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Nja Mahdaoui, Graphemes on Arches II, 2011. Ink on Arches About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) vellum paper, 200 x 140 cm. Courtesy of Nja Mahdaoui © Nja Mahdaoui Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between Volume 14 – Number 1 individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. December 2017– With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic January 2018 membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle Editorial Board East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Professor Nadje Al-Ali SOAS it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its Dr Orkideh Behrouzan programme of activities. SOAS LMEI is a Registered Charity in the UK wholly owned by SOAS, University of London (Charity Dr Hadi Enayat Registration Number: 1103017). AKU Ms Narguess Farzad SOAS Mrs Nevsal Hughes Mission Statement: Association of European Journalists Professor George Joff é Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle Cambridge University East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Dr Ceyda Karamursel SOAS those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in Ms Janet Rady London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the Janet Rady Fine Art Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is Mr Barnaby Rogerson at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education Dr Sarah Stewart and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today. SOAS Dr Shelagh Weir Independent Researcher Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College LMEI Staﬀ : SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: Coordinating Editor Megan Wang Director Dr Hassan Hakimian To subscribe to Th e Middle East in London, please visit: Listings Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/affi liation/ or contact the Vincenzo Paci Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci LMEI offi ce. Administrative Assistant Aki Elborzi Designer Letters to the Editor: Shahla Geramipour

Th e Middle East in London is published fi ve times a year by the London Middle Please send your letters to the editor at East Institute at SOAS Disclaimer: the LMEI address provided (see left panel) or email [email protected] Publisher and Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East Editorial Offi ce in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal Th e London Middle East Institute SOAS views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their University of London organisations nor those of the LMEI and the MEL's MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA Editorial Board. Although all advertising in the United Kingdom magazine is carefully vetted prior to publication, the T: +44 (0)20 7898 4330 LMEI does not accept responsibility for the accuracy E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ of claims made by advertisers. ISSN 1743-7598 Contents

4 16 EDITORIAL Womens rights in Tunisia since the 2011 uprisings 5 Zoe Petkanas INSIGHT LMEI Board of Trustees Tunisia: seven years later 18

Baroness Valerie Amos (Chair) George Joff é Legacies of neglect: reforming Director, SOAS Tunisia’s informal economy Professor Stephen Hopgood, SOAS 7 Max Gallien Dr Dina Matar, SOAS Dr Hanan Morsy TUNISIA European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Tunisia’s ballooning civil 20 Professor Scott Redford, SOAS society Photo competition results Dr Barbara Zollner Mohamed-Salah Omri Birkbeck College 22 9 BOOKS IN BRIEF Literature unchained Mohamed-Salah Omri 24 LMEI Advisory Council IN MEMORIAM 10 Javad Golmohammadi Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem Th e cultural environment in H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO post-2011 Tunisia Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait Nathanael Mannone 25 Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani Arab International Women’s Forum EVENTS IN LONDON Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa President, University College of Bahrain 12 Professor Tony Allan Beyond the ‘Revolution’: King’s College and SOAS Dr Alanoud Alsharekh authoritarian revival and elite Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS reconfi guration in Tunisia Mr Farad Azima NetScientifi c Plc Anne Wolf Dr Noel Brehony MENAS Associates Ltd. 14 Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna British Egyptian Society Al-Nahda: from preaching Mr Paul Smith Chairman, Eversheds International circles to politics Rory McCarthy

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL © Khaled Abdelmoumen, Flickr: Tunisian Revolution one year comm emoration, CC BY 2.0

DDearear RReadereader

Graﬃ ti seen during the 2011 Revolution in Tunisia. Photograph by Khaled Abdelmoumen

George Joﬀ é, MEL Editorial Board

n December 17, 2010, Tunisia in his discussion of the role played by the now play a key role despite attempts by the became the forerunner and the Union Générale des Travailleurs Tunisiens. president and Nidaa Tounes to dominate Obeacon of the Arab Awakening He then looks at the rebirth of Tunisia’s the gender agenda. with the self-immolation of Mohamed literary scene and the emergence of the Max Gallien addresses the crucial Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid and the dethroning novel in dialectical, as opposed to literary, role played by the informal sector of the of the Tunisian president, Zine El-Abidine Arabic. Th is is a theme also addressed by economy which now employs 60 per Ben Ali 28 days later. Today, seven Nathanael Mannone in his discussion of cent of working men and 83 per cent years later, Tunisia is the sole example Tunisia’s post-2011 cultural environment of working women under the age of remaining of the hopes and aspirations where he highlights the tensions that exist forty, particularly in the impoverished engendered by those events. Th is edition between state and author. south of the country, and produces more of Th e Middle East in London on Tunisia Anne Wolf describes the frustrations than one third of the country’s GDP. Its comes, therefore, at a particularly of the secular political scene and the continued dominance within the economy apposite moment in the evolution of the danger that the crisis within Nidaa is a measure of the failure of the formal political and security architecture of the Tounes – the dominant party in the economy to respond to the economic crisis region where early aspirations for radical ruling coalition – and its predilection that followed the events of 2011 and of the liberalisation have been rolled back for politicians and political actors from key role that it will play in the future. It is in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria and Tunisia’s authoritarian past represents for a feature that highlights the combination frustrated in Algeria, Morocco, Jordan and the liberalisation achieved in 2011. Rory of hope and despair that characterises the Gulf. McCarthy identifi es the role and ambitions Tunisia today and tells us much about In Insight, I provide an overview of the of Tunisia’s powerful religious movements, the immense diffi culty of achieving real current political and economic situation in particularly of al-Nahda and chronicles revolutionary change in a hostile world. Tunisia, concluding that Tunisia’s political, its transformation into a national Lastly, in this issue we announce the constitutional and social gains depend on conservative party. Zoe Petkanas examines winners of the magazine’s 2017 photo the survival of its revitalised civil society. the gains made by the woman’s movement, competition. Congratulations to our Mohamed-Salah Omri highlights the especially within the political sphere winners and thank you to all those who importance of civil society organisations where, in the National Assembly, women participated.

4 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 IINSIGHTNSIGHT Since 2011, Tunisia has been shaped by the instability in Libya, a weak economy, a toughening political environment and a growing strain of authoritarianism. But the vitality of the revolution is not completely lost. George Joﬀ é explains TTunisia:unisia: sevenseven yyearsears llaterater

Carthage Hall in the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, Tunisia. Photograph

©Walid Mahfoudh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 Commons, CC BY-SA Wikimedia Mahfoudh, ©Walid by Walid Mahfoudh

t is now almost seven years since to tourists about the dangers of travel to Th e economic conundrum Tunisia led the way in the Arab Tunisia at the end of July. Th e most immediate yet chronic IAwakening by forcing an end to the Terrorist violence now seems confi ned crisis, however, is over Tunisia’s ailing autocratic Ben Ali regime and introducing to the periphery of the state: there are economy. Most of the consequent unrest a democratic political system in its ongoing attacks in the Jebel Chaamba is centred on Tunisia’s impoverished place. It has not been an easy transition border region around Kassarine, and in southern region, at Gabes, the centre given the security crisis that Tunisia has March 2016 there was an attack by the of the phosphates industry, where faced in recent years – partly because of Islamic State (IS) on Ben Guerdane in the protests have caused losses of $2 billion the worsening chaos in neighbouring deep south, close to the Libyan border, in production since 2011, and in the Libya but also due to some apparently for example. Now IS and other extremist province of Tataouine, which contains intractable problems, both political and groups in Libya are more concerned oil and gas fi elds. Since May 2017, one economic, that the country must still with survival as the Libyan National thousand protesters have been living in a confront. Army – in reality an Eastern Libya militia makeshift camp at al-Kamour, close to a Surprisingly, given the attack on the coalition under Khalifa Haft ar – moves pumping station on a major gas pipeline, Bardo Museum in Tunis in mid-March into Tripolitania. But the threat has not demanding more jobs. 2015, the subsequent attack on tourists in entirely gone away, even if IS has been Th e government has tried to respond a beach hotel in Sousse at the end of June expelled from Sabratha; an estimated and the Prime Minister, Youssef Chahed, in the same year, and a lethal attack on the 8,000 young Tunisians are believed to off ered new infrastructure and 900 new presidential guard in Tunis the following have joined IS, mainly in Libya but also in jobs when he visited Tataouine, only November, the security situation now Syria and Iraq. to be shouted down with demands for seems to be under control. Tunisia’s 3,500 new jobs with oil companies and police and army have been re-equipped and retrained with American and British Th e most immediate yet chronic crisis help to such a degree that the British government removed its travel warning is over Tunisia’s ailing economy

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 5 Despite the growing authoritarianism in Tunisia’s formal public Islamist movement did not try to expand its ministerial presence and tolerated the life, the real vitality of the revolution remains inside civil society return to ministerial rank of two former Ben Ali personalities. $50 million in local investment. Foreign the protesters and, even worse, as a threat Th e President, however – who also companies operating in the south are to the army’s traditional neutrality in dislikes Tunisia’s mixed parliamentary- unsettled; although ENI professed political matters; rarely has the army been executive presidency system seeking unconcern, OMV removed 700 non- ordered to intervene in the domestic an executive presidency instead – essential staff , whilst Perenco halted scene – an arena normally left to the has not returned the compliment, production and Serinus Energy’s oil fi elds police. His initiative, however, highlighted describing al-Nahda in a speech in were closed down. the other great concern that Tunisians September as ‘a disappointment’ for Th e economic problems in northern now feel: what they see as a toughening not shedding its Islamist image entirely Tunisia are far less intractable; the Sahel political environment. to become a national conservative and the Tunis regions have always been party instead. He has repeatedly better developed, but the wealth they Politics – back to the future? challenged it; forcing through the generate has never seeped down to the Nidaa Tounes’s victory in Tunisia’s Administrative Reconciliation Law to south. Th e result has been that, since the legislative elections in late October 2014 rehabilitate thousands of former regime Revolution, the south has also become and its leader, Caid Essebsi’s accession administrators and businessmen, delaying the domain of the informal sector, relying to the presidency have raised a series municipal elections, yet again, from on the chaos in neighbouring Libya and of knotty questions over the country’s December to March 2018, removing the the smuggling of consumer goods and political future for the party has been ban on Tunisian women marrying non- vast amounts of refi ned fuels, which widely seen as a vehicle for the old Muslim men and threatening to change has created a new business elite there. political elites of the Ben Ali era. In family law as well to allow women equal Th ese southern elites have no interest addition, the party has added to political inheritance rights to men. Although in challenging the traditional economic instability because, as President, Caid secularists and feminists have hailed elites of the north, despite the claims Essebsi had to stand down from his the latter two initiatives, not least the of some commentators. And while the position within the party, but he has tried Algerian writer, Kamel Daoud, in the New majority of the southern population to get his son to replace him instead. York Times, the aim has really been to remains excluded from the wealth this Th e parliamentary party has now split, unsettle al-Nahda. new informal sector generates, they with 16 of its members forming a new have learned that only protests and party, bringing Tunisia’s total number of Civil Society – the true alternative? demonstrations guarantee government political parties to 262! More importantly, Yet, despite the growing concern and response. it has lost its parliamentary majority with authoritarianism in Tunisia’s formal Shortly aft er the demonstrations broke al-Nahda replacing it as the largest party. public life, the real vitality of the out in May, Tunisia’s President, Beji Caid Al-Nahda, however, has not claimed revolution remains inside civil society. Essebsi, announced that he had instructed the premiership, preferring instead to Th at is an arena that the revival of the the army to intervene to protect Tunisia’s preserve Nidaa Tounes as political point ancien régime through Nidaa Tounes natural resources. His move was man and coalition partner. Even in cannot touch, even though it may try interpreted as an attempt to face down the cabinet reshuffl e in September the to do so. Th us, although the Instance Verité et Dignité, Tunisia’s own Truth and Dignity Commission instituted to provide transitional justice to 62,000 victims of the former regime, has been attacked by the President who dislikes its head, Sihem Bensedrine, and sees it as a challenge to his own chosen formulation of the reconciliation law, it had, by the start of March 2017, settled 23,000 of the cases brought before it. It is, therefore, inside the realm of civil society that the real success of the Tunisian revolution lies.

George Joff é is a member of the magazine’s Editorial Board

Sihem Bensedrine, now head of Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission. Photograph by fh imt.

