In this conversation with Mezna Qato and Ala’a Shehabi, Bassam Haddad inquires about MERIP’s recent 'Paper Trail’ Issue. Mezna and Ala’a address the background, content, and details of the issue and some of the surrounding topics.

This issue of Middle East Report explores how the Middle East is on the cutting edge of struggles to hide or reveal secret or important documents and paper trails that shape the lives of those across the region. The issue explores how the powerful utilize secrecy or deception to hide their paper trails from publics and how others weaponize archives and documents to serve their interests. At the same, time the issue explores how citizens and activists can fight for transparency to uncover the secret documents that hold clues over how they are governed and what is being hidden behind closed doors. The issue also explores how paper trails can be created through activism that turns the tables on the powerful or can be mined to explore and revive the past.

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يتناول هذا الحوار بين بسام حداد ووائل جمال عدة مواضيع في اقتصاد مصر السياسي منذ ٢٠١٣، مع تشديد على بنى السلطة المهيمنة، السياسات النيوليبرالية، إعادة التوزيع، والعدالة الاجتماعية

In the first of a series of interviews that aims to profile the newest and noteworthy academic institutions in the MENA region that are helping to advance critical learning, Jonathan Adler of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative interviews Katy Whiting of the Sijal Institute. The Sijal Institute is an intensive language and cultural school and institute in the Jabal Amman neighborhood of Amman, Jordan. Whiting discusses the Sijal Institute's efforts to fill gaps in Arabic language instruction, develop new pedagogical strategies, and design more effective cultural immersion programs.

In this interview, Jonathan Adler, the managing editor of Tadween Publishing, sits down with Adel Iskandar to revisit one of Tadween’s first books, Mediating the Arab Uprisings, and to discuss the continually contested arena of media politics in the Middle East.

Hosts: Bassam Haddad, Matt Atteberry, Thomas Serres

In this episode, we explore the sociopolitical issue of racism through the lens of football, with some emphasis on French football. This includes the history of pseudo-scientific thinking, its influence on racial discrimination, the problem of enforcing good behavior, and what FIFA might do. In addition we discuss a name change for the podcast, who looks like the Champions League favorites, and a football detective story so convoluted it could only happen in today’s media environment.

Our guest, Thomas Serres, takes a deep dive into Ligue 1 in France, and the political overtones of bigotry directed at fans of the Algerian national team in French society. As in most European countries, racism has been a recurring problem in French football stadiums. It has notably resulted in deadly clashes between antifascist and neo-Nazi groups of PSG fans in the 2000s. At the same time, these clashes have also allowed the growing securitization of ultras and forms of indiscriminate repression. Race has also been a problem at the national level. When the notoriously multiracial French national team faced major defeats, pundits and politicians have often blamed the "mentality" of players of African or North-African origins. In addition, racist discourses have fueled the public space after each major victory of the Algerian national team, as public displays of "Algerianess" were portrayed as a threat to public safety and a form of betrayal.

Courtesy of Voices of the Middle East & North Africa (VOMENA).

Shahram Aghamir spoke with Peyman Jafari, a historian at Princeton University about the latest wave of anti-government protests in Iran.

On Friday Nov 15, protests broke out in 30 cities across Iran after a surprise announcement by the government it would ration gasoline and raise prices by 50 percent to 300%. The protests swiftly turned into anti-government demonstrations targeting the theocratic regime as a whole.

And, as in previous protests, demonstrators utilized Twitter and other social media platforms to organize, to communicate with the outside world and document the typically heavy-handed response by the regime. In the first twenty four hours, hundreds of images and video clips showed security forces brutally attacking protesters.

Amnesty International Verified video footage as well as eyewitness testimony from people on the ground and information gathered by human rights activists outside Iran reveal a harrowing pattern of unlawful killings by Iranian security forces: At least 106 protesters in 21 cities had been killed as of Wednesday, and Amnesty International believes that the real death toll may be much higher, some reports suggesting as many as 200 fatalities. State media have reported only a handful of protester deaths, plus those of four members of the security forces.

Adding to lethal attacks on the protests, within twenty-four hours, the government has used other tool in their arsenal - The Iranian authorities shutdown the internet for 5 days to stop the flow of information to the outside world and to cut off communication among the Iranian people themselves.

