Set against the backdrop of the early American presence in Iran under the Shah, and the burgeoning years of Kuwait’s early oil boom, Dancing into the Light is Kathryn Abdul-Baki’s memoir of growing up within both the expatriate Western communities and the larger Middle Eastern society of Kuwait and Jerusalem. Hers is a story of belonging to two vastly different cultures and finding her place within both, and the search to find the inherent harmony in worlds at odds with each other. She is alread...
Contextuality of Healthcare Choices in Pakistan analyzes the contextual factors shaping healthcare decision-making in Pakistan. Divided into three thematic areas—contextuality of healthcare choices, power dynamics and the health of the marginalized, and emerging challenges and healthcare response—the book explores the complex interplay of social, cultural, and institutional influences on health-seeking behaviors. The book examines the nuanced fabric of healthcare decision-making in Pakistan thr...
Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Nayra Atiya gathered the oral histories of five Egyptian men: a fisherman, an attorney, a scholar, a businessman, and a production manager. Through personal interviews over the course of several years, Atiya intimately captured the everyday triumphs and struggles of these young men in a rapidly changing Egyptian society. These tender stories of childhood experiences in the rural countryside, of the rigors of schooling, and of the many challenges in nav...
In southeastern Morocco, around the oasis of Tafilalet, the Ait Khabbash people weave brightly colored carpets, embroider indigo head coverings, paint their faces with saffron, and wear ornate jewelry. Their extraordinarily detailed arts are rich in cultural symbolism; they are always breathtakingly beautiful-and they are typically made by women. Like other Amazigh (Berber) groups (but in contrast to the Arab societies of North Africa), the Ait Khabbash have entrusted their artistic responsibili...
How a nineteenth-century lawsuit over the estate of a wealthy Tunisian Jew shines new light on the history of belongingIn the winter of 1873, Nissim Shamama, a wealthy Jew from Tunisia, died suddenly in his palazzo in Livorno, Italy. His passing initiated a fierce lawsuit over his large estate. Before Shamama's riches could be disbursed among his aspiring heirs, Italian courts had to decide which law to apply to his estate-a matter that depended on his nationality. Was he an Italian citizen? A s...
The little-known history of public school teachers across the Arab world—and how they wielded an unlikely influence over the modern Middle EastToday, it is hard to imagine a time and place when public school teachers were considered among the elite strata of society. But in the lands controlled by the Ottomans, and then by the British in the early and mid-twentieth century, teachers were key players in government and leading formulators of ideologies. Drawing on archival research and oral histor...
Diverse perspectives and groundbreaking research on gender and family issues affecting Muslim communities throughout North America
A Political Biography of Aung San Suu Kyi (Politics in Asia)
by Michal Lubina
This book is the first political biography of Aung San Suu Kyi covering both her years in opposition and all her years in power from 2016 onwards. It offers a new interpretation of Aung San Suu Kyi by presenting a balanced and thorough account of Suu Kyi’s policies. In the last 30 years there has not been a person in global politics who has risen so high and fallen so low – and so quickly – as Aung San Suu Kyi. Using postcolonial theory and introducing the new concept of `a hybrid politician'...
Home and Sense of Belonging among Iraqi Kurds in the UK (Kurdish Societies, Politics, and International Relations)
by Ali Zalme
In Home and Sense of Belonging among Iraqi Kurds in the UK , Ali Zalme explores how Iraqi Kurdish generations in the UK conceptualise home and belonging. Zalme challenges the essentialist and nationalist approach that often dominates discussions of diasporic community research, instead promoting perspectives from individuals’ experiences and their social practices. Home and Sense of Belonging investigates the Iraqi Kurdish community using a bottom-up approach, analyzing the new generation of Kur...
In his iconic musical travelogue Heavy Metal Islam, Mark LeVine first brought the views and experiences of a still-young generation to the world. In We'll Play till We Die, he joins with this generation's leading voices to write a definitive history of the era, closing with a cowritten epilogue that explores the meanings and futures of youth music from North Africa to Southeast Asia. We'll Play till We Die dives into the revolutionary music cultures of the Middle East and larger Muslim world...