6 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 TTUNISIAUNISIA

Mohamed-Salah Omri outlines the pros and cons of the vast expansion of civil society in Tunisia post-2011 TTunisia’sunisia’s bballooningallooning ccivilivil ssocietyociety

The headquarters of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) in Tunis, Tunisia. Photograph

ivil society is a productive location telling phenomena: the reversal in the together with the rise of new actors on the from which to observe and register roles of important pre-2011 civil society scene, including elected politicians and Cthe changes that have taken place associations; the expanding presence of parties, threated to limit the fi eld in which in Tunisia since 2011; for the Tunisian civil society in the political fi eld; and the civil society operated and to break the Revolution was also a revolution in civil problematic diversity and proliferation of monopoly of several associations, chief society. At a period characterised by the civil associations. among them the UGTT. Th e abolition atomisation of the political fi eld, the Early on, the powerful trade union, the of the old law governing associations proliferation of parties and the creation Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), opened the fl oodgates, resulting in the of major rift s among the political class the Lawyers Association and the Tunisian creation of more than 20,000 associations and society as a whole, civil society is Human Rights League (LTDH) – the as of September 2017. But the post- both a refl ection of the state of Tunisia key focal points of protest and resistance revolution reality provided diff erent and and a place where new forms of citizen prior to 2011 – struggled with possible unexpected fortunes for pre-2011 civil action can be observed. Since the loss of purpose, clout and appeal. Th e society organisations and for the UGTT Revolution, the scene of civil society in overthrow of the head of state and the in particular. Tunisia has become considerably more legalisation of freedom of movement, With persistent economic diffi culties complex, so I will limit myself to three association and expression in the country, in the country, a stable activist leadership linked to a wide base and a strong record Involvement in civil society has in fact become of engagement, the UGTT moved from being an incubator of protest (with ubiquitous, increasing the potential to infl uence occasional close relationships to the policy and the overall direction of the country ruling party) to a power broker and

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 7 mediator at the highest level. At one point Confronted with a rising number of religious associations, in time, Houcine Abbassi, the former Secretary General of the UGTT, wielded voices began to question the ‘civil’ component in civil society, so much power that he was sometimes oft en accusing these new associations of undermining the perceived as a ‘fourth president’ – the other three being the presidents of the foundations of the civil state enshrined in the new constitution Republic and National Assembly and the head of government. It was for this role Bawsala for open government. Th ey also democratisation of society as a whole. that the union and its Quartet partners include thousands of charitable religious Th e UGTT has been challenged to adjust were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in associations, tens of branches of Qur’anic to the post-revolutionary, pluralistic civil 2016. teaching associations and the now- society while continuing to remain the Likewise remarkable is the ascension banned Leagues for the Protection of the principal driver in advocating policies to power of activists from the UGTT, the Revolution (LPR). in defence of the weaker sections of Association of Women Democrats (AFD) In addition to an increase in the society. Critics expect the organisation and the Tunisian League of Human Rights availability of state funding, a new to exert control over the proliferation (LTDH), as well as the employers union culture of fundraising has managed to of a troublesome, professional sectarian (UTICA). To mention only the most attract foreign donations from the Gulf solidarity, to employ a more eff ective notable examples, the former Interim States, European and American think media strategy and to attract greater President of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki tanks, and international organisations. numbers of women and young people. was previously president of the LTDH; Th e growth was spontaneous, largely In January 2017 the latest congress of Saida Garrache, the spokesperson for chaotic and almost completely outside the UGTT made overtures to encourage the current President, was prominent government oversight. A survey women’s participation in its leadership in the Lawyers Association as well as in conducted by government in 2015 and promised a review of its internal the AFD; a number of prominent UGTT revealed a messy situation in which most procedures. leaders joined successive governments, associations manifested irregularities Th ese problems aside, the creation of including the current Minister of Social in administration or in regulatory or a vibrant civil society remains a positive Aff airs (Mohamed Trabelsi) and the fi nancial accountability. Some 200 outcome of the Revolution and perhaps former Minister of Public Service (Abid associations were suspected of ties to the main guarantor that its ideals and Briki), both of whom were members terrorist activities and several of them goals are kept on the agenda. Tunisia now of the UGTT Executive Bureau. have since been suspended. has a ministry devoted to relations with Involvement in civil society has in fact Confronted with a rising number civil society; and civil society has won a become ubiquitous, via institutions and of religious associations, voices began regular seat at the table at the local as well more individual activism, increasing to question the ‘civil’ component in as at the national level. Th e freeing of the the potential to infl uence policy and civil society, oft en accusing these media, cyberspace in particular, amplifi ed the overall direction of the country. new associations of undermining the the impact of a civil society which has To mention a recent example, many foundations of the civil state enshrined become adept at quick responses and observers credit Garrache with Essebsi's in the new constitution. Others mobilisation, oft en turning issues into remarkable move on 13 August 2017 pointed out the dangers associated matters of public interest and thereby to abolish the ban preventing Tunisian with the politicisation of civil society as forcing government to act. women from marrying non-Muslim men associations began to operate as wings of and with his hint at radical changes in the political parties. Established associations inheritance law, both demands had been faced serious challenges and had to on the agenda of civil society for decades. respond to pressures to keep up with the In addition, the revolutionary winds of change brought unprecedented diversity in the scope and patters of civic engagement, with remarkable increases in the participation of youth, women and activists from a wide spectrum of socio-economic backgrounds. Th ese groups have established large numbers of associations (some of which focus on local or single issues, some of which are local branches of foreign associations and some of which are country-wide), all with attendant diversity in agendas, Mohamed-Salah Omri is Professor of funding and modes of action. Th is wide Arabic and Comparative Literature range includes, for example, an economic and Tutorial Fellow at St John’s College, cooperative in the oasis of Jimna; Shams, University of Oxford. He is a frequent an association to defend gay rights; commentator on Tunisia and author of a an Amazigh rights association, and book on the UGTT

8 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 TTUNISIAUNISIA

Mohamed-Salah Omri looks at the impact of the Revolution on the literary scene in Tunisia LLiteratureiterature uunchainednchained

he 2011 Revolution unchained © Mohamed-Salah Omri Tunisian literature: it removed Tmediation between the writer and the public; broke the state monopoly on narrative; encouraged confessional literature and opened the door for new voices and extensive self-publishing. Between 2011 and 2015 there was a 70 per cent increase in the number of books published and a 15 per cent increase in the number of publishers. Th is has aff ected fi ction, non-fi ction and poetry. Emblematic of this change is the novel Kalb bin Kalb (‘Dog, Son of Dog’, 2013), written by the dissident journalist and writer Taoufi k Ben Brik, which became an immediate bestseller in a rejuvenated book A collection of Tunisian market with 40,000 copies sold in a year. books. Photograph by Th e book is written entirely in the Tunisian Mohamed-Salah Omri dialect and tells the story of the marginalised sections of society in a marginalised idiom. in the new-found appeal of the national and books by Ammar Zimzmi, Abdelhamid Such a democratisation of register was, in anthem. Mohamed Sghaier Awlad Ahmad Jelassi, Kamel Cherni and many others. fact, one visible and audible eff ect of the emerged as the Revolution’s poet and was Literature gained more presence in Revolution. For the fi rst time in decades, celebrated as such, with an offi cial and the public sphere and in the media, with a system of authority no longer controlled public commemoration of his work at the more book reviews, a dedicated television language, which also opened the door for prestigious Carthage International Festival programme, House of Fiction, presented by explicit sexual language in literature, as in and an unprecedented gala at the national novelist Kamel Riahi, radio programmes, the novel Intisab Aswad (‘Black Erection’) theatre a few months before his death. New and frequent book signing ceremonies and by Aymen Dabbousi and the work of Kamel attempts to rethink poetry, such as the presentations in local libraries, bookstores Zoghbani and Kamel Riahi. movement entitled ‘nass/text’, remain at an and festivals. Novelist Emna Rmili, for Th ere has been a plethora of fi ction since emergent stage. example, was celebrated by the citizens of a 2011, but the novel is the medium of longue Th e current period has been in many town whose name she gave to the prize- durée, which means that the novel does not ways a struggle for narrative and the winning novel, Toujane (2016). Alongside cope well with revolutions, which are based reclamation of history. Testimonial writing wider recognition of marginal and formerly on sudden change and uncertainty. Poetry, has become a means of positioning and a censored writers inside the country, on the other hand, can handle sudden part of discourses competing for legitimacy, Tunisian literature gained remarkable change or uncertainty and even thrives in part of the jostling for a place in a history foreign attention too. Th e poet Mohamed such conditions. For all sorts of reasons, that is now susceptible to reconstruction Sghaier Awlad Ahmed was celebrated in poetry travels better than fi ction and now it and retelling. A boom occurred in memoirs Italy, Malta and Switzerland while the novel travels faster than fi ction. It has joined the and ‘prison’ literature, including several al-Taliyani (‘Th e Italian’) won the Arabic ranks of other speedy travellers: cartoons, books by Left ists and Islamists which detail Booker Prize in 2015. But seven years on, comments, images, news. torture, censorship and the suff ering of we are witnessing a decline in the readership Poetry, long the main means of families under previous regimes. Notable of literature as people read less and write resistance and protest, accompanied the examples include Samir Sassi, Burj al-Rumi: more and as audio-visual media dominates initial phases of the Revolution. Tunisia’s abwab al-mawt (‘Borj Roumi: Doors of public attention. national poet, Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi Death’, 2011), Mohamed Salah Fliss’ Sajin fi (1909-1934), looms large on slogans and watani (‘A Prisoner in My Homeland’, 2016) Mohamed-Salah Omri is Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature and Fellow of A democratisation of register was, in fact, one St. John’s College, University of Oxford. He is the author of A Revolution of Dignity and visible and audible eff ect of the Revolution Poetry (2012)

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 9 TTUNISIAUNISIA

Nathanael Mannone explains how artistic expression has changed since the Revolution while highlighting the lingering traces of censorship and repression that continue to limit its scope TThehe cculturalultural eenvironmentnvironment iinn ppost-2011ost-2011 TTunisiaunisia CC BY 2.0 in Tunisia over slain opposition ﬁgure / Slain Ballot XUploaded © Surian Soosay, Flickr: Shokri Belaid, Top Tunisian opposition by The Egyptian Liberal, leader shot dead ... Anger

Artistic rendition of Chokri Belaid, an opposition leader and vocal critic of the post-revolution Islamist government, who was assassinated on 6 February 2013. Image by Surian Soosay

ince Ben Ali fl ed Tunisia, the cultural 2011 many artists have not only been within the cultural sphere. Artists environment there has been host speaking out through their work, but also consistently attest to a state that not only Sto profound changes within both contributing to the development of civil resorted to post-production censorship, the forms of cultural production and the society, striving for institutional reform, threats, and cooptation, but also to a structures that govern artistic practice. and advocating nothing less than new patronage network that was corrupting Yet, while artistic expression has become forms of citizenship. and heteronomising. As Tunisia attempts markedly more overt, wide-ranging in In surveying the post-revolutionary to move beyond the legacy of near scope, prodigious in quantity, and even cultural environment, however, we must full-spectrum repression, laws, policies combative, it is a mistake to view it as a also account for continuities throughout and even personnel from that era are sudden break with a completely quietist the whole of the independence period as proving diffi cult to transcend. Th e cultural past. In fact, politico-artistic challenges well, for this will inadvertently highlight markets are part of this struggle, and are in Tunisia boast a lineage stretching back the challenges ahead for Tunisian cultural as equally plagued by it as other sectors of through the Ben Ali and Bourguiba eras, markets. Prior to the Revolution, the society. even to the French Protectorate. Th e result state had developed highly sophisticated From 14 January 2011, artistic has been that, in many ways, cultural systems to counter perceived threats expressions provided the soundscape production has changed drastically since 2011, but prior cultural and intellectual As Tunisia attempts to move beyond the legacy of near challenges also signifi cantly prepared the ground for what proved to be a full-spectrum repression, laws, policies and even personnel widespread revolt. Furthermore, since from that era are proving diffi cult to transcend

10 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 and iconography for celebration. Th e Th e state continually brandished its secular credentials celebrations were, however, short- lived, for tensions between artists and at home and abroad via artistic patronage in order conservative Islamic groups intensifi ed to pursue an autocratic style of governance and in some cases erupted in violence, causing many in the artistic community capital-intensive creative industries from the digital age: the Ministry of Culture to believe that the state was not doing the pressures of global capitalism and declared 2014 to be the year of intellectual enough to protect them. Well before which evolved into a tool of repression copyright, however many artists still the assassinations of Chokri Belaid (6 over the decades since independence – is struggle to protect their work from February 2013) and Mohamed Brahmi still plagued by many pre-revolutionary copyright infringement. Concurrently, (25 July 2013), the artistic community issues. Th e Ministry of Culture has laws governing the movement of capital in was already galvanising against the faced repeated allegations that it awards and out of the country impact Tunisians’ emerging post-revolutionary state over support on the basis of favouritism and ability to use the internet for digital its apparent failure to protect artists. cronyism, as it did before the revolution. distribution or crowdfunding, having an Th e state, as represented by the Ministry Th is support comes in many forms adverse impact on potential profi tability of Culture, seemed to be torn between including fi nancial patronage, exhibition of Tunisian cultural works. demands to protect freedom of speech, spaces, festival spots and other benefi ts. In spite of these issues, or perhaps respect for religious symbols and the Furthermore, it is not only the Tunisian because of them, Tunisian state support newfound attention of foreign observers state that maintains a material interest of the arts is still necessary, especially looking for any sign of a return to in Tunisia’s cultural battleground; since for the more capital-intensive art forms. dictatorship. Th roughout this period, art 2011 individual political parties, unions, While many artists remain critical of that addressed both the place of religion corporations, states and NGOs have state patronage, the political acquiescence in public life as well as state power grew maintained vested interests as well. it requires and the potential motives markedly more brazen, persistently Before the Revolution, capital-intensive behind it, they still openly concede that testing the boundaries of an emergent art forms (such as cinema) depended it continues to be vital to resist global freedom-of-expression. heavily on the state and patronage pressures on Tunisia’s creative sectors. At As artists pushed the bounds on was awarded strategically to provide the time of this writing, Tunisia’s artists what could be expressed or ridiculed, ideological cover for the regime in power. together with the population at large they (knowingly or not) contributed to Casting itself as the protector of women are mobilising in opposition to the 13 a growing dialogue. Debates over the and of liberal values, the state continually September Administrative Reconciliation character of post-revolutionary Tunisia brandished its secular credentials at Law and the postponing – yet again – of and its identity, while oft en viewed as home and abroad via artistic patronage municipal elections. We may expect secondary to the political, economic, in order to pursue an autocratic style that challenges to the state will continue and institutional reforms that were also of governance. Unfortunately, despite to reverberate throughout the layers of taking place, in reality stemmed largely real eff orts to improve the prospects for Tunisia’s cultural production, or at the from cultural developments. Th ese Tunisian artists aft er the Revolution, very least, within those art forms that do debates, however heated, signifi cantly many of the structural factors which not wholly depend upon state support. contributed to the defi nition of the limits led artists to rely so heavily on the state on expression that could later be codifi ed remain today. In addition to the challenge into law. As the negotiation over protected of navigating between market pressures expression proceeded, its bounds were and patronage, Tunisian artists now policed through subtler versions of pre- must also face the pressures brought by revolutionary tactics, namely censorship and resource allocation or patronage. While outright censorship is less prevalent in post-revolutionary Tunisia, there are, nonetheless, numerous incidences of critical artists being imprisoned. Weld el 15, Klay BBJ, Kafon, Jabeur Mejri, activist Azyz Amami and others have been arrested for various reasons including ‘insulting public servants’, violation of the sacred, or being in violation of Law 52 (which stipulates a mandatory minimum sentence of a year in prison for drug Nathanael Mannone is an Affi liate in off ences). Taken together they signal a Norms and Social Order(s) at the Asia willingness to utilise laws and strategies and Europe University Research Priority from the period of dictatorship in order Program (URPP), University of Zurich. His to crack down on dissent. research focusses on the nexus of cultural Additionally, the patronage network – politics and patronage in the MENA initially set up to ensure the survival of region, with a focus on the Maghreb