NetBlocks, a non-governmental organization that monitors Internet accessibility around the world, has reported that “The ongoing disruption is the most severe recorded in Iran since President Rouhani came to power, and the most severe disconnection tracked by NetBlocks in any country in terms of its technical complexity and breadth."

Courtesy of VOMENA.

Protesters took to the streets of Baghdad once again on October 25 calling for radical changes to the existing political and economic system.

Ever since a new wave of protests erupted in Baghdad on October 1 and quickly spread to several southern cities, Iraq has been rocked by demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience rooted in long-standing grievances over unemployment, inadequate services, economic mismanagement and corruption. The security forces have responded harshly; killing more than 260 protestors and injuring thousands more. Nevertheless, the unrest continues, and the protestors have expanded their demands to include an overhaul of Iraq’s political structure, which was established after the U.S. led invasion in 2003.

To get a better picture of what is happening in Iraq and the role of the U.S. and regional players in that country, VOMENA's Shahram Aghamir spoke with NY Professor Sinan Antoon.

Sinan Antoon is a celebrated poet, novelist, translator, and scholar of modern Arabic literature and contemporary Arab culture and politics at the Gallatin school at NYU. His latest novel is titled 'The Book Of Collateral Damage'.

Jadaliyya’s Iran Page brings Iranian feminist experiences of the 1979 revolution and its aftermath together in a new audio interview series.

In the first episode, Jadaliyya’s Iran Page co-editor, Manijeh Nasrabadi, interviews Homa Hoodfar on revolutionary upheaval, the contested role of women in the national liberation project and to reflect on what feminism means to her.

On 17 September 2019, Ismail Ziada, a Dutch national of Palestinian descent, brought a civil suit against Benny Gantz, head of Israel’s Blue and White Party and the Israeli Army General Chief of General Staff during the 2014 Gaza onslaught and Amir Eshel, Israeli Air Force Chief. The suit alleges war crimes for the killing of six of Ziada’s family members including his mother, three brothers, sister-in-law, and twelve-year old nephew when the family’s home in the Al-Bureij refugee camp was bombed in 2014. The hearing will determine whether the Dutch court has jurisdiction. In this interview, Noura Erakat speaks with Liesbeth Zegveld, Ziada’s attorney and renowned human rights attorney, scholar of international humanitarian law, and professor at Leiden University.

Interviewed by Noura Erakat | English

On 24 September 2019, Jadaliyya Co-Editor Noura Erakat joined Professor Duncan Kennedy to discuss her new book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine at Harvard Law School. Erakat comments that the conversation was particularly significant because she uses Kennedy’s concept of “legal work” to shape her analytical framework regarding the relationship between international law and Palestine. The 50-minute discussion features a robust Q & A with the audience.

Artists Tania El Khoury and Roy Dib in conversation focusing on Dib's practice, cultural policy in Lebanon, the growing censorship against Lebanese artists and activists, and the recent case of Mashrou' Leila.

With the protestors successful in ousting Bouteflika, those who take to the streets are hoping to keep this revolutionary spirit alive. Khalil Bendib of VOMENA speaks with Algerian scholar and activist Hamza Hamouchene about the ongoing movement, its endurance, and its promise for the future of Algeria.

Last May, Donald Trump unilaterally violated the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran, the United States, and 5 other world powers, and followed this up by reimposing harsh economic, trade and financial sanctions against Iran- Back in July of 2015 Iran, the US, along with Russia, China, and the European Union had agreed to a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA.) Under this agreement, Iran would be protected from economic sanctions in exchange for accepting to subject its nuclear research program to international inspections. This agreement was widely seen as a crowning achievement of former President Barack Obama’s foreign policy but was vociferously opposed by Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Zionist forces and their allies in the US. Once in power, the Trump administration decided to violate and terminate this hard-won accord, calling it a “bad deal” and it has since ramped up a new “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, a maneuver aiming to strangulate Iran’s economy which now extends as far as bribing Iranian tanker captains to surrender control of their ships to the US. With so much attention given to the war of nerves between Iran and the US, how are the US’s back-breaking sanctions impacting the Iranian population and the Iranian economy in general? To get some clarity on these issues, Malihe Razazan spoke with Iran expert and journalist at the NY Times, Farnaz Fassihi.

