active arab voices

النقد المرتحل: مناهضة الإمبريالية، والجندر، والخطابات الحقوقية

تشتبك هذه المقالة مع مدرسة النسوية المناهضة للإمبريالية في نقدها للخطابات الحقوقية، وبالتحديد حينما يستخدم منهج نقد الامبريالية كعدسة نظرية لفهم أو تقييم حركات حقوق المرأة، أو الحملات المرتبطة بالجندر طلبًا للعدالة في سياقات غير ديمقراطية. تذهب المقالة الى أن النقد المناهض للإمبريالية عالق بين ثنائية العالمية في مقابل النسبية الثقافية، وإلى كيف أنّ "الارتحال" إلى سياق آخر يمكّن عملية جديدة من خلالها يتم استيعاب النظرية أو المفهوم، فتنبثق معانٍ جديدة تتلاءم مع السياق الجديد؛ بالإضافة الى أنه في كثير من الحالات، لم تنتبه النسوية المناهضة للإمبريالية إلى البعد الجيوسياسي للنقد، أي أنّ معاني وعواقب النقد يمكن أن تكون مختلفة بشكل جذري في سياقات مختلفة وعلى خلفية علاقات قوة مختلفة

Traveling Critique: Anti-imperialism, Gender and Rights Discourses

The article engages with the feminist anti-imperialist critique of rights discourses, particularly when used as a theoretical lens to understand or evaluate women’s rights movements, or gender related campaigns for justice in non-democratic settings. It argues that the anti-imperialist critique is caught up in a locked binary of universalism versus cultural relativism; that the anti-imperialist critics disregard the insights gained from Edward Said’s important intervention about “Traveling Theory”, and how “travel” to another context enables a new process whereby the theory or concept is assimilated and new meanings emerge that are attuned to the new context; and that in many cases, the feminist anti-imperialist has not been attentive to the geopolitics of critique, i.e. that meanings and consequences of critique can be radically different in different contexts and against very different power relations.

SUDAN SPECIAL

The Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship has compiled a list of readings on the uprising that Sudan has been witnessing.
Click on the button below to access our reading picks

sudan special

To engage or not engage?
Libyan Salafis and state institutions

This research brief looks at the way in which the quietist Salafis have evolved to gain such a strong position in Libya, assessing their behaviour in four distinct periods. It contrasts this behaviour with other Salafi trends in Libya, particularly the political Salafism associated with certain former leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). It argues that Libyan Salafis have adapted and renegotiated ideologies in the changing political context after 2011.

Political activists or violent fans? Understanding the Moroccan Ultras perspective through social media
discourse analysis

This paper examines the origins, traditions, reasons behind rapid numbers expansion, and violent tendencies of organized groups of young football fans called Ultras. It also sheds the light on Al Raja Ultra groups, the first Moroccan Ultras groups and the most violent who started emerging in Casablanca in 2005, and since then thrived and diversified, not only in Casablanca but in Morocco as a whole.

The Mubarak Regime and
Maslow's Need Deficit Theory:
An Approach to Understanding
the Protest at Tahrir Square

The paper deals with the downfall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Any significant development always invites many interpretations and perspectives. This paper draws from the theoretical paradigm of the 'Need Hierarchy' theory propagated by Abraham Maslow and contextualizes it in the political and the economic spectrum of Egypt. The paper is divided into four sections: the theory of 'need hierarchy' propagated by Abraham Maslow; the background and situation in Egypt; the diverging relationship between the state and the felt needs of the people in Egypt and finally some findings and conclusions.

Jadaliyya Essential Readings:
Emigration from the Levant, 1870-1930:
A Primer in Mahjar Studies

Transnational news media coverage of
distant suffering in the Syrian civil war:
An analysis of CNN, Al-Jazeera English and
Sputnik online news

This study analyzed news stories published on the online sites of CNN, Al-Jazeera English, and Sputnik to investigate how the transnational news outlets framed the human suffering associated with the Syrian war.

Unlike prior studies that have tended to be based on traditional nation-state paradigms, this research approached the analysis from a cosmopolitan perspective. The findings revealed that in concert with standard journalistic routines and news values, all three news outlets commonly employed a mass death and displacement frame to depict human suffering inside Syria.

منهجيات الأرشيف البديلة: الأرشيف النسوي نموذجًا
مداخلة د. هدى الصدة

عقدت في 14-15 ديسمبر 2018 مجموعة العمل حول الممارسات النقدية التابعة للمجلس العربي للعلوم الإجتماعية "ملتقى الممارسات الأرشيفية البديلة" في بيروت. وفي سبيل توسيع النقاش ومشاركة الأفكار التي عرضت في خلال الملتقى مع شريحة أوسع من الناس، ننشر في ما يلي مداخلة الدكتورة هدى الصدة بعنوان "منهجيات الأرشيف البديلة: الأرشيف النسويّ نموذجًا" في خلال هذا المنتدى. الصدى هي إحدى مؤسسي مؤسسة المرأة والذاكرة، وترأس حاليًّا مجلس أمناء المؤسسة

The Controversial Archive:
Negotiating Horror Images in Syria

A large part of the visual content in Syria is produced by local, freelance, or citizen journalists. The victims portrayed in their photos may be friends, relatives, or people from their neighbourhood. Only a very limited part of the content makes its way to international media, while most of it is archived and circulates only on the web. In the process, often the name of the photographer and the victims disappear, and the images circulate alone. They are orphan images, images that, in the words of the photographer Muzaffar Salman, “do not have a father, a mother, or a story, or a background, nothing”.

Does It Matter That Donald Trump Endorses Arab Despots?

Read what a number of experts told Carnegie Middle East Center in their analysis of Donald Trump endorsement of Arab despots.

"People are not frightened anymore when they know that Trump supports the regime against which they are rising. This applies to Algeria, and I think also Sudan."

Refugee Governance, State and Politics
in the Middle East

Refugee Governance, State and Politics in the Middle East examines the patterns of legal, political and institutional responses to large-scale Syrian forced migration. It analyses the motivations behind neighboring countries’ policy responses, how their responses change over time and how they have an impact on regional and global cooperation. Looking in particular at Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, three of the world’s top refugee hosting countries, this book explores how refugee governance differs across countries and why they diverge.

A New Venice Declaration from a "Coalition of the Lead Donors" on Israel/Palestine

Today, the EU faces a US administration that is tearing down the last parameters of standing US policy on Israel/ Palestine. This US policy has dangerous consequences. It risks exacerbating a conflict in Europe’s direct neighborhood and undermines established international norms and international law.

فلسطين والقانون الدولي ومستقبل عادل غير معهود

تقدم المحللة السياساتية في الشبكة نورا عريقات طرحًا جديدًا في كتابها الجديد ضمن مقاربتها للقانون الدولي في الشأن الفلسطيني. تحاورت الشبكة مع نورا عريقات حول مقاربتها إزاء القانون الدولي وما تعنيه بالنسبة إلى فلس والفلسطينيين، وماهية المستقبل الممكن تخيله إذا طبقنا هذه المقاربة

Click on the Red Dot
for the event info

Upcoming:

Seminar - الفاعلية الثقافية السورية في لبنان
Conference - Asfari-Bahethat (How gender studies are taught in Arab Universities)
Panel Discussion - "Protesting Lebanon's Regime"
Workshop - TSM: Access to Public Services and Natural Resources

JUST MISSED:

Ceremony - Asfari Culture Award
Workshop - Refugee Education in Lebanon: Past, Present and Future Prospects
Movie Screening and Discussion - "No Kids Land"

Tweets by AsfariInstitute

Click HERE to access