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 11 TTUNISIAUNISIA

Anne Wolf on recent developments taking place in Tunisia that might put its post-2011 democratic achievements at risk

BBeyondeyond tthehe © Guillaume Paumier – guillaumepaumier.com, CC BY 3.0 ‘‘Revolution’:Revolution’: aauthoritarianuthoritarian rrevivalevival aandnd eelitelite rreconeconﬁ gurationguration iinn TTunisiaunisia

Beji Caid Essebsi, President of Tunisia, during the 37th G8 summit in Deauville, France, May 2011. Photograph by Guillaume Paumier

n 10 September 2017 the security challenges. However, Chahed’s 2010-11, which culminated in the ousting Tunisian parliament gave a ambitious words hide the fact that the of Ben Ali. Defence minister Abdelkarim Ovote of confi dence to a new government now harbours more Ben Zbidi held a range of ministerial government – the tenth cabinet since Ali-era fi gures than at any time since 2011 portfolios under the previous regime. the fall of long-time dictator Zine El- in what constitutes a wider process of Most controversially, Hatem Ben Salem, a Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. Prime authoritarian revival in Tunisia. Minister of Human Rights under Ben Ali Minister Youssef Chahed announced it Th e new Minister of Finance, Ridha – at a time when torture was a common would be a ‘war government’ tasked with Chelghoum, had the same position at the practice – is now Minister of Education. fi ghting persistent unemployment and time that the mass protests erupted in As least one in fi ve ministers in the new cabinet have held senior political posts Th e government now harbours more Ben Ali-era fi gures under Ben Ali. Many more occupied middle-ranking positions. than at any time since 2011 in what constitutes Th e same is true for Nidaa Tounes, a wider process of authoritarian revival the party that came fi rst in the 2014

12 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 Essebsi is pursuing another strategy to reinforce his to distract public attention. Th ey lift ed a ban preventing Muslim women from power base, namely to alter the constitution to marrying outside their faith – a fi rst allow for a return to a presidential system in the Arab world. Th e new marriage law must be seen as part of a tradition parliamentary elections and whose emerged from the current constitution of state feminism pursued by Tunisian co-founder, Beji Caid Essebsi, is now is suff ering from insuffi ciencies’ and authorities since independence. Yet, President of Tunisia. To provide just appealed ‘to re-evaluate the nature of when the legislation was announced, one example of the extent of infl uence that political system’. Since then his demonstrations took place against the Ben Ali-era fi gures exert within the allies in Nidaa Tounes have openly reconciliation law. Protesters – including party: Sofi ane Toubel, the head of Nidaa called for constitutional revision to pave many women – reported harsh treatment Tounes’s parliamentary block, was a the way for a presidential system. Th e by the police. Clearly, the new marriage student leader of Ben Ali’s Constitutional current Tunisian constitution, adopted law does not necessarily refl ect a deeper Democratic Rally (RCD) party. on 26 January 2014, stipulates a mixed concern about women’s rights within Nidaa Tounes offi cials typically seek to presidential-parliamentary system. ruling circles, but is instrumental in justify the revival of Ben Ali-era fi gures Returning to the old system would put concealing the authoritarian revival that is as part of a process of ‘technocratisation’. many democratic achievements at risk under way. Th ey argue that many former Ben Ali – especially if the president is an old All of this is not to say that Tunisia’s new fi gureheads have ample technical and regime fi gure such as Essebsi that operates democracy will be overturned tomorrow. political experience and are therefore best within the framework of a government Th e Ben Ali-era elite is not yet in full suited to foster stability and economic increasingly fi lled with ‘technocrats’ who control of Tunisia’s future. Moreover, growth. Th ey attempt to re-evaluate Ben have little political leverage of their own. some old regime fi gures have come to Ali elites by stressing their supposedly Essebsi has already initiated legislation embrace democratic principles, though superior qualifi cations. Yet, Ben Ali that has overturned some of Tunisia’s key probably not a majority of them. Liberal himself fi rst introduced a policy of achievements. In March 2015 he proposed forces have secured key achievements, technocratisation that primarily served a bill for ‘economic reconciliation’. enshrined in the new constitution, which a single main purpose, namely to An amended version, adopted on 13 will be diffi cult to overturn. However, the downgrade the infl uence of parliament September 2017, allows civil servants most recent developments in Tunisia – the and government in order to strengthen from the Ben Ali era, involved in reconciliation law and the composition his presidency. It is this objective corruption and embezzlement of public of the new government – suggest that which also drives recent processes of funds but who did not profi t personally, old regime fi gures are quickly gaining technocratisation in Tunisia. Th e latest to avoid persecution by paying back the in strength. A range of domestic and Ben Ali-era fi gures in government are all money they stole. Th e Reconciliation Law regional factors provides a fertile old colleagues of President Essebsi, who sidelines many of the justice mechanisms ground for their comeback, such as the was himself a senior offi cial under the adopted earlier in 2013 which sought to perceived threat of Islamic radicalisation previous regime. investigate fi nancial crimes in order to and a general impression that previous Essebsi is the central fi gure behind uncover the vast system of corruption governments have failed to revive the current trends of authoritarian revival. In under Ben Ali. economy – trends that will prevail in the the past he has called the 2010-11 protests Th e day aft er the controversial near future. a ‘moment of anger, hate and revenge’. reconciliation bill was adopted, the He also described the protesters killed by authorities took a pioneering step security forces as ‘terrorists’. Aside from towards more gender equality, probably such a denigrating discourse, Essebsi is criticised for having pushed his son, Hafedh, to the fore as Executive Director of Nidaa Tounes even though he has no obvious qualifi cations for the job. Many Tunisians now believe that the President would like to see a dynastic succession scenario. Yet, while it is unlikely that Hafedh – who is very unpopular – will ever become president, his leadership of Nidaa Tounes allows Essebsi to pull many strings within the party. Essebsi is pursuing another – and potentially more far-reaching and dangerous – strategy to reinforce Anne Wolf is the Margaret Smith Research his power base, namely to alter the Fellow in Politics and International Studies constitution to allow for a return to a at Girton College, University of Cambridge, presidential system. In September 2017 and the author of Political Islam in he stated that ‘Th e political system that Tunisia: the History of Ennahda

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 13 TTUNISIAUNISIA

Rory McCarthy traces the origins and evolution of al-Nahda from a grassroots Islamist movement with political ambitions to a cautious political party inspired by Islam AAl-Nahda:l-Nahda: ffromrom ppreachingreaching ccirclesircles ttoo ppoliticsolitics

Rached Ghannouchi, the co-founder and leader of Tunisia’s al-Nahda, at a rally to announce his movement’s election manifesto in September 2014. Photograph by Parti Mouvement Ennahdha -

ﺻﻮر ﻧﺪوة ﺣﺮﻛﺔ اﻟﻨﻬﻀﺔ ﻟﻺﻋﻼن ﻋﻦ ﺑﺮﻧﺎﻣﺠﻬﺎ اﻻﻗﺘﺼﺎدي واﻻﺟﺘامﻋﻲ ,Parti Mouvement Ennahdha, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 Commons, CC BY Wikimedia © Parti Mouvement Ennahdha ©

t was long assumed that Tunisia stood authorisation. Most were small and highly Habib Bourguiba, who undermined as an oasis of secularism in the Middle conservative, calling for the immediate the clerical elite, stripped the Zaytuna IEast and North Africa. Yet the fall of imposition of sharia law. Th ey included mosque-university of its independence, the authoritarian regime seven years ago Jabhat al-Islah, the Reform Front, a invested heavily in education and brought the re-emergence of a wide range Salafi st group established by Mohamed introduced a reformist Personal Status of religious political movements, from the Khouja who had been involved in a Code, which improved women’s rights Islamist party al-Nahda to small violent small, hard-line religious activist group in in many areas. Yet from the early 1970s, and non-violent Salafi st groups. Opinion Tunisia in the 1980s, and Hizb al-Tahrir, large groups of young people began to polling by the Pew Research Center the Party of Liberation, a pan-Islamist gather regularly at mosques in Tunis showed a surprising majority of Tunisians group pushing for a new caliphate. and other major cities to listen to a new wanted their country’s laws either to However, these groups failed to gain generation of revivalist preachers. Th ese strictly follow the Qur’an or to be guided traction. Instead, it was the much larger men were infl uenced by preachers from by the principles of Islam. Islamist movement al-Nahda that came to the South Asian Tablighi Jamaat and by In the months aft er the fall of Zine dominate the political stage in Tunisia. literature from Islamic thinkers across the El-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, Modern Tunisia was shaped by the Middle East. What began as preaching several religious parties received legal secularising instincts of its fi rst president about religious belief and moral conduct soon developed into an activist ethic with political ambitions. All the non-violent Al-Nahda’s grassroots strength came from the fact that it built religious parties that appeared aft er the a subcultural community of shared values, reinforced by a 2011 uprising trace their origins back to this religious revival, but especially al- network of charismatic individuals who spread their infl uence Nahda. through schools, universities, mosques and local communities Al-Nahda had its origins among

