By Golnaz Esfandiari and Hamid Fatemi | – ( RFE/RL ) – Nationwide antiestablishment protests have raged across the Islamic republic since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died on September 16 shortly after she was arrested for allegedly violating the hijab law on women’s dress. As the authorities have waged a […]
Archives for November 2022
Iranian Women’s Demands for Freedom Must Be Heard
By Rothna Begum, Senior Researcher, Women’s Rights Division | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – The current protests gripping Iran show no signs of abating. More than forty days since the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini–who died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for breach of the country’s strict dress code–the […]
Musk’s Twitter won’t Label as False the Whopper that Iran has Sentenced 15,000 Protesters to Die (It is so far 2)
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Maria Ramirez Uribe at Politifact explains that a wildly inaccurate Instagram post alleging that Iran’s parliament had sentenced 15,000 arrested demonstrators to death went viral. The allegation of 15,000 on death row was shared by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other prominent figures and then went viral on Twitter. […]
8 billion people: Four Ways Climate Change and Population Growth combine to threaten Public Health, with Global Consequences
By Maureen Lichtveld, University of Pittsburgh | – There are questions that worry me profoundly as a population- and environmental-health scientist. Will we have enough food for a growing global population? How will we take care of more people in the next pandemic? What will heat do to millions with hypertension? Will countries wage water […]
Case Western Reserve U’s President Confuses Criticism of Israeli Occupation Policies with anti-Semitism: CAF MESA
Middle East Studies Association of North America | Committee on Academic Freedom Committee on Academic Freedom 15 November 2022 Eric W. Kaler President, Case Western Reserve University 10900 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44106 president@case.edu Dear President Kaler: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on […]
Deaf to History’s Questions: A Tale of Two Elizabeths, One Joe, One Donald, and Us
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Britons mourned the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II, and understandably so. The outpouring of affection for their long-serving monarch was more than commendable, it was touching. Yet count me among those mystified that so many Americans also professed to care. With all due respect to Queen Latifah, we decided way […]
DOJ finally orders FBI to Investigate Israeli Killing of US Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh; Israel Sniffs: Will not Cooperate
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AP reports that the Department of Justice gave the Federal Bureau of Investigation the charge of investigating the Israeli killing of the enormously influential Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh six months ago, on May 11. Minister of Defense Benny Gantz tweeted that Israel would not cooperate with the FBI and […]
The Veil in Iran has been an enduring Symbol of Patriarchal Norms – but its Use has Changed depending on Who is in Power
By Amy Motlagh, University of California, Davis | – In images of the uprising that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, 2022, perhaps the most iconic ones, aside from that of Amini herself, are those of unveiled Iranian women photographed from behind, facing police barricades or raising a fist at the […]
Palestinians and Native Americans are both the Oppressed Indigenous Peoples of their Lands
( Middle East Monitor ) – At a recent conference in Istanbul that brought many Palestinian scholars and activists together to discuss the search for a common narrative, a member of the audience declared at the end of a brief, but fiery intervention, “We are not Red Indians”. The reference was a relatively old one. […]