Omar Shanti looks back on the raucous, rebellious, and symbolically rich life of the late Rachid Taha, including a never-before published interview with the Algerian musician in May 2018, only four months before his untimely death.

In the summer of 1988, thousands of political prisoners were systematically executed in Iran. The killings were horrific, not only in scale, but this was done in total secrecy. To this day, the Iranian regime has never openly acknowledged these executions.

In this interview, VOMENA host and producer Malihe Razazan speaks with Iranian historian Nasser Mohajer, who researched and documented the horrific events of the summer of 1988, which are also the subject of his upcoming book, "Voices of a Massacre: Untold Stories of Life and Death in Iran, 1988."

Courtesy of VOMENA.

Every year, the Arab television industry releases many new soap operas (musalsalat) during the month of Ramadan. But how has the Syrian conflict affected its film industry, which still sometimes releases dozens of shows per year. Mira Nabulsi asked Christa Salamandra, professor of anthropology, about how writers and directors are navigating the unstable political landscape.

Yemen’s southern secessionist forces appear to have taken effective control of the port city of Aden, seat of the internationally recognized government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. In this latest conflict, fighters loyal to Southern Transitional Council (STC), which seeks an independent south Yemen, began an offensive against the government forces on August 7. Both sides have been part of a military coalition, dominated by Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE), which intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthis and their allies after they removed Mr. Hadi from power earlier that year. The separatist fighters involved in the recent showdown are UAE trained while the government forces appear to be backed by the Saudis.

What is the significance of this recent confrontation? How will it impact the ongoing war in Yemen? What do we need to know about South Yemen and its history? Who are the secessionist in Yemen today? Does the showdown in Eden signal a schism in the Saudi-UAE coalition?

To answer these questions, we turn to Sheila Carapico, a Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Richmond in Virginia. Professor Carapico is the author of Civil Society in Yemen: The Political Economy of Activism in Modern Arabia. More recently, she edited a volume entitled Arabia Incognita: Dispatches from Yemen and the Gulf.

Courtesy of VOMENA

This interview is on the recent waves of deportations, detentions and relocations of migrants and refugees in Turkey, the majority of whom are Syrians. This wave is accompanied by rising xenophobia, systematic harassment of and discrimation against the Syrian population in Turkey, who are blamed for the increasingly complex political and economic problems of the country. We discussed the precarious legal category of “the temporary protection status,” which in part allowed for the recent shift in Turkey’s official refugee/migrant policy to an explicitly national security-oriented one, as well as the repercussions of internal relocations for Syrian families who have been rebuilding their lives in Istanbul since 2011. We also discussed local efforts to build solidarity with all refugee and migrant communities in the country against the backdrop of an increasingly hostile environment, and the aspirations of the new generation of Syrians who have been growing roots in Istanbul.

Note: Shortly after this interview was recorded, the governor of Istanbul extended the relocation deadline for refugees registered in other cities to from 20 August to 30 October.

Further reading/resources:
Jadaliyya article:
https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/39957/Racism-and-Syrians-in-Turkey-The-Political-Economy-of-Discrimination

We Want to Live Together Initiative:
https://www.facebook.com/birlikteyasamakistiyoruz/
https://twitter.com/biraradayasamak?lang=en

Osama Esber, host of "In Their Own Voices", speaks with the Algerian poet Onfuwan Fouad about themes in her writing.

Osama Esber, host of the Status Hour program "In Their Own Voices", speaks with the Palestinian poet Mariam Shareef about themes in her writing.

Interviewed by Osama Esber | Arabic

In this talk, based on her recently published book, Dr. Maha Nassar argues that despite the double-erasure that Palestinian citizens of Israel faced from the state and from the Arab world, intellectuals within this community insisted that they were a part of regional and global cultural projects of decolonization.

Through a critical examination of a wide array of Arabic writings, Nassar demonstrates the importance of Arabic newspapers and literary journals in traversing national boundaries and creating transnational and transregional communities of solidarity. More broadly, she argues for the need to expand our conceptual understanding of decolonization as not only a series of national liberation projects, but also as a global project of cultural and intellectual emancipation.