14 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 these preaching circles, with their focus What was once a transcendent underground religious on Islamic revivalism, behaviour and ethics. It relaunched itself as the Islamic movement had become a conservative political party inspired Tendency Movement in 1981, proposing a by Islam but not, for now, advocating signifi cant Islamisation ‘comprehensive conception of Islam’ along with explicit ambitions to compete in the to avoid marginalisation. But it also polarised political crisis. From that deal political system and an early recognition signalled an intellectual crisis, a profound emerged a new political alignment. Aft er of popular sovereignty. In late 1988, a year diff erence of views over what it meant to coming second in elections in October aft er Ben Ali had seized power in a coup, be Islamist in the newly democratising 2014, al-Nahda lobbied hard to join the the group renamed itself the al-Nahda Tunisia. Nidaa-led coalition for fear of a return to Movement in hope of winning legal Aft er the uprising, al-Nahda had the polarisation and the repression of the authorisation. Al-Nahda ran independent chosen a cautious, conservative political 1990s. Inclusion in this coalition meant candidates in elections in April 1989 and strategy. Although it easily won the fi rst al-Nahda had to sign up to what was emerged as by far the largest opposition elections in October 2011, it went on fast becoming a conservative transition. force, winning a third of the vote in major to make many concessions during the Th e movement had committed to ban cities like Tunis, Bizerte and Sousse. But draft ing of the new constitution that senior fi gures from Ben Ali’s Democratic it was never legally authorised. Instead, were disproportionate given its electoral Constitutional Rally party (the RCD) the surprisingly strong election result legitimacy. Th e movement dropped from political life. However, by 2014 pitched it into confrontation with the its initial demand for the sharia to be Ghannouchi persuaded his deputies in Ben Ali regime: thousands of Nahdawis a source of legislation; it relented on the assembly to defeat a law that would were jailed, hundreds more fl ed into a plan to criminalise ‘attacks on the have excluded senior RCD fi gures from exile (many heading to London), the sacred’, eff ectively an attempt to outlaw contesting elections. In September movement was dismantled and those blasphemy; it acceded to demands from 2017, al-Nahda supported the return remaining inside Tunisia faced years of other parties for a semi-presidential of three former RCD ministers into the social exclusion. system of government, rather than the cabinet, and then voted for an ‘economic Since the early 1980s, the movement parliamentary model it favoured; and it reconciliation’ bill to amnesty public had been torn between two competing withdrew a proposal to state explicitly offi cials ‘and others like them’ accused of strands. Its strength at the grassroots in the constitution that Islam was the corruption under the former regime. level came from the fact that it built a religion of state. Th ese concessions, What was once a transcendent subcultural community of shared values, particularly over the role of the sharia, underground religious movement had reinforced by a network of charismatic caused great frustration among ordinary become a conservative political party individuals who spread their infl uence members. Yet the most challenging inspired by Islam but not, for now, through schools, universities, mosques leadership decision was its ongoing advocating signifi cant Islamisation. Th e and local communities. Th is subculture project to reconcile itself with the political rapprochement with the former regime proved a highly durable resource during and business elite of the old regime, who elites avoided the bitter polarisation, the repression of the 1990s and 2000s. had eff ectively re-emerged through a new counter-revolution and violence that However, many in the movement also political party, Nidaa Tounes. characterised the Egyptian transition, espoused political ambitions, working In mid-2013, Rached Ghannouchi, al- but it also left unanswered widespread for inclusion in the political process Nahda’s founder-leader, struck a deal with popular expectations of far-reaching despite facing the constraints of a one- Beji Caid Essebsi, the founder of Nidaa social and economic reform. party, semi-authoritarian system. Th ere Tounes and a former interior minister was always an internal debate about under Bourguiba, to resolve a dangerous, how these two strands should combine. Aft er the repression of the early 1990s, the movement-in-exile admitted that its political ambitions had overwhelmed its cultural and social activities and brought it into confrontation with the regime. Th is debate about whether al- Nahda was essentially a preaching or a political movement soon re-emerged aft er the uprising, when it fi nally won its long-sought inclusion in the political process. Last year al-Nahda felt compelled Rory McCarthy is a Fellow by Examination to separate its political project, as a at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he civil, conservative, professional party, works on social movements, contentious away from its historic religious, social politics and Islamism in the Middle East and cultural project. Th is ‘functional and North Africa. He is writing a book on specialisation’, as the movement’s Tunisia’s al-Nahda movement. Previously leadership described it, was a strategy he was Middle East correspondent for Th e to provide legitimacy and security and Guardian

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 15 TTUNISIAUNISIA The advancement of women’s rights has won some victories, but there are signs that the new regime is taking notes from Ben Ali’s playbook and using these gains as a distraction. Zoe Petkanas explains WWomen’somen’s rrightsights iinn TTunisiaunisia ssinceince tthehe 22011011 uuprisingsprisings © Sami Mlouhi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Tunisia's Assembly of the Representatives of the People in May 2017. Photograph by Sami Mlouhi

ince the stunning popular protests For example, immediately upon taking the interim public authority’s May 2011 that ended Ben Ali’s 27 years of offi ce he promulgated sweeping reforms passage of an electoral gender parity Sdictatorship in 2011, Tunisian to the Code of Personal Status. While clause ensured that women would be women have emerged as a powerful these changes (which included ending represented in the National Constituent political force in both government and repudiation, matrimonial guardianship Assembly, the body tasked with writing civil society. Tunisia has made several and polygyny) increased women’s the new Constitution. Th e clause required major strides towards gender equality, individual rights, they also served to vertical parity in a process of proportional including gender parity in elections to undermine his political rivals, strengthen representation based on party lists: ensure women’s political participation his hold on the state and control the electoral lists had to be evenly split and a landmark bill to end violence development of grassroots feminist and alternate between male and female against women. Despite these inroads, activism. Ben Ali, too, utilised gender candidates. In the October 2011 elections, recent events could suggest a return to as a mechanism of authoritarianism. women took 58 out of 217 seats (or 26 per a pre-revolutionary status quo – where He strategically championed women’s cent), 40 of whom were from al-Nahda – the state used progress on women’s rights rights as window dressing to bolster his the Islamist party that won a plurality of to distract public attention from its ‘façade democracy’ and to distract the seats with high margins. repressive policies. international community from his violent Th ough women’s 26 per cent share Long-time observers were unsurprised illiberalism. of the Assembly was impressive, by the focus on gender and women’s rights Post-uprising politics marked a break particularly given the chronic in the aft ermath of the uprisings. Gender with the past. Following Ben Ali’s fall, underrepresentation of women globally, has historically been a central feature of the Tunisian state and its politics. Habib Bourguiba, fi rst post-independence Despite being a minority in the Assembly, female deputies president and self-proclaimed father of served as powerful political actors, managing to pass one of Tunisian feminism, used gender and ‘gift s’ of women’s rights to consolidate the state. the most signifi cant advancements for women’s rights to date

16 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 Using advancements for women’s rights as a of public funds. Highly controversial, the law undermines the transitional distraction is a familiar former-regime tactic justice process (ongoing since 2014) and severely compromises the integrity of the it was also a disappointment as women of the Assembly’s trailblazing female judiciary. had constituted half of all legislative deputies. In June 2016, the ARP amended Th e day aft er the Reconciliation Act candidates. Th is disparity was largely Electoral Law at a municipal and regional was passed, the Ministry of Justice due to the space left for interpretation level to include both horizontal and rescinded a 1973 directive prohibiting in the gender parity clause. Th e law did vertical parity. Th is creates an imperative marriage between a non-Muslim man not institute horizontal parity, a measure for parties to invest in female candidates and a Muslim woman. Th e end of that regulates the gendered distribution at a sub-national level, defl ating the marriage prohibition is certainly of candidates heading electoral lists arguments by male party offi cials – and a victory in the struggle for gender – and those most likely to be elected. contested by their female counterparts equality – and one that Tunisian women Consequently, women headed only 7 – who cited a lack of qualifi ed women have long pursued. But the timing of the per cent of the 2011 electoral lists, and as justifi cation for the low numbers of announcement ensured that coverage of this male bias for the top of the list was female-headed lists in the 2011 and 2014 the marriage decree drowned out that of translated into the Assembly’s gendered elections. However, these changes have the Reconciliation Act, a law critics are make-up. yet to be implemented: municipal and calling a fi nal blow to Tunisia’s transition. Yet, despite being a minority in the regional elections have been postponed Using advancements for women’s rights as Assembly, female deputies served as three times since 2014. Th e electoral a distraction is a familiar former-regime powerful political actors, managing commission recently delayed them tactic. As we have seen, Ben Ali was to pass one of the most signifi cant again until March 2018. Consensus has adept at deploying progress for women’s advancements for women’s rights to been diffi cult to reach on the matter as rights to divert attention from violent date. A cross-partisan working group many parties fear they are insuffi ciently repression, widespread human rights of women, responding to the challenges prepared for the regional and municipal abuses and systemic corruption. they continued to face in the Assembly challenge and are therefore reluctant Th e Reconciliation Act threatens as women, successfully constitutionalised to move forward. Th e ARP also passed Tunisia’s hard-fought democratic gender parity in the fi nal days before a landmark piece of legislation in July advancements and compromises the the Constitution was adopted in January 2017, the Law on Eliminating Violence state’s legitimacy. Women’s rights can 2014. Signifi cantly, the clause applied to Against Women, which includes vital only be fully advanced in a system with all elected bodies, including those formed steps to prevent gendered violence, strong democratic institutions that by municipal and regional elections. protect survivors and prosecute abusers. centre on accountability and justice; the Meherzia Labidi, the Vice-President of Crucially, it closes a legal loophole broader goals of democratic transition the Assembly, hailed the expansiveness allowing a rapist to escape punishment by and the pursuit of gender equality are of the gender parity clause as the most marrying his victim. intertwined here. Th e hollowing-out of revolutionary aspect of the Constitution Th ese achievements are signifi cant, but Tunisian democracy arguably poses grave regarding women’s rights. Despite recent developments have caused some challenges to both. vigorous advocacy by female deputies to fear a reversal of the democratic gains and civil society activists, the Assembly since 2011. On 14 September, the ARP failed to pass any kind of horizontal passed the Reconciliation Act, which parity measure during the draft ing of the provides amnesty for Ben Ali offi cials Electoral Law in May 2014, a devastating accused of corruption and embezzlement setback for gender parity advocates. As a result, the number of female- headed lists increased only modestly between the 2011 Assembly elections and the November 2014 elections for the Assembly of the Representatives of the People (ARP) – from 7 per cent to 11 per cent. Nonetheless, Tunisia’s December 2014 presidential elections heralded the country’s fi rst female presidential candidate – Judge Kalthoum Kannou. Zoe Petkanas recently fi nished her Nidaa Tounes, a big-tent secularist party doctorate at the University of Cambridge, that also incorporated representatives of titled ‘Politics of Parity: Gendering the the previous regime, won a plurality in Tunisian Second Republic, 2011-2014’. She the legislative elections, edging out al- has previously published on gender and the Nahda, and its founder, Beji Caid Essebsi, Tunisian Constitution, gendered discourse went on to win the presidency. in Tunisian media, and microcredit and In recent years, the women of the ARP women’s empowerment in Palestinian have carried forward the momentum refugee camps in Jordan

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 17 TTUNISIAUNISIA

Max Gallien discusses informality in Tunisia’s economy and explains why addressing it is necessary to combat segmentation and marginalisation and to promote development LLegaciesegacies ooff nneglect:eglect: rreformingeforming TTunisia’sunisia’s iinformalnformal eeconomyconomy © TunisiaPassion, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

A tea-seller works his way down the street in Tunisia. Photograph by TunisiePassion

he economic origins of the Tunisian between Tunisian elites and international Tunisia’s informal economy has Revolution lie in corruption and donors has moved the country towards an steadily expanded in recent years, as Texclusion. Both came with their economic reform programme that claims formal employment opportunities were own fi gurehead – the dictator’s wife, Leila to address the eff ects of the overreach unable to keep up with the country’s Trabelsi, as the symbol of a corrupt and of the authoritarian state – cronyism, demographics. It produces more than a predatory state elite, and the informal corruption, ineffi ciency – but does not third of Tunisia’s GDP and is the primary street-vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, as the suffi ciently address the eff ects of its employer of Tunisia’s youth – in fact, it symbol of the marginalised who had to neglect. Th is leaves Tunisia’s government employs around 60 per cent of working create their own jobs, without support stuck between an economic agenda men and 83 per cent of working women or security. One represents an image of focussed around austerity, and domestic under the age of forty (Economist a state that is painfully present, one of a demands for social justice. But even Intelligence Unit). While informal jobs state that is painfully absent. more so, it has left the Tunisian state are disproportionately prominent in One of the most signifi cant structural structurally and politically incapable of the southern and interior regions, they threats to the post-revolutionary Tunisian reforming those parts of its economy that span the entire country. Th ey take a state is that its approach towards its are structured by segmentation and wilful wide variety of forms: people selling on economic origins has been deeply neglect. Th e most striking example of this the sides of roads or in weekly markets, lopsided. More precisely, the interaction is the country’s informal economy. smuggling goods across the borders with Libya and Algeria, providing tutoring or translation, or being employed by a Tunisia’s informal economy produces more than a third of the formal company without being issued a country’s GDP and is the primary employer of Tunisia’s youth contract.

