadvantaged populations in different contexts. This paper will both outline that record and share academic work in progress regarding the provision of related health services for women in a number of Middle Eastern contexts.