Graduate Student Conference 2016 CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES | LUND UNIVERSITY

Crisis, Change and Continuity in a New Global Context: Re-conceptualising the Middle East and Beyond THE CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, LUND UNIVERSITY | LUND, APRIL 21ST 2016 Over the course of the last decade, major challenges – regional and civil conflict, migration, state failure, terrorism, democratization, and environmental degradation – have transformed the social and political fabric of countries, and communities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. While new opportunities have emerged for progressive change old tensions persist. These tensions threaten the safety and security of individuals and populations alike, and challenge the vitality of cultures and religions. Such changing realities have far-reaching consequences, many of which are not, and perhaps cannot be restrained by boundaries and borders, whether real or imagined. The Center for Middle Eastern Studies wishes to explore these changing dynamics from a cross-disciplinary perspective. This conference brings together interested graduate students to share their new and/or developed research ideas and analyses. The wide range of topics that make up the conference program touch on issues relating to state-society relations in the MENA, social segregation and marginalization, new and renewed religious trends and inter-state unity and disunity in an increasingly securitized world. CONFERENECE CO-CHAIRS DARCY THOMPSON & TINA ROBERTSSON

Photo: Ekaterina Pokrovsky, Selection of woolen hats on a traditional Moroccan market (souk) in Marrakech, Morocco. Shutterstock

Participants

Global Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Islamic Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Social Studies of Gender Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Programme 09:00

THE QUEST FOR AUTONOMY AND THE CHALLENGE OF SOCIAL SEGREGATION Moderator: Leif Stenberg

Dainelyte, Giedré Fakhry, Alia Mutlu, Setenay

10:00

WAR, WEAPONS AND INTER-STATE RELATIONS Moderator: Umut Özkirimli

Adisönmez, Can Umut Bartlett, Samuel Bewley, Richard Haj Ahmad, Al-Mouayad Taha

10:30

MEDIATIONS OF RESISTANCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST Moderator: Torsten Janson

Baghdasaryan, Zaruhi Dardan, Asal Fristedt Malmberg, Gina

13:00

STATE AND SOCIETY – INTERACTION AND IMPACT ON EVERYDAY LIFE Moderator: Spyros Sofos

Hansen Dahl, Sofie Lunstroo, Liza O’Connell, Joseph Soskin, Danielle

13:30

DENTITY FORMATIONS ON THE THRESHOLD OF SOCIETY Moderator: Dan-Erik Andersson

Brandon, Christopher Dönmez, Adile Sedef Modebadze, Giorgi

14:00

DELIBERATION ON ISLAM IN THE CONTEMPORARY MOMENT Moderator: Anders Ackfeldt

Castaldini, Martina Mattsson, Douglas Mokhles Ibrahim Abdelhalim, Omar Schoorel, Esther

15:30

THE SYRIAN HUMANITARIAN DISASTER: SUSTAINABILITY OF CONTAINMENT IN THE REGION OF CONFLICT Keynote speaker Dawn Chatty University of Oxford, Department of International Development

Dawn Chatty

Participant abstracts GIEDRÉ DAINELYTE “We drink a lot of tea and they drink a lot of coffee. There’s no similarity between us”: Exploring the Perceptions of Syrian Refugees by Turkish Housewives in Gaziantep Acknowledging the importance of understanding the dynamics in host-refugee relations in migration studies, this research explores the perceptions of Syrian refugees by the Turkish host community after nearly 5 years of coexistence. 22 semistructured interviews with housewives of varying social backgrounds in Gaziantep were conducted and used as empirical data for the analysis. While multiple themes appear throughout the interviews, this research focuses on the recurring perceived difference between Syrians and Turks as well as seeing Syrian women as a threat to Turkish women and their marriages. It also explores the way these ideas are used to justify the need for a physical separation between the two communities, preferred by a great number of informants. The impact of Syrian arrivals is approached as divided between the public and the private spheres, influencing the emergence of two discourses based on constructed difference, namely orientalism and ethnic difference. This study explores the way perceptions of Syrian refugees informed by these discourses, impact opinions and actions of the Turkish hosts.