18 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 Addressing this history of neglect will require a strategy of disproportionately. And it is not a coincidence that it dominates the aggressive state investment in infrastructure, social services and economies of Tunisia’s southern and in education. Th is clashes almost directly with the austerity- interior regions. Informality in Tunisia is indicative of a divided and segmented focussed ethos of the current reform agenda economy, a marker of widespread pockets of vulnerability, of an authoritarian legacy Tunisia’s informal economy is closely imperative for sustainable and inclusive that has left the country with a carefully integrated not just with its formal development in Tunisia. Th e political calibrated patchwork quilt of state economy, but also with its state structure, freedoms of the post-revolutionary period predation and state neglect. Addressing which has found a myriad of ways have actually created some advantageous the eff ects of this neglect needs to be to direct the informal economy and conditions here, as informal actors have a key element of any development extract loyalty or revenue. While they used their new-found liberties to set up strategy in Tunisia. As addressing are oft en not paying income taxes or associations and organisations. Th e fi rst this history of neglect will require a keeping a commercial registry, people step of any reform process should be to strategy of aggressive state investment in the informal economy still oft en pay approach these groups, alongside other in infrastructure, social services and in formal (market) or informal fees (bribes) civil society actors, to foster a constructive education, this clashes almost directly to state agents. At the same time, they dialogue about the most needed reform with the austerity-focussed ethos of the remain excluded from social security options and re-build some trust. Th e current reform agenda. It stands at odds and the infrastructure available to formal fantastic work of the Tunisian Inclusive with IMF conditionalities for Tunisia businesses and suff er the vulnerabilities Labour Initiative (TILI), including in Sfax and risks endangering the privileges of a associated with living on the wrong and in Ben Guerdane, could be instructive well-connected formal business class. Th is side of the law. Abuse from state agents here. Second, creating legal frameworks is a powerful coalition against reform. and security forces is commonplace, for positions in the Tunisian economy And yet every eff ort needs to be made to reinforcing the feelings of oppression, for which no legal structure exists so far, free up space for these kinds of changes indignity and second-class citizenship and which are hence necessarily informal, because any economic reform package that were a central theme in 2011, and in would help to pave a way towards that does not address the marginalities of more recent protests. formality for many Tunisians, especially Tunisia’s economy will most likely double Given this context, it is surprising how those connected to weekly markets. down on them, as the ability to take little movement there has been on the Th ird, it is important to move the debate advantage of new economic opportunities side of the post-revolutionary Tunisian on informality in Tunisia beyond the in the formal sector will once again not state to set out a reform programme issue of taxation and explore options be available to all. Th is risks reinforcing that helps those in the informal sector. that would extend key services of the the segmentations, the insider-outsider Th ere is no coherent national strategy formal sector – such as social security and dynamics that have undermined Tunisia’s on the issue, and most politicians are access to training, unions and credit – to economy for decades. And it once again shockingly uninformed, usually reducing the informal sector. Th is could not only marginalises those whom loft y promises the issue to a problem of tax evasion. improve the economic prospects of the of reform claim to prioritise: youth, Th is may be because there is no quick fi x sector, but, more importantly, diminish women and street-vendors in Sidi Bouzid. for the issue – as experiences from other some of its indignities. countries have shown, reforming informal Indignities bring us back to 2011. It economies requires a multi-dimensional is not a coincidence that informality approach that needs to be embedded in aff ects Tunisia’s youth and its women wider labour market and tax reforms. However, there are two more proximate explanations. First, touching Tunisia’s informal economy means touching a complex economic structure that has for decades been a key mechanism for the maintenance of state stability – be it through the provision of jobs for the vulnerable or the enjoyment of vast rent Max Gallien is a PhD candidate in streams for the well-connected. Reforms International Development at the London addressing this sector that further School of Economics, specialising in the marginalise one group, or endanger Political Economy of North Africa. He has the privileges of another, would likely conducted extensive research on informal trigger grave political consequences. And economies, particularly in Southern secondly, some elements of such reforms Tunisia and Northern Morocco. He holds would likely be costly – and hence clash an MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern with the current austerity-focussed Studies from the University of Oxford reform ethos. and was a Scholar in Residence at Al- And yet addressing informality remains Akhawayn University in Morocco

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 19 PPHOTOHOTO COMPETITIONCOMPETITION MiddleMiddle EEastast iinn LLondonondon pphotohoto competitioncompetition rresultsesults ((2017)2017)

or fi ve years running we and moving, these images off er unique As always, we are grateful to all who have hosted an annual photo lenses into the history, culture and took part in the competition and shared Fcompetition, inviting our readers to humanity of the region. their lenses. We intend to continue on submit their photographs of the Middle Th is year it was Umer Hasan’s image with this annual tradition, so check East. And each year our readers continue entitled ‘İstanbul Güzel Sokakları’ back during the summer months for the to ‘wow’ us with the quality of the images that won fi rst place. Two additional details of the 2018 competition. submitted. Th oughtful, vibrant, ethereal photographs won commendations. © Umer Hasan

Winning photograph ‘İstanbul Güzel Sokakları’

Umer Hasan took up photography as it seemed the most eff ective outlet to demonstrate his creativity. He enjoys learning about cultures around the world and one day hopes to travel to every continent alongside his camera. Th e city of Istanbul is of particular appeal to Hasan as it bears the infl uence of several diff erent civilisations. Th is photo was taken in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul just aft er sunset. Th ese beautiful Turkish lamps were turned on between two restaurants in a narrow alleyway, invoking the vibrancy and culture of a city at the centre of the old world.

20 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 Farid Azadi is a professor of mathematics at Yasouj University and also an amateur photographer who began taking photos almost three years ago. His work oft en focusses on historical buildings, such as mosques and churches. Th is photograph was taken in the Nasir-Ol-Molk Mosque (also known as the Pink Mosque) located in Gawd-i Araban quarter in the city of Shiraz, Iran. Th e mosque includes extensive coloured glass in its façade and displays other traditional elements such as the panj kase (‘fi ve concaved’) design. In popular culture it is called the Pink Mosque due to the considerable usage of pink colour tiles for its interior design. © Farid Azadi © Farid

Commendation photograph ‘Nasir-Ol-Molk Mosque’

Born and raised in the American Midwest, Cameron Reed has been a student, researcher and traveller of the Arab world for over a decade. While living in Jordan prior to the Arab spring, he fell in love with the vivid, natural landscapes of the Levant, and felt compelled to continue telling the stories of the people, culture and history of the Middle East with a camera. Th e ‘Blessed Tree of the Young Prophet’ portrays the tree under which, throughout his boyhood, the Prophet Mohammad prayed on his journeys to Damascus. Th e scene captures the tree in an unfamiliar winter repose against a backdrop of sunset hues. As far as the eye can see in remote northern Jordan, this sacred tree stands alone, worthy of the reverence it evokes. © Cameron Reed

Commendation photograph ‘The Blessed Tree of the Young Prophet’

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 21 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF

PPrecariousrecarious BBelongings:elongings: Precarious Belongings: BBeingeing SShi’ihi’i iinn NNon-Shi’ion-Shi’i WWorldsorlds Being Shiʿi in Non-Shiʿi Worlds Edited by Charles Tripp and Gabriele vom Bruck

What is it that makes members of self-identifi ed Shi’i communities distinct from other communities, in terms of doctrine, practice and political situation? Th is question lies at the heart of the contributions to this volume. Th ey range across a number of diverse settings to bring out those features of the social and political life of the Shi’a that may be recognisably Shi’i, but are also the outcome of their interactions with specifi c social contexts. As the volume demonstrates, however volatile forms of diff erence might be, they may well be found within socio-religious categories such as ‘Shi‘a’ and produce Edited by Charles Tripp and Gabriele vom Bruck seemingly irreconcilable interpretations of ‘being Shi’i’.

October 2017, Centre for Academic Shia Studies (CASS), £25.00 LLawaw aandnd RRevolution:evolution: LLegitimacyegitimacy aandnd CConstitutionalismonstitutionalism AAfterfter tthehe AArabrab SSpringpring By Nimer Sultany What is the eff ect of revolutions on legal systems? What role do constitutions play in legitimating regimes? How do constitutions and revolutions converge or clash? Taking the Arab Spring as its case study, Law and Revolution explores the role of law and constitutions during societal upheavals, and critically evaluates the diff erent trajectories they could follow in a revolutionary setting. Th e book urges a rethinking of major categories in political, legal, and constitutional theory in light of the Arab Spring. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, including an in-depth analysis of recent court rulings in several Arab countries, the book illustrates the contradictory roles of law and constitutions.

November 2017, Oxford University Press, £60.00

IInn SSearchearch ooff AAncientncient NNorthorth AAfrica:frica: A HistoryHistory iinn SSixix LLivesives

By Barnaby Rogerson

For 40 years, Barnaby Rogerson has travelled across North Africa, making sense of the region’s complex and fascinating history as both a writer and a guide. Th roughout that time, there have always been a handful of stories he could not pin into neat, tidy narratives. Th is book is a journey into the ruins of a landscape to make sense of these stories through the lives of fi ve men and one woman: Queen Dido, King Juba, Septimius Severus, St Augustine, Hannibal and Masinissa. Th e destinies of these North African fi gures remain highly relevant today. Th eir descendants are faced with the same choices: do you stay pure to your own culture and fi ght against the power of the West, or do you study and assimilate this other culture, and utilise its skills? Will it greet you as an ally only to own you as a slave?

October 2017, Haus Publishing, £20.00

22 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF YYemenemen iinn CCrisis:risis: AAutocracy,utocracy, NNeo-Liberalismeo-Liberalism aandnd tthehe DDisintegrationisintegration ooff a SStatetate By Helen Lackner

Yemen is in the grip of its most severe crisis in years. Fuelled by Arab and Western intervention, the civil war has quickly escalated, resulting in thousands killed and millions close to starvation. Suff ering from a collapsed economy, the people of Yemen face a desperate choice between the Houthi rebels allied with ex-President Saleh on the one side and the internationally recognised government propped up by the Saudi-led coalition and Western arms on the other. In this book, Helen Lackner uncovers the roots of the social and political confl icts that threaten the very survival of the state and its people.

October 2017, Saqi Books, £25.00 TTribesribes aandnd PPoliticsolitics iinn YYemen:emen: A HistoryHistory ooff tthehe HHouthiouthi CCononﬂ ictict

By Marieke Brandt

Tribes and Politics in Yemen tells the story of the Houthi confl ict in Sa’dah Province, Yemen, as seen through the eyes of the local tribes. In the West the Houthi confl ict, which erupted in 2004, is oft en defi ned through the lenses of either the Iranian-Saudi proxy war or the Sunni-Shia divide. Yet, as experienced by locals, the Houthi confl ict is much more deeply rooted in the recent history of Sa’dah Province. Its origins must be sought in the political, economic, social and sectarian transformations since the 1960s civil war and their repercussions on the local society.

October 2017, Hurst, £30.00 TThehe LLimitsimits ooff tthehe LLand:and: HHowow tthehe SStruggletruggle fforor tthehe WWestest BBankank SShapedhaped tthehe AArab-Israelirab-Israeli CCononﬂ iictct By Avshalom Rubin Was Israel’s occupation of the West Bank inevitable? From 1949-1967, the West Bank was the centre of the Arab-Israeli confl ict. Many Israelis hoped to conquer it and widen their narrow borders, while many Arabs hoped that it would serve as the core of a future Palestinian state. In Th e Limits of the Land, Avshalom Rubin presents a sophisticated new portrait of the Arab- Israeli struggle that goes beyond partisan narratives of the past. Drawing on new evidence from a wide variety of sources, many of them only recently declassifi ed, Rubin argues that Israel’s leaders indeed wanted to conquer the West Bank, but not at any cost. By 1967, they had abandoned hope of widening their borders and adopted an alternative strategy based on nuclear deterrence. In 1967, however, Israel’s new strategy failed to prevent war.

October 2017, Indiana University Press, £28.99

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 23 IINN MMEMORIAMEMORIAM JJavadavad GGolmohammadiolmohammadi ((1938-2017)1938-2017) Doris Behrens-Abouseif

Islamic Art Circle since its fi rst days. He took charge of its treasury and he helped it fl ourish by raising funds for special events. Some of his most notable publications include ‘Woodwork’ published in Th e Splendour of Iran (vol. 3, Islamic Period), ‘Th e Cenotaph in Imamzada Habib b. ibn Musa, Kashan: Does it Mark the Grave of the Shah Abbas I?’ in Shift ing Sands Reading Signs and ‘Th e art of Iran Decorative Veneer – khatamkari’ in Art, Trade and Culture in the Islamic World and Beyond: Studies Presented to Doris Behrens-Abouseif. He has also contributed to the article ‘Minbar’ in the Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd edition. Javad had an outstanding ability to read inscriptions in both Persian and Arabic on objects of Islamic art, and was frequently consulted by both scholars and collectors. A fellow scholar, Manijeh Bayani, remembers him as follows: ‘I cannot praise him enough for his knowledge of Iranian history and art; he had the ability not only to read inscriptions, but of being able to interpret them correctly. Overall, he was prepared to go out of his way to help no matter what, and was generous with his knowledge.’ he friends of Islamic Art have lost However, wishing to pursue his scholarly Javad was of extraordinary kindness one of its precious and much loved interests, he moved to the position of and generosity, much loved and highly Tmembers. Lecturer in Islamic and Iranian Art in the appreciated by all. He was very supportive Javad Golmohammadi was a person Department of Archaeology and History and responded readily and kindly to of multiple interests and talents. He of Art. all requests for advice or help. He will obtained a BA and two MAs at the Following the Revolution of 1979, he be remembered for his warmth and his University of Tehran and worked in the decided to continue his studies in the smile, and will undoubtedly be much University Administration, where he was UK at SOAS and completed a PhD on missed at Iranian and Islamic art history appointed Director General of Physical ‘Wooden Religious Buildings and Carved events. Education for four years. He earned Woodwork in Central Iran’ in 1988. At this position for being an outstanding SOAS he met his wife and mother of his Doris Behrens-Abouseif is Emeritus sportsman already as a teenager. He two daughters, Vanessa Martin. Professor in the History of Art and was a member of the Iranian National He then worked as an independent Archaeology at SOAS and a member of the Basketball team and represented the city Islamic art historian based in London London Middle East Institute. From 2000 of Tehran as a member of its swimming following his speciality in woodwork and to 2014 she held Nasser D Khalili Chair of team. came to be regarded as the expert on the Islamic Art and Archaeology at SOAS He was promoted to the position of subject, being regularly consulted by other Director General in Students’ Aff airs, one scholars. of the most prestigious at the University. Javad has been one of the pivots of the

24 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 LISTINGS EEventsvents iinn LLondonondon