Courtesy of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies.
www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/article/202863

In this talk, based on her recently published book, Dr. Maha Nassar argues that despite the double-erasure that Palestinian citizens of Israel faced from the state and from the Arab world, intellectuals within this community insisted that they were a part of regional and global cultural projects of decolonization.

Through a critical examination of a wide array of Arabic writings, Nassar demonstrates the importance of Arabic newspapers and literary journals in traversing national boundaries and creating transnational and transregional communities of solidarity. More broadly, she argues for the need to expand our conceptual understanding of decolonization as not only a series of national liberation projects, but also as a global project of cultural and intellectual emancipation.

Courtesy of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies.
https://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/article/202863

Ilana Feldman discusses the geography of near displacement—Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, the five fields of UNRWA operations in the Middle East. This talk explores the intersecting, but not identical, experiences of both providers and recipients while looking critically at the politics of humanitarianism.

Malihe Razazan of VOMENA speaks with attorney Zoha Khalili from Palestine Legal about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's proposed resolution to protect the right to boycott. This comes after the US House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution condemning the BDS movement.

Jadaliyya's managing editor, Kylie Broderick, interviews Arash Davari and Sina Rahmani on their article, "Divorce, Iran-America Style". In it, Arash and Sina talk about the historical evolution of the relationship between Iran and America, recent tensions between the two states, and why Iran occupies a unique position in the mindset of American politics.

Their article can be found here: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/38779/Divorce,-Iran-America-Style

Almost nine years after its Jasmine revolution, Tunisia is now poised for its third round of presidential elections since the 2010-2011 revolution. Khalil Bendib spoke with scholar Mohammed Hammami about the upcoming elections, including the increasing unrest rising from serious socio-economic problems and the effects of Tunisia's unstable neighbors.

In this interview, Foley describes the history of the Black Power movement in Australia and historical legacies with Palestinian solidarity. The interview ends with an emphasis on current efforts to convene an Aboriginal-Palestinian solidarity conference in Australia in the Fall 2019.

Welcome to the first episode of Real Football. In today’s episode, we discuss the evolution of the transfer system and how legal changes in the 1990s turned transfers into the multi-billion Euro spending bonanza we see today. We consider how Gulf capital sustains this spending and the role that it has played in building instant winners in European football, such as Manchester City. The many downsides of the high levels of Gulf spending in European football are also explored, before discussion shifts to the ongoing tensions at Real Madrid and what they mean for the coming season. Real’s Catalan rivals Barcelona and the potential of a Neymar return rounds out the discussion. Keep an ear out for which current player reminds one of the hosts of a deceased champion racehorse. You won’t want to miss it.

Since the overthrow of long-time dictator Muammar Al Qadafi in 2011, with the support of NATO, Libya was thrown into chaos with no foreseen end. Khalil Bendib speaks with Ali Ahmida about those fueling the conflict, as well as its latest chapter: the battle for Tripoli.

Mira Nabulsi interviews Loubna Qutami in a deep discussion of the historical relationship between race, ethnicity, and the census in order to discuss the Trump administration's omitting of the "Middle East and North Africa" category from the upcoming census in 2020.

On June 3rd, the Sudanese state security forces and its militia violently attacked and dispersed thousands of demonstrators who had camped outside the military headquarters in the Sudanese capital, for weeks. The violent crackdown left dozens dead and hundreds wounded.

The sit-in was initially held seeking an end to Omar al-Bashir’s three-decades-long authoritarian rule and later, to demand that the army generals who toppled him, hand over power to a civilian government.

According to doctors linked to the protest movement, at least 128 people have been killed since June 3rd. Doctors also say that paramilitary forces carried out dozens of rapes during the attack on the protest-camp.

Dr. Khalid Medani reports on the matter courtesy of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa (VOMENA).

Exiled from her home country, Nanda Mohammad, a Syrian actress had to start all over in Egypt in 2012. A story of a fierce talented Syrian actress, with nostalgia for the past, and a break into the most important theaters in the world.

Interviewed by Raghad al-Makhlouf | Arabic

http://statushourbeta.koeinbeta.com/en/Interview/1369

In this episode of Maydan Podcast, Peter Mandaville speaks with Sylvia Chan-Malik and Khadijah Elshayyal; two scholars whose research intersect themes related to Islam and Gender on two sides of the Atlantic.