ALIA FAKHRY Gendering Urban Exile: Daily Lives and Social Worlds of Syrian Women in Amman The current Syrian crisis has pushed over 4.8 million people to seek asylum abroad, mainly in the neighbouring countries. In Jordan, refugees are left in a legal limbo. Indeed, the country is not party to the 1951 Geneva Convention and Syrian refugees are regarded as “guests”, a lawless denomination highlighting their temporary and fragile situation. Although Jordan stands as a model in the management of the “Syrian refugee crisis”, humanitarian assistance in camps is kept to a minimum, while urban refugees, who represent 82% of registered refugees, lack of visibility and help. Women are in a particularly difficult situation due to their multiple burdens as caregivers. However, Syrian refugee women settled in the capital city of Amman demonstrate great capacities of resilience in their everyday lives in a supposedly constraining situation of forced exile. Embedded in multiple networks of solidarity stretching over national boundaries, they manage everyday life between continuity and change, and question the refugee label as a legal category and as an experience of displacement. If forced-migration is primarily a traumatic experience marked by violence and dispossession, urban exile can ‘empower’ refugee women, who survive between the anonymous spaces of the metropolis, and the popular neighbourhoods they inhabit on the margins of the city. Besides, gender is supposed to play a constraining role adding on their situation of exile. It however evolves according to women’s marital status in a variety of social statuses translating into various experiences of the city. The concept of social world is used here to encompass the diversity of life in urban exile. This study, based on a three month fieldwork in Amman, Jordan, consists of interviews conducted with Syrian female and male forced migrants, humanitarian workers and locally based scholars, as well as observations conducted in the different spaces of displacement that are camps, urban and ‘self-settled’ areas.

SETENAY MUTLU How (Politicized) Islam Occupies an Important Position on Gender Relations/Roles of Turkish Women: A Controversial Abortion Issue This paper wishes to explore the issue of abortion which has been highlighted as a radical change in Turkish norms and values, as well as Turkey gender relations in contemporary Turkish society. In the last decade, a number of academic works and social policy papers have been written and presented about gender relations, gender equality and gender roles in Turkey. There is a huge debate going on in the country concerning whether or not changing dynamics of the state will enhance Turkish women’s living standards. Recent worldwide surveys that look at gender equality and human rights have shown that Turkey does not rank among the top 100 countries. Many different aspects have been pointed out as contributing to the oppression targeting Turkish women within their daily routine. The theory, concept or heuristic device of intersectionality will be applied in this investigation in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of this case. In this respect, as Saba Mahmood’s claim of the undiscovered value of ‘religion’ in feminist intersectional debate ensuring a societal emancipation and diversity will be used as a foundational background. Thus, in this paper, the current gender roles of Turkish women and their stories on the axis of ‘religion’ will be examined by Mahmood’s intersectionality approach. Firstly, the relationship between intersectionality and religion (Islam) will be addressed by demonstrating why intersectionality can be substantial in order to understand Turkish women’s oppression in the society. Secondly, the roots of religious oppression and the concept of politicized Islam will be investigated with the examples of women’s reproductive rights and following motherhood debate in the country. In the last section, I will clarify and conclude the theoretical focus of this paper with recent abortion discussions in Turkey.

UMUT CAN ADISÖNMEZ Examining the Shift in Turkish Security Mind-Set on Syria: An Anatomy of Institutional Change? This paper aims to present how Turkey has changed its foreign policy principles regarding the Middle East, which until 2011 had been traditionally based on non-involvement and peaceful means, and how these changes have influenced its relations with Syria, especially in northern areas where armed conflicts between unaffiliated militias and state-backed groups have been taking place since the onset of post-Arab Uprisings era in 2011. Throughout its republican history, Turkey has continually strived to formulate its foreign policy agenda in respect to obligations of international law, despite the challenges such as 1974 Cyprus Intervention and the dispute in the 1990s between Turkey and Greece concerning the Aegean Sea Continental Shelf. The same political approach could be said to have been adopted by Turkey’s southern neighbor Syria, excluding the issue of harboring of terrorists by the Syrian government in the 1980s. After 2011, Turkish political élites have started to react in an offending way against the Assad Regime’s oppressive governance which galvanized the fact that the country was challenged by the same regime on several platforms starting from the water crises to terror support, which has particularly been perceived as an existential security threat by Turkish officials. Therefore, this quick study will attempt to fill the gap in the literature by examining the radical institutional changes in traditional Turkish foreign principles in two ways. Firstly, abandonment of longstanding Turkish foreign policy tools will be examined through assessment of recently applied “self-help” strategy which is linked to the military solutions and Hobbesian survival of understanding emphasizing the long border with Turkey and Syria share. Secondly, the study will analyze how Turkey has observed the changing nature of the systemic peculiarities and modified its attitude to neorealist agenda which supports power-seeking as well as interest-maximizing orientations easing

implementation of military coercion against the Assad regime as a dissident player. SAMUEL BARTLETT No End in Sight, The Never Ending “War on Terror” The most salient development in the modern conception of the term “terrorism” came as a result of the events of September 11th, 2001, when Al-Qaeda launched 4 coordinated attacks in New York and Washington, killing 2,996 people. The subsequent American led global “War on Terror“, has arguably been the defining conflict of the 21st Century. The term terrorism itself has no agreed international, legal or academic definition, and this is reflected in the strategic parameters of the