HE EVENTS and Council England and CHASE collaboration accompanied Cultural Politics in Interwar organisations listed (Consortium for the Humanities by live visuals. Tickets: £8- Egypt (Seminar) Hazem Jamjoum Tbelow are not necessarily and the Arts South-East England). £15. Pre-booking W www. (New York University). Organised endorsed or supported by The Screenings throughout December eventbrite.co.uk Institute of by: Department of History, Middle East in London. The and January across various Contemporary Arts (ICA), Th e School of History, Religions & accompanying texts and images venues, see contact details below. Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. E Philosophies, SOAS. Near & are based primarily on information A seminal fi gure of the Iranian [email protected] W Middle East History Seminar. provided by the organisers and do New Wave, Shahid Saless slow- http://trevocicelloensemble.com Convener: Ceyda Karamursel not necessarily reflect the views paced fi lms tell simple stories that / https://www.facebook.com/ (SOAS). Admission free. Wolfson of the compilers or publishers. speak forcefully to the traumas of events/614381515616569/ Lecture Th eatre, Paul Webley While every possible effort is homelessness and displacement. Wing (Senate House), SOAS. made to ascertain the accuracy of One-day conference on Sohrab Monday 4 December T 020 7898 4602 E ck17@soas. these listings, readers are advised Shahid Saless: Exile, Displacement ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/history/ to seek confirmation of all events and the Stateless Moving Image on 5:00 pm | A Continuation of events/ using the contact details provided Friday 19 January (see January State Policies by Other Means: for each event. Events). T 020 7596 4000 E info- Submitting entries and updates: [email protected] W https:// Hassan Massoudy, Men Build too many Walls and not enough Bridges (Isaac please send all updates and www.goethe.de/ins/gb/en/m/ver. Newton) 2016. Water based pigments on paper 65 x 50 cm photo Jonathan submissions for entries related cfm Greet courtesy October Gallery. Hassan Massoudy: Breath, Gesture and Light (see Exhibitions p. 33) to future events via e-mail to [email protected] 12:00 pm | Th e (im)possibility of living together: Ethnographic BM – British Museum, Great Explorations on inter- Russell Street, London WC1B communitarian relationships 3DG between Kurds and Süryanis SOAS –SOAS, University of in Southeastern Turkey London, Th ornhaugh Street, (Seminar) Zerrin Özlem Biner Russell Square, London WC1H (Contemporary Turkish Studies, 0XG LSE). Organised by: SOAS Modern LSE – London School of Turkish Studies Programme Economics and Political Science, (London Middle East Institute) Houghton Street, London WC2 and sponsored by Nurol Bank. 2AE Admission free. MBI Al Jaber Seminar Room, London Middle East Institute, SOAS, MBI Al DECEMBER EVENTS Jaber Building, 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA. E gd5@soas. ac.uk / [email protected] W www. Friday 1 December soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/

Until 19 January | Sohrab Sunday 3 December Shahid Saless: Exiles (Film/ Conference) Organised by Dr 4:00 pm | Tre Voci presents Azadeh Fatehrad and Nikolaus Orbits (Performance) Plus Perneczky in partnership with evening performance at 8:00pm. the Goethe-Institut London and Iranian drummer Mohammad with support from the Visual Reza Mortazavi. Meditative and Material Culture Research cello improvisations by London- Centre, Kingston University, Iran based trio Tre Voci meet Iranian Heritage Foundation (IHF), Arts drumming in this musical

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 25 regulating the entry and stay of Syrians in Lebanon. Ferreri investigates Syrians’ reactions –fear and apathy– to this new “order of things” governing their lives in Lebanon. Admission free. Room B102, SOAS. E [email protected] W www. soas.ac.uk/migrationdiaspora/ seminarsevents/

6:00 pm | Institutional Quality and Implications for Growth and Equity: Lessons for Turkey (Lecture) Mehmet Ugur (University of Greenwich). Organised by: LSE Contemporary Turkish Studies. Chair: Esra Özyürek (LSE Contemporary Turkish Studies). Admission free. COW 1.11, LSE. E euroinst.turkish. [email protected] W www.lse. ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/ ContemporaryTurkishStudies/

6:30 pm | Bombs, Bridges, and Biography: lessons for the present from the father of Algeria? (Lecture) Tom Woerner-Powell (University of Manchester). Organised by: Anissa Berkane, ASTROLAB. Dhikr Pictural (see Exhibitions p. 33) LSE Middle East Centre and the Society for Algerian Studies. Tuesday 5 December Th eatre, Floor 6, King’s College 1904, Sadik al-Mouayad Azmzade, Woerner-Powell launches his London, Strand Campus, Strand, an aide-de-camp to Sultan book Another Road to Damascus: 6:00 pm | Religious Infrastructure London WC2R 2LS. T 020 8349 Abdülhamid II (r. 1876-1909), an integrative approach to Abd and Electoral Mobilization in 5754 E [email protected] W left on an offi cial journey from al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri, in which he Egypt (Seminar) Steven Brooke www.aias.org.uk the Ottoman capital, Istanbul to questions prevailing depictions of (University of Louisville). the newly established imperial the historical fi gure. Chair: Toby Organised by: Department of 6:30 pm | Yalda Evening capital of the Ethiopian Empire, Dodge (LSE Middle East Centre). Middle Eastern Studies, King's (Performance) Organised by: Addis Ababa. Minawi discusses Admission free. Pre-registration College London. Why do Islamist Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF). the signifi cance of the Azmzade’s required W www.eventbrite.co.uk parties dominate Middle Eastern Musical performance by Amir travelogue, and the importance Wolfson Th eatre, New Academic elections? Admission free. Pre- Koushkani & Sirishkumar Manji of understanding transcultural Building, LSE, 54 Lincoln’s Inn registration required www. in anticipation of the winter interactions in the global south Fields, London WC2A 3LJ. T 020 eventbrite.co.uk Bush House, solstice celebration of Shab-e outside of the rubric of European 7955 6198 E [email protected] W Auditorium 2, 4th Floor, King's Yalda. Followed by a reception. coloniser and non-European www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre College London, Strand Campus, Tickets: £10. Asia House, 63 colonised. Admission free. Room 30 Aldwych, London WC2B 4BG. New Cavendish Street, London 4429, SOAS. T 020 7898 4242 E 7:00 pm | Takht-e Soleyman/ E [email protected] W www.kcl. W1G 7LP. T 020 3651 2121 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/ Iran - From Sasanian Fire ac.uk/sspp/departments/mems/ [email protected] W www. cclps/events/ Temple to Ilkhanid Summer iranheritage.org Palace. New Evidence from Old 6.30 pm | Satellites Over the 5:00 pm | Fear, apathy and the Excavations (Lecture) Ute Franke Sea: Reinterpreting Roman and Wednesday 6 December “new order of things”: Displaced (Museum für Islamische Kunst, Byzantine Landscapes around Syrians and the reconfi guration Berlin). Organised by: Islamic the Sea of Galilee (Lecture) Ken 3:15 pm | From Istanbul to Addis of the asylum regime in Lebanon Art Circle at SOAS. Chair: Scott Dark (University of Reading). Ababa: South-South Relations (Seminar) Veronica Ferreri Redford (SOAS). Admission free. Organised by: Anglo Israel at the Height of Inter-Imperial (SOAS) Organised by: Centre for Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T Archaeological Society and King’s Competition (Talk) Mostafa Migration and Diaspora Studies, 07714087480 E rosalindhaddon@ College London. Admission Minawi (Cornell). Organised by: SOAS. In January 2015, for the gmail.com W www.soas.ac.uk/art/ free. Pre-registration W www. Centre for Cultural, Literary and fi rst time Lebanese authorities islac/ eventbrite.co.uk Anatomy Lecture Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS). In introduced a visa regime

26 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 LONDON MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE SOAS University of London

TUESDAY LECTURE PROGRAMME ON THE CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EAST WINTER 2017/SPRING 2018

16 January Devastated Lands: Lebanon at the End of the Great War, 1918 Eugene Rogan, St Antony's College Middle East Centre, Oxford Organised jointly with the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) and the British Lebanese Association 23 January GAZA Donald Macintyre, journalist and former Jerusalem chief for the Independent Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies 30 January Jewish and Greek Communities in Egypt: Entrepreneurship and Business Before Nasser: Volume 58 Najat Abdulhaq, author 6 February The Dynamics of Exclusionary Constitutionalism: Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State Mazen Masri, City University 13 February Reading Week 20 February *5:30pm start Kamran Djam Annual Lecture at SOAS Scientiﬁ c Tropes in Modern Iranian Politics: Engineering Governmentality Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, University of Toronto Organised jointly with the Centre for Iranian Studies 27 February Palestinian Citizens of Israel: Power, Resistance and the Struggle for Space Sharri Plonski, SOAS Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies 6 March Ethics as a Weapon of War: Militarism and Morality in Israel James Eastwood, Queen Mary Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies

TUESDAYS 5:45 PM Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS University of London, Russell Square WC1H 0XG Admission Free - All Welcome For further information contact: London Middle East Instutute, SOAS University of London, MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA. T: 020 7898 4330 E [email protected] W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 27 7:00 pm | Science & Spirituality: Holy Sepulchre as the fi rst beams eventbrite.co.uk Room G.01, Suslov's Daughter. Admission Creation & Human History of the rising sun came over the Ground Floor, Tower 1, LSE, 1 free. Pre-registration required W According to Sacred Scriptures Mount of Olives. Not only did Clement’s Inn, London WC2A www.eventbrite.co.uk West End (Talk) Organised by: Inter these sunbeams strike the roof of 2AZ. T 020 7955 6198 E s.sfeir@ Lane Books, 277 West End Lane, Cultural Centre and IOPHR. the Rotunda of the Church, they lse.ac.uk W www.lse.ac.uk/ London NW6 1QS. T 020 7431 Seyed Azmayesh and Jay Lakhani illuminated the tops of two nearby middle-east-centre 7009 E enquiry@darfpublishers. discuss creation and human minarets. Admission free. Pre- co.uk W http://darfpublishers. history according to the sacred registration required. BP Lecture 6:30 pm | Byzantine Routes And co.uk scriptures. Tickets: £5 (profi ts Th eatre, BM. T 020 7323 8181 E Frontiers in Eastern Pontus donated to charity). Pre-booking [email protected] W www.pef. (Lecture) Jim Crow (University required W https://icciophr. org.uk / www.britishmuseum.org of Edinburgh). Organised by: Sunday 10 December eventbrite.co.uk Nunn Hall, Th e British Institute at Ankara. Institute of Education (IOE), 20 4:30 pm | New Saudi State, Same Professor Crow will show how it 1:00 pm | Celebrating Bedford Way, London WC1H Old Problems? (Lecture) Steff en is possible to reconstruct routes Togetherness - an Iranian 0AL. E [email protected] W Hertog (LSE), Stéphane Lacroix and journeys across the Pontic community Charity Fair www.interculturalcentre.com (Sciences Po, Paris), Ian Black (LSE mountains and identify Byzantine Organised by: British-Iranian Middle East Centre). Organised border lands around Bayburt and Community Development Th ursday 7 December by: LSE Middle East Centre. beyond. In memory of Anthony Organisation (BICDO) and Sweeping away the old oligarchic Bryer. Tickets: £10/BIAA members hosted by the London Middle 4:00 pm | Th e Sunbeam Struck the order, Crown Prince Mohammad free. Th e British Academy, 10 East Institute (LMEI) and the Roof: a journey of discovery in bin Salman has orchestrated an Carlton House Terrace, London Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS. Jerusalem (Lecture) Archie Walls, unprecedented centralisation of SW1Y 5AH. T 020 7969 5204 E Until 5:00pm. A celebration of FSA. Organised by: Palestine power and resources. Th is talk [email protected] W www.biaa. all the good work that British- Exploration Fund and the BM. looks at the internal economic ac.uk Iranian charities in London do, In 1977 the Awqaf of Jerusalem challenges facing the Saudi state, get to know about their excellent took the unusual step of inviting and the challenges of reforming 7:00 pm | Suslov's Daughter work and the challenges they face the speaker into the Haram al- a state apparatus which remains (Book Launch) Organised by: Darf and get involved in their worthy Sharif in the middle of the night. the key tool for wealth sharing Publishers. A conversation with causes. Admission free. Brunei During his visit, he turned to face in the kingdom. Admission free. Yemeni author Habib Abdulrab Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T west towards the Church of the Pre-registration required W www. Sarori on his latest novel in English 0781 884 0824 E sahbalajevardi@ FRONTLINE TURKEY TheTh ConflictC fli t att theth HeartH t off theth MiddleMiddl EastE t ,aNP)HȴHYHU

Turkey is on the front line of the war which is consuming Syria and the Middle East. Its role is complicated by the long-running conflict with the Kurds on the Syrian border – a war that has killed as many as 80,000 people over the last three decades. 0U7YLZPKLU[,YKVȘHUWYVTPZLK[VTHRLHKLHS^P[O[OL722I\[ the talks marked a descent into assassinations, suicide bombings and the killing of civilians on both sides. The Kurdish peace process finally collapsed in 2014 with the spillover of the Syrian civil war. With ISIS moving through northern Iraq, Turkey has declared war on Western allies such as the Kurdish YPG – the military who rescued the Yezidis and fought with US backing in Kobane. Frontline Turkey shows how the Kurds’ relationship with Turkey is at the very heart of the Middle Eastern crisis, and documents, through MYVU[SPULYLWVY[PUNOV^,YKVȘHU»ZMHPS\YL[VIYPUNWLHJLPZ[OLRL`[V Hardback understanding current events in Middle East. November 2017 256 pgs | 216 x 135 mm £17.99 | 9781784538415 ‘Basaran’s survey of Kurdish history is both familiar and instructive... It is a fascinating, frightening story, www.ibtauris.com journalism bringing all the connections together... Watch this space. And read this book.’ - Robert Fisk, Independent

