Journal of Georgetown University-Qatar Middle Eastern Studies Student Association - Volume 2014, Issue 1

This Culture and Politics senior thesis examines and compares the imagined and the lived experience of the city, using Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon, as a model. In a neo-liberal city such as Beirut, group formations can be engaged in multiple hegemonies that affect and define the ‘urban’ city experience. In this thesis, I will label two major group-formations in Beirut that shape its urban experience: the ‘Urbanistas’ and the ‘Biart Read More

In July 2013, the Lebanese Shi'a group Hezbollah publically announced its participation in the Syrian Civil War at the battle of al-Qusayr. Long advertized as the protector of Lebanon, many analysts believed involvement in Syria on behalf of Bashar al-Assad's regime would ultimately damage Hezbollah's position at home. Nevertheless, the Party of God has been able to maintain its power in Lebanon. This paper will investigate how Hezbollah is Read More

For a country so important to international affairs, Iran's politics are strikingly misunderstood. In the face of the inadequacy of explanations for the downfall of Iran's former President Ahmadinejad and other members of Iran's ‘Theocratic Left,’ this paper seeks to provide an explanation for this phenomenon that is both coherent and consistent with primary evidence. Global media, especially, has excessively emphasised global and int Read More

The proliferation and shifts of culture across generations is a topic that affects national policy, distribution of economic controls, and social norms that dictate what young people choose to do and what to not do. In the case of the Republic of Turkey, a large facet of culture has been built on the civil-military dynamic that puts the Turkish Armed Forces as guardians of the nation from both foreign threat and domestic cultural shifts. Howeve Read More

The objective of this paper is to describe and explain the extremely high usage of Twitter within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This topic relates strongly to the current transformations that Saudi society is undergoing, and helps to demonstrate the growing desire of the youth to express their opinions in the public sphere via social media. Although the government has attempted to censor Twitter and hold individual users accountable, in additi Read More

This paper discusses the arts as an economic boon by evaluating the impact that the arts and art industries have had on three international cities' economies: Nantes in France, Asilah in Morocco, and Detroit in the United States. The paper then draws parallels between these cities and Amman, Jordan, concluding that the arts' positive impact on the aforementioned cities economies suggests similar beneficial potential for Amman, de Read More

How has the rise of Algerian youth organizations providing legal resources to women impacted female involvement in politics, the media, and policy-making? The purpose of my research is to examine how French colonial “Family Law” and traditional Berber patriarchy in 19th century Algeria intersected, and how Islamic feminism and legal reformation grew out of that intersection with globalization. French law and Berber patriarch Read More

Is Egypt witnessing the birth of a new revolutionary cinema after having undergone a wave of political consciousness and revitalization? This paper aims to trace the history of state censorship in Egypt with the aim of shedding light on the use of cinematic discourse as a tool of “Othering”. Beginning with the colonial years and ending with Anwar al-Sadat's rule, cinema in Egypt underwent slow yet complex development reflective of the sociopol Read More