For more information on the Muslim Atlantic project, visit www.muslimatlantic.com.

Be sure to visit The Maydan Podcast pages on SoundCloud and Apple iTunes for our previous content including interviews and lectures including with Muhammad Isa Waley and Shahed Amanullah and stay tuned for more content in the coming weeks.

Managing editor of Jadaliyya, Kylie Broderick, sat down with the founding director of ACSS, Seteney Shami, to talk about networking, knowledge production, and scholastic communities.

Renowned actress Raghad al-Makhlouf interviews Helen al-Janabi, Yazan al-Qaq, and Ibraheem Manaem, three actors who left Syria to Sweden.

Part 2

Renowned actress Raghad al-Makhlouf interviews Helen al-Janabi, Yazan al-Qaq, and Ibraheem Manaem, three actors who left Syria to Sweden.

Interviewed by Raghad al-Makhlouf | Arabic

http://statushourbeta.koeinbeta.com/en/Interview/1381

Marral Shamshiri-Fard discusses her current research on the Dhofar Revolution and the importance of reframing history to look at grassroots movements in Iran, Oman, and neighboring states of the Persian Gulf during the "long 1960s".

Interviewed by Noah Black | English

In an interview with Rashid Khalidi, Noura Erakat speaks about her new book "Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine".

--

Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures--from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza--Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel's interests than the Palestinians'. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable.

https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=26507

Nearly three decades after Omar Al Bashir came to power, the regime faced a formidable challenge posed by a fresh wave of unrest that started in the northeastern city of Atbara on December 19th of last year!

On April 6th, on the anniversary of the non-violent uprising that removed the dictator Jaafar Nimeiri in 1985, the protests in Sudan reached a watershed moment. The protesters turned up the heat on the regime by camping outside of the army headquarters in Khartoum, which also houses al-Bashir's residence - calling on the army to help them oust the country’s long time dictator

On Wednesday, April 11, the defense minister Awad Ibn Ouf announced that Omar al-Bashir had been ousted and arrested by the military. He added that the army would oversee a two-year transitional period followed by elections, and that a three-months state of emergency was being put in place, with a night time curfew starting immediately.

Within 24 hours General Ouf announced his resignation and named General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, general inspector of the armed forces, as his successor.

In a statement issued shortly after the Armed Forces televised address, the opposition call the military transitional council “a military coup” that “reproduces the same faces and institutions that the people revolted against.” it also called on the people to maintain their sit-in outside the military headquarters until power is handed to a transitional civilian group.

So what’s next for Sudan?

To get some clarity on the rapidly changing situation in Sudan, Shahram Aghamir spoke with Khalid Medani, an associate professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies at McGill University in Canada.

Omar Shanti, who won the Young Writer’s Prize sponsored by the MedReset Project, which is primarily funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Programmem speaks about MedReset, the lessons of his own research, and the implications for further exploration into the topic of Maghrebi migration into Europe and the European Union.

This interview is in partnership with the MedReset Project (http://www.medreset.eu/)

In this interview recorded on 1 April 2019, Jadaliyya Co-editor Mouin Rabbani interviews Hugh Roberts, Professor of North African and Middle Eastern History at Tufts University, as Algerian mass protests extend into their eighth week. Roberts is a leading commentator and scholar of Algeria. His most recent works include The Battlefield: Algerian 1988-2002. Studies In A Broken Polity (Verso 2003).

The interview covers a wide range of issues, including the most recent developments in the protest movement, the context of their emergence and the various actors involved, and a prognosis on where things may be heading.

Kristian Davis Bailey has been a critical node in the renewals of Black-Palestinian solidarity well before the Ferguson-Gaza moment in summer 2014. First in his capacity as a student journalist and activist at Stanford and later as an independent journalist as well as an organizer globally. In this interview with Noura Erakat, he discusses a few of his recent projects including Blacks 4 Palestine, organizing delegations from Palestine to the United States as well as to Palestinian refugees camps in Lebanon, and his ordeal in Israeli detention. This is part of a series curated by ASI’s Black Palestinian Transnational Solidarities Project.