28 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 guitar and santur accompaniment. 1:15 pm | Safavid Iran and Separated by four centuries and Ottoman Turkey: two ceramic over 4000 miles, by culture, by traditions (Gallery Talk) Anne history, by religion, by language, Haworth (BM). Organised by: Burns and Hafez can’t really have BM. Admission free. Room 34, anything in common – can they? BM. T 020 7323 8181 W www. Are they “Bards Apart” or have britishmuseum.org they got far more in common than that which divides them? Sunday 17 December Performed by Talking Sheep. With English surtitles. Tickets: £10/£5 6:45 pm | Hanukkah Celebration students. Pre-booking required with Rivers of Babylon W www.eventbrite.co.uk Brunei Organised by: Spiro Ark and Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T Central Synagogue. A musical 020 7235 5122 E info@iransociety. feast of Iraqi Jewish, Arabic and org W www.iransociety.org Vintage Bollywood Songs and Instrumentals, Hanukkah songs Th ursday 14 December and seasonal refreshments. Tickets: £20. Pre-booking 4:00 pm | Armageddon and the required. Central Synagogue, Roman VIth Ferrata Legion: 36 Hallam Street, London new excavations at Legio, Israel, W1W 6NW. T 0207 794 4655 E and early Jewish-Christian- [email protected] W www. Roman relations (Lecture) spiroark.org Matthew J Adams (Albright Institute Jerusalem).Organised by: Palestine Exploration Fund and JANUARY EVENTS the BM. Th e Roman VIth Ferrata Legion, deployed to Palestine in the early 2nd century, established Th ursday 4 January Selma Parlour, Invented Vocabulary III, 2017, oil on linen, 61 x 51 cm. their base somewhere near Upright Animal (see Exhibitions p. 33) Megiddo, but its exact location 6:15 pm | Th e Night of Counting has been a longstanding question the Years (aka Th e Mummy) yahoo.co.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/ Wednesday 13 December in the archaeology of the period. (Film) Organised by: Barbican. lmei/events/ Adams reveals how the Jezreel Dir Chadi Abdel Salam (1969), 6:00 pm | How the West Valley Regional Project searched Egypt, 102 min. Screening of the Tuesday 12 December Undermined Women’s Rights in for potential locations of the Egyptian classic recently voted the the Arab World (Lecture) Nicola elusive fortress. Admission free. greatest ever movie from the Arab 5:45 pm | Lines or No Lines: Pratt (University of Warwick). Pre-registration required. BP world. Th e Horabat mountain Th e Reality of Maps in Sinai Organised by: Council for British Lecture Th eatre, BM. T 020 7323 tribe have lived for generations Peninsula and the Middle East Research in the Levant (CBRL). 8181 W www.britishmuseum.org by stripping artefacts from a tomb (Lecture) Ahmed Shams (Durham Based on personal narratives T 020 7323 8181 E ExecSec@pef. known only to themselves, and University). Organised by: London of women activists of diff erent org.uk W www.pef.org.uk / www. selling them on the black market. Middle East Institute, SOAS generations in Egypt, Lebanon britishmuseum.org When the current chief dies, his (LMEI). Drawing on 17-years of and Jordan, this lecture explores two sons learn for the fi rst time continuous fi eld expeditions by the history of women’s activism Saturday 16 December about the trade, and are thrown Sinai Peninsula Research (SPR), in the Arab world from the 1950s into moral chaos. Tickets: £10.50. the newly discovered 150 years onwards. Tickets: Free for CBRL 1:00 pm | Sufi sm: Mystical Barbican Cinemas 2, Beech Street, gap in mapping and mapmaking Members. British Academy, 10 Islam (Talk) Organised by: London EC2Y 8DS. T 020 7638 uncovers a dramatic loss in Carlton House Terrace, London Southbank Centre. Learn about 8891 E [email protected] W cartographic knowledge on maps SW1Y 5AH. T 020 7969 5296 E the mystical, spiritual practice www.barbican.org.uk and raises crucial open questions [email protected] W http://cbrl. of Sufi sm, famously embraced about the reliability of the maps org.uk by 13th century poet Rumi. Part Saturday 6 January in the Middle East. Part of the of Rituals and Seasons: Religion LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture 6:15 pm | ‘Bards Apart?’ – A and Our Natural Life. Tickets: 9:30 pm | Baroque at the Edge: Programme on the Contemporary musical performance of the Event included in the Saturday Th omas Dunford & Keyvan Middle East. Admission free. poems of Robert Burns and Pass. Blue Room, Level 1, Royal Chemirani (Performance) Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T Hafez Organised by: Th e Iran Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Organised by: London Symphony 020 7898 4330/4490 E vp6@soas. Society with the support of the Belvedere Road, London SE1 Orchestra. Part of the festival ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ Azima Foundation, the British 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W www. Baroque at the Edge (5-7 January). events/ Council, and the London Middle southbankcentre.co.uk Exploring the sounds shared by East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). With European Baroque and traditional

December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 29 Wednesday 10 January Department of Music, School ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ of Arts, SOAS. Huseyin Kaplan events/ 7:00 pm | Th e Calligrapher, the and Dursun Can Cakin joined Painter, and the Patron: A New by an ensemble featuring Cem 6:00 pm | Stolen Childhood: Perspective on the Freer Khusraw Tuncer (bass), Erdal Unsalan Representations of Palestinian u Shirin (Lecture) Organised by: (bağlama /saz), Gizem Altinordu Children in NGO Publications Islamic Art Circle at SOAS and (percussion), and Serkan (Seminar) Hedi Viterbo the London Middle East Institute, Cakmak (kaval fl ute) as they (University of Essex). Organised SOAS (LMEI), Simon Rettig perform traditional music from by: Department of Middle Eastern (Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur Anatolian and Alevi deyiş folk Studies, King's College London. M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian music. Tickets: £3 donation. Pre- Talk by Viterbo which will focus Institution, Washington, DC) booking required www.eventbrite. on one dominant image in NGO Th e Hadassah and Daniel Khalili co.uk Brunei Gallery Lecture publications: that of Palestinian Memorial Lecture in Islamic Art Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4500 E childhood as lost or stolen. and Culture. Organised by: Islamic [email protected] W www. Admission free. Pre-registration Art Circle at SOAS. Chair: Scott soas.ac.uk/music/events/concerts/ required www.eventbrite.co.uk Redford (SOAS). Admission free. Nash Lecture Th eatre (K2.31), Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T Monday 15 January King's College London, Strand Khadija, photograph by Hassan 07714087480 E rosalindhaddon@ Campus, London WC2R 2LS. Hajjaj, courtesy of the artist and Susan Barrett. Hassan Hajjaj: La gmail.com W www.soas.ac.uk/art/ 5:00 pm | Th e history of Islamic E [email protected] W www.kcl. Caravane (see Exhibitions p. 33) islac/ piety before Sufi sm (Seminar) ac.uk/sspp/departments/mems/ Christoph Melchert (University Th ursday 11 January of Oxford). Organised by: 6.00 pm | Th e Hanging Garden Middle-Eastern musical worlds, Department of History, School of of Babylon and the Meaning the two musicians juxtapose TBC | Politics of Emotions History, Religions & Philosophies, of Ezekiel 31:1-9 (Lecture) th th 16 -and 17 -century masters in Turkey and Its Connected SOAS. Near & Middle East History Stephanie Dalley (University of with Persian compositions of Geographies (Two-Day Seminar. Convener: Ceyda Oxford). Organised by: Anglo sublime virtuosity. Tickets: £15/£8 Symposium: Th ursday 11 – Karamursel (SOAS). Admission Israel Archaeological Society and students/£5 under-18s. Jerwood Friday 12 January) Organised free. Wolfson Lecture Th eatre, the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. Hall, LSO St Luke's, UBS and LSO by: LSE Contemporary Turkish Paul Webley Wing (Senate House), Admission free. Lecture Th eatre Music Education Centre, 161 Old Studies. E euroinst.turkish. SOAS. T 020 7898 4602 E ck17@ G6, Ground Floor, Institute of Street, London EC1V 9NG. T 020 [email protected] W www.lse. soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/ Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon 7638 8891 E [email protected] ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/ history/events/ Square, London WC1H OPY. T W https://lso.co.uk ContemporaryTurkishStudies/ 020 8349 5754 E secretary@aias. Tuesday 16 January org.uk W www.aias.org.uk Tuesday 9 January 4:00 pm | On the First Crusade with Jonathan Riley Smith 5:45 pm | Devastated Lands: Wednesday 17 January 3:30 pm | Th e Tunisian community (Lecture) Malcolm Billings (author Lebanon at the End of the Great of Mazara del Vallo (Sicily): and broadcaster). Organised by: War, 1918 (Lecture) Eugene 6:00 pm | Justice Delayed, Justice Issues in language contact, Palestine Exploration Fund, the Rogan (St Antony's College Redeemed? Transitional Justice change and identity (Seminar) Council for British Research in Middle East Centre, Oxford). in the Arab Region (Talk) Noha Luca D’Anna (Mississippi). the Levant (CBRL) and the BM. Organised by: London Middle Aboueldahab (Brookings Doha Organised by: Department of Admission free. Pre-registration East Institute, SOAS (LMEI), Center). Organised by: London Linguistics, School of Languages, required T 020 7323 8181 W www. the Council for British Research Middle East Institute, SOAS Cultures and Linguistics, SOAS. britishmuseum.org BP Lecture in the Levant (CBRL) and the (LMEI). Talk by Aboueldahab on D'Anna describes the Tunisian Th eatre, BM. T 020 7935 5379 E British Lebanese Association. her new book, Transitional Justice community of Mazara del Vallo [email protected] / cbrl@britac. David Roberts Memorial Lecture. and the Prosecution of Political (Sicily), the oldest Arabic- ac.uk W www.pef.org.uk / http:// Th e First World War had brought Leaders in the Arab Region: A speaking community in Italy, cbrl.org.uk an unprecedented degree of loss comparative study of Egypt, Libya, and the phenomena of language and suff ering to the people of Tunisia and Yemen (Hart, 2017) contact observed within the Friday 12 January Lebanon. Th is lecture examines in which she argues that the Arab community, with a particular through works of literature and region presents the strongest focus on interference, borrowing, TBC | Politics of Emotions eyewitness accounts how the challenge yet to the conventional codeswitching and morphological in Turkey and Its Connected people of Lebanon looked back understanding of transitional hybrids, along with the identity Geographies (Two-Day on the Ottoman experience and justice. Admission free. MBI Al practices and polylanguaging Symposium: Th ursday 11 – their diff erent expectations of the Jaber Seminar Room, London among young speakers. Convener: Friday 12 January) See above event post-Ottoman world. Part of the Middle East Institute, SOAS, Sheena Shah (SOAS). Admission listing. LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell free. Room B102, SOAS. E ss170@ Programme on the Contemporary Square, London WC1B 5EA. E soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/ 7:30 pm | Th e Mysticism of Middle East. Admission free. [email protected] / gm29@soas. linguistics/events/ Anatolian & Alevi Folk Music Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ (Concert) Organised by: 020 7898 4330/4490 E vp6@soas. events/

30 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 The Hadassah and Daniel Khalili Memorial Lecture in Islamic Art and Culture The Calligrapher, the Painter, and the Patron: A New Perspective on the Freer Khusraw u Shirin

Dr Simon Rettig Assistant Curator of Islamic Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 7.00pm, Wednesday 10 January 2018 Khalili Lecture Theatre, Main Building, SOAS University of London, Russell Square London WC1H 0XG

Lebanese food and drink will be served after the lecture

Organised by the Islamic Art Circle at SOAS and the London Middle East Institute, SOAS University of London