With the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraqis abroad, hoping to return one day to a better Iraq, became uncertain exiles. Return to Ruin tells the human story of this exile in the context of decades of U.S. imperial interests in Iraq-from the U.S. backing of the 1963 Ba'th coup and support of Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s, to the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion and occupation. Zainab Saleh shares the experiences of Iraqis she met over fourteen years of fieldwork in Iraqi London-offering stories...
With an estimated population of 35 million, Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without an independent state of their own. The majority of Kurds live in Turkey, where they constitute 18 percent of the population. Since the foundation of the Turkish republic in 1923, the history of the Kurds in Turkey is marked by state violence against them and decades of conflict between the Turkish military and Kurdish fighters. Although the continuous struggle of the Kurdish people is well-known a...
Zionism and Melancholy (New Jewish Philosophy and Thought)
by Nitzan Lebovic
Nitzan Lebovic claims that political melancholy is the defining trait of a generation of Israelis born between the 1960s and 1990s. This cohort came of age during wars, occupation and intifada, cultural conflict, and the failure of the Oslo Accords. The atmosphere of militarism and conservative state politics left little room for democratic opposition or dissent. Lebovic and others depict the failure to respond not only as a result of institutional pressure but as the effect of a long-lasting...
Turkish Banking (Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions)
by Y. Altunbas, A. Kara, and OE. Olgu
In light of Turkey's EU bid and the successful IMF-led disinflation program, this book explores the evolution and performance of the Turkish banking sector. Analyzing the repercussions of overall economic structure, financial crises and political instability on its financial sector, it scrutinizes the prospects for the future of banking sectors.
Das Soziale im Selbstbezug (Wissen, Kommunikation und Gesellschaft)
by Maike Neufend
In diesem Buch wird eine Ethnografie des Selbst vorgelegt, die anhand gegenwärtiger spiritueller Praktiken im Libanon durch eine bestimmte Emotionskultur verkörpert wird. Es erzählt von einer radikalen Subjektivierung, die als Teil und Effekt gesellschaftlicher Transformationsprozesse bewertet wird. Selbstkenntnis, Selbstwissen und Selbstartikulation werden als eine genuine Erfahrung des Islams gelesen und zugleich als Ausdruck einer inneren Beziehung zur Konsumkultur: Praktiken der Optimierung,...
Cultural Dynamics of Water in Iranian Civilization
by Majid Labbaf Khaneiki
This book traces “water” back to the most primitive animistic notions that are still lingering on in the shape of such rituals as qanat marriage or rain-making. Water, in the Iranian philosophy, is used in an attempt to find an explanation for the genesis of the universe, as described in Zoroastrian Akhshij philosophy, according to which water is one of the four fundamental elements of the creation. The concept of time began to germinate in the Iranian mind, when they had to count the passage o...
The book provides a thorough analysis of strategy formulation at country and company level in Arab countries and corporations. It also deals with the issue of entrepreneurial initiative in Arab countries and issues actual practice of entrepreneurship. Role of the financial markets, especially venture capital and private equity are examined.
Vehicles of Decolonization (Critical Race, Indigeneity, and Relationality)
by Maryam S. Griffin
Examining the border-enclosure strategy Israel uses to impose Palestinian im/mobilization, Maryam Griffin considers the ways public transportation in the Palestinian West Bank is a constant site of social struggle. Her illuminating book, Vehicles of Decolonization, studies collective movement, resistance, and everyday life in the West Bank to show how Palestinians assert a kind of Indigenous self-determination over mobility that Israeli settler colonialism seeks to undermine. Having immersed h...
The question of identity is one of present-day Israel’s cardinal and most pressing issues. In a comprehensive examination of the identity issue, this study focuses on attitudes toward the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora; the Holocaust and its repercussions on identity; attitudes toward the state of Israel and Zionism; and attitudes toward Jewish religion. Israeli Arab students (Israeli Palestinians) and Jewish Israeli students were asked corresponding questions regarding their identit...