Syrian filmmaker Talal Derki speaks about his award-winning film, Of Fathers of Sons, which won the prize this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was also nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.

During the mid-1950s, an almost unknown and erased-from-history armed anti-colonial revolt – the Fellaga/Youssefite rebellion – rippled across the Tunisian countryside, sweeping across the width and depth of the country, even penetrating urban cores.

Max Ajl's dissertation, "Farmers, Fellaga, and Frenchmen: National Liberation and Post-Colonial Development in Tunisia", recovers the historical memory of that revolt, writing the armed struggle and its repression into the history of the Tunisian national liberation struggle and its effects on subsequent state-building efforts.

[Courtesy of George Mason University]

In January, an 18 year-old Saudi woman, Rahaf Mohammad Al Qunun, sparked international attention when she took on to social media, as she barricaded herself in a hotel room in Bangkok, to stop Thai Authorities from deporting her back to her home country. Rahaf had left her family to seek asylum abroad. She said her life was in danger and that her abusive family escalated her mistreatment after she declared herself an Atheist. Rahaf eventually made it to Canada where she was granted asylum.

But Rahaf’s story is not unique, in fact a growing number of Saudi women and men are leaving the country immigrating or seeking asylum elsewhere. This phenomenon can be, at least in part, explained by the Saudi State’s lack of support for abused women and the overall crackdown on freedom of expression. So how did Saudi media react to the story and how do we place the story of Rahaf in the larger Saudi- Canadian relations and the status of women inside Saudi Arabia.

To learn more, VOMENA producer and reporter Mira Nabulsi spoke with Hana Al-Khamri, a writer and analyst.

[Courtesy of Voices of the Middle East & North Africa, VOMENA]

In a recent Sanaa Review article, journalist Sahar Abdo describes how the current war in Yemen introduced space for women that was frowned upon in the past. She talks about a subtle challenging of taboos, women being much more present in public spaces, or taking on jobs they did not do in the past.

In most conflicts, women are grouped with children, they are categorized among the most vulnerable groups. This designation erases, in many cases, women who are engaged in the conflict, women who are actively relieving or caring for communities, or those who try to defy the war and go about their lives and activism regardless. This audio documentary digs deeper into life under conflict through the stories and voices of five Yemeni women, based in the cities of Sana’a and Aden. All of them are involved in women and grassroots activism. They talk about how they understand this war and how they view their role as Yemeni women politically and socially.

Research & Interviews/Narration/ Sound by Mira Nabulsi.
Voiceover: Malihe Razazan and Jeannine Etter.

This story was produced in collaboration with the "Muslim Women and the Media" training institute at the University of California, Davis.

[Courtesy of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, VOMENA]

In the second part of the conversation with VOMENA, Khalid Medani of McGill University goes into greater detail about regional and international response to the protests in Sudan, the role of women and the future of the uprising.

[Courtesy of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, VOMENA]

Nearly three decades after Omar Al Bashir came to power, the Sudanese regime is facing a formidable challenge posed by a fresh wave of unrest, which started in the northeastern city of Atbara on December 19. Protests which first erupted over a government decision to triple the price of bread have swiftly escalated into anti-government rallies, marches and work stoppages that have rocked several cities and towns.

Who are the protestors? What are their demands? What role do the civil society groups play in these protests? What has been the regime’s response to the protests? And what is the genesis of the economic crisis that the country is experiencing? Kalid Medani of McGill University tackles these and other questions.

[Courtesy of Voices of Middle East and North Africa, VOMENA]

VOMENA host Malihe Razazan speaks with award-winning Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki about her latest film, Capernaum (@capharnaumfilm). Capernaum won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 and is nominated for the 2019 Academy Awards, in the foreign language film category.

Dr. Kristian Petersen is Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University in the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies. He is the author of, "Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab", published by Oxford University Press, 2017. He is currently working on a monograph entitled, "The Cinematic Lives of Muslims". He is the host of the New Books in Religion and New Books in Islamic Studies podcasts.

Dr. Kristian Petersen is Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University in the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies. He is the author of, "Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab", published by Oxford University Press, 2017. He is currently working on a monograph entitled, "The Cinematic Lives of Muslims". He is the host of the New Books in Religion and New Books in Islamic Studies podcasts.