The lecture and the reception following the lecture are sponsored by The Khalili Family Image: Khusraw arriving at Shirin’s castle From a Khusraw u Shirin by Nizami Iran, Tabriz, Jalayirid period, ca. 1400 Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper Enquiries: E-mail [email protected] Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC Purchase F1931.36 or Telephone December020 7898 4490 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 31 7:00 pm | Memories of South-East England). One-day Lecture Programme on the History? Th e Case of Early Mountaineering in Iran: John conference bringing together Contemporary Middle East. Islamic Conversion (Seminar) Harding (Lecture) Organised by: scholars from a range of disciplines Admission free. Khalili Lecture Karen Bauer (Th e Institute of Th e Iran Society. John Harding, to explore the work of Iranian Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 Ismaili Studies). Organised by: a member of the Iran Society, fi lmmaker Sohrab Shahid Saless as 4330/4490 E [email protected] W Department of History, School of has spent most of a lifetime a conduit for a wider engagement www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ History, Religions & Philosophies, mountaineering. In his talk he with exiled and displaced SOAS. Near & Middle East History will be sharing his experiences of moving image practitioners. Wednesday 24 January Seminar. Convener: Ceyda mountaineering in Iran. Copies of Keynote speaker: Hamid Nafi cy Karamursel (SOAS). Admission his recently published book will be (Northwestern). Tickets: E 8:00 pm | Uprooted (Book free. Wolfson Lecture Th eatre, available for purchase. Admission shahidsalessretrospective2017@ Launch) Organised by: Spiro Paul Webley Wing (Senate House), free for Society Members plus gmail.com Goethe-Institut Ark. Lyn Julius discusses her SOAS. T 020 7898 4602 E ck17@ one guest. Pall Mall Room, Th e London, 50 Princes Gate, new book Uprooted (Vallentine soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/ Army & Navy Club, 36-39 Pall Exhibition Road, London SW7 Mitchell) with Saul Zadka, author history/events/ Mall, London SW1Y 5JN (Dress 2PH. T 020 7596 4000 E info- and journalist specialising in code calls for gentlemen to wear [email protected] W https:// Middle Eastern Aff airs. Tickets: Tuesday 30 January jacket and tie). T 020 7235 5122 www.goethe.de/ins/gb/en/m/ver. £10. Hampstead Garden Suburb E [email protected] W www. cfm Synagogue, Norrice Lea, London 5:45 pm | Jewish and Greek iransociety.org / www.therag. N2 0RE. E education@spiroark. Communities in Egypt: co.uk Tuesday 23 January org W www.spiroark.org Entrepreneurship and Business Before Nasser: Volume 58 Friday 19 January 5:45 pm | Gaza (Lecture) Donald Th ursday 25 January (Lecture) Najat Abdulhaq (author). Macintyre (journalist and Organised by: London Middle East 9:30 am | Sohrab Shahid Saless: former Jerusalem chief for the 6:00 pm | Tracks and Traces: Institute, SOAS (LMEI). Lecture Exile, Displacement and Independent). Organised by: Frantz Fanon in Arabic and by Najat Abdulhaq on her book the Stateless Moving Image London Middle East Institute, Russian (Seminar) Organised by: Jewish and Greek Communities (Conference) Organised by: Dr SOAS (LMEI) and the Centre Centre for Translation Studies, in Egypt: Entrepreneurship and Azadeh Fatehrad and Nikolaus for Palestine Studies. Lecture by SOAS. Sue-Ann Harding (Queen's Business Before Nasser: Volume Perneczky in partnership with Macintyre on his latest book Gaza: University Belfast). Admission 58 (I.B.Tauris, 2016) in which she the Goethe-Institut London and Preparing for Dawn (Oneworld free. Room TBC, SOAS. E ns27@ looks at the role Jewish and Greek with support from the Visual and Publications, 2017) in which he soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/cts/ communities had in the economy Material Culture Research Centre, reveals Gaza's human tragedy events/ in pre-Nasser Egypt. Part of the Kingston University, Iran Heritage through the stories of the ordinary LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture Foundation (IHF), Arts Council people who live and work there. Monday 29 January Programme on the Contemporary England and CHASE (Consortium Chair: Dina Matar (SOAS). Part Middle East. Admission free. for the Humanities and the Arts of the LMEI's Tuesday Evening 5:00 pm | Can Emotions Make Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E vp6@soas. ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ Anissa Berkane, Golden - Number. Dhikr Pictural (see Exhibitions p. 33) events/

EVENTS OUTSIDE LONDON

Friday 26 January

TBC | Rethinking Nationalism, Sectarianism, and Ethno- Religious Mobilisation in the Middle East (Th ree-Day Conference: Friday 26 January – Sunday 28 January) Organised by: Pembroke College, Oxford. Conference focusing on the questions of why, how and in what ways borders and boundaries in the Middle East have and are being (re) constructed and their implications for the management of diversity, including a focus session on Religion and Sectarianism in

32 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 the Islamic World. Tickets: See few than 50 priests now remain contact details. University of worldwide. Admission free. Th e Oxford. E mideastconf@pmb. Street Gallery, Institute of Arab ox.ac.uk W www.pmb.ox.ac.uk/ and Islamic Studies, Stocker about-pembroke/news-events/ Road, University of Exeter, Exeter college-events EX4 4ND. T 01392 724039 E [email protected] W Saturday 27 January http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/ iais/events/exhibitions/ TBC | Rethinking Nationalism, Sectarianism, and Ethno- Until 7 Jan | Hassan Hajjaj: La Religious Mobilisation in Caravane Born and raised in the Middle East (Th ree-Day Larache, British-Moroccan artist Conference: Friday 26 January Hajjaj moved to the UK aged – Sunday 28 January) See above twelve, but has spent much of event listing. his life travelling between the two countries and cultures. His Sunday 28 January artworks refl ect his nomadic lifestyle and the relationships TBC | Rethinking Nationalism, he has formed with a variety of Sectarianism, and Ethno- characters along the way, from Religious Mobilisation in musicians to artists and athletes the Middle East (Th ree-Day to street performers. Admission Conference: Friday 26 January free. Terrace Rooms, South Wing, – Sunday 28 January) See above Somerset House, Strand, London event listing. WC2R 1LA. T 020 7845 4600 E [email protected] W www.somersethouse.org.uk EXHIBITIONS Until 2018 | Kaveh Golestan Series of portraits, taken between Until 2 December | Th e show 1975 and 1977, that document sex has a long title that I don’t workers from the former red light recall anymore: Pascal Hachem district, Shahr-e No, in Tehran, Hassan Masoudy, If life is like a big dream, why bother living in torment Li Bai (701 - 762) 2012. Water-based pigments on paper photo Jonathan Greet Exhibition of new work by Iran where Golestan witnessed courtesy October Gallery. Hassan Massoudy: Breath, Gesture and Light (see Lebanese artist Pascal Hachem ‘the social, fi nancial, hygienic, Exhibitions p. 33) composed of new sculptural behavioural and psychological installations in which Hachem problems that exist in everyday T 020 7121 6190 E [email protected]. Parlour. Th rough the gossamer- interrogates his experiences of society … magnifi ed.’ Exhibition uk W http://p21.gallery like application of the oil, so his home city of Beirut. Th rough on for twelve months. Tickets: intrinsic to her practice, the these installations the artist off ers See contact details below. Boiler Th ursday 7 December artist enables colour to appear as timely and imaginative refl ections House Level 2 West, Tate Modern, a veil rather than a skin, subtly on what it is like to live through Bankside, London SE1 9TG. T 020 Until 27 January | Hassan revealing each decision she makes. situations of political and social 7887 8888 E visiting.modern@ Massoudy: Breath, Gesture and Her works show how abstract unease. Admission free. Th e tate.org.uk W www.tate.org.uk/ Light New solo exhibition by painting can be mediated by its Mosaic Rooms, Tower House, visit/tate-modern/ master artist-calligrapher, Hassan related processes and conventions. 226 Cromwell Road, London Massoudy. Massoudy's work Admission free. Pi Artworks, SW5 0SW T 020 7370 9990 E Saturday 2 December features the texts of a diverse range 55 Eastcastle Street, London [email protected] W http:// of writers, from poet, Charles W1W 8EG. T 020 7637 8403 E mosaicrooms.org Until 6 January | Dhikr Pictural Baudelaire and philosopher, Jean- [email protected] W www. Exhibition of paintings by the Jacques Rousseau to Virgil and Ibn piartworks.com Until 22 December | Th e Worlds of Algerian visual artist Anissa ‘Arabi. Admission free. October Mandaean Priests: Documenting Berkane. An invitation to all Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, an Endangered Religion Confl ict senses and diff erent audiences; London WC1N 3AL. T 020 7242 in the Middle East has forced whether art-lovers, rationale- 7367 W www.octobergallery.co.uk Mandaeans, sometimes called geeks or spiritually-curious, Sabians, out of their homelands it leaves no one indiff erent as Friday 5 January in Iraq and Iran in ever greater highlighted through ornamental numbers. Although Mandaeans executions, numerical mysteries Until 10 February | Upright depend on their priests for or metaphysical implications. Animal Inaugural exhibition preserving religious knowledge Admission free. P21 Gallery, 21-27 of London-based painter Selma and performing complex rituals, Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD.

NEW MA PALESTINE STUDIES Ŕ Develop an understanding of the complexities of modern and contemporary Palestine

Ŕ Explore history, political structure, development, culture and society

Ŕ Obtain a multi-disciplinary overview

Ŕ Enrol on a ﬂexible, inter-disciplinary study programme For further details, please contact: Dr Adam Hanieh E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk 34 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018 Middle East Summer School y 182423 June JuneJune-24 - –19 26 JulyJuly July 20182014 2013

AnAn intensive intensive five-week five-week programme programme which which includes includes a two choice courses: of two courses: a language one (Persian or Arabic, the latter at two levels) andan Arabicanother Language on the 'Government Course (introductory and Politics or ofintermediate) the Middle East'and or 'Cultureanother and on Society‘Government in the andMiddle Politics East'. of the Middle East.

Beginners Persian (Level 1) Government and Politics of the Middle East Th is is an introductory course which aims to give the students a reasonable grounding in the basics of Persian grammar and syntax Th is course provides an introduction to the politics of the Middle as well as to enable them to understand simple and frequently used East and North Africa (MENA) region. It gives on a country by expressions related to basic language use. Th ey will be able to hold country basis, an overview of the major political uncomplicated conversations on topics such as personal and family issues and developments in the region since the end of the First information, shopping, hobbies, employment as well as simple and World War and addresses key themes in the study of contemporary direct exchanges of information related to familiar topics. By the Middle East politics, including: the role of the military, social and end of the course they will also progress to read simple short texts. economic development, political Islam, and the recent uprisings (the ‘Arab Spring’). Beginners Arabic (Level 1) Culture and Society in the Middle East

Th is is an introductory course in Modern Standard Arabic. It Th is course examines the major cultural patterns and institutions teaches students the Arabic script and provides basic grounding in of the MENA region. It is taught through a study of some lively Arabic grammar and syntax. On completing the course, students topics such as religious and ethnic diversity, impact of the West, should be able to read, write, listen to and understand simple Arabic stereotyping, the role of tradition, education (traditional and sentences and passages. Th is course is for complete beginners and modern), family structure and value, gender politics, media, life in does not require any prior knowledge or study of Arabic. city, town and village, labour and labour migration, the Palestinian refugee problem and Arab exile communities, culinary cultures, music and media, etc. Beginners Arabic (Level 2)

Th is course is a continuation of Beginners Arabic Level 1. It completes the coverage of the grammar and syntax of Modern Standard Arabic and trains students in reading, comprehending and writing with the help of a dictionary more complex Arabic Timetable sentences and passages. Courses are taught Mon-Th u each week. Language courses are taught To qualify for entry into this course, students should have in the morning (10am-1pm) and the Politics and Culture Courses are already completed at least one introductory course in taught in two slots in the aft ernoon Arabic. (2:00-3:20 and 3:40-5:00pm).

FEES Session (5 weeks) Programme fee* Accommodation fee** 1824 June-19June–26 July July 2018 2013 (two (two courses) courses) £2,700 £2,500 from £300/week (one course) £1,400 * An Early early bird bird discounts discount of 10%10% applyapplies to to course course fees fees before before 1 March15 April 2013. 2014. * An early bird discount of 10% applies to course fees before 30 April 2018. A** discount Accommodation of 15% applies fees mustto SOAS be paid alumni by 1and March 20% 2013 to SOAS to secure students. accommodation. ** Rooms Please cancheck be ourbooked website at the from Intercollegiate mid-October Halls 2012 which for confiare located rmed prices. in the heart of Bloomsbury: www.halls.london.ac.uk. A limited number of partial tuition fee waivers of up to 50% off the fee are available for SOAS’s current students on a fi rst come, fi rst serve basis (please enquire).

For more information, please contact Louise Hosking on

[email protected]. Or check our websiteDecember www.soas.ac.uk/lmei 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 35 February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 35 CENTRE FOR IRANIAN STUDIES – SCHOLARSHIPS

SOAS, University of London, is pleased to announce the availability of several scholarships in its Centre for Iranian Studies (CIS). The Centre, established in 2010, draws upon the range of academic research and teaching across the disciplines of SOAS, including Languages and Literature, the Study of Religions, History, Economics, Politics, International Relations, Music, Art and Media and Film Studies. It aims to

build close relations with likeminded p 25 . of the School Oriental and African Studies, London, 2007, Treasures institutions and to showcase and foster the best of contemporary Iranian talent in art and culture. MA in Iranian Studies *OCISNFNCFSTTVDDFTTGVMMZ launcIFEBOinterdisciplinary MA in Image: Anvār-i Suhaylī (Lights of the Canopus) Manuscript (Ref: MS10102) from: Anna Contadini (ed.) Objectsof Instruction: Image: Anvār-i Iranian Studies, UIFGJSTUPGJUTLJOE which will be off ered BHBJOJO2017/18. Thanks to the generosity of the Fereydoun Djam Charitable Trust, a number of Kamran Djam scholarships are available for BA, MA and MPhil/PhD studies. MA in Iranian Studies For further details, please contact: Dr Nima Mina (Department of the Languages and Culture of the Middle East) Scholarships Offi cer E: [email protected] E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4315 T: +44 (0)20 7074 5091/ 5094 W: www.soas.ac.uk/nme/programmes/ W: www.soas.ac.uk/scholarships ma-in-iranian-studies Centre for Iranian Studies Student Recruitment Dr Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (Chair) T: +44(0)20 7898 4034 E: [email protected] E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4747 W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis

36 The Middle East in London December 2017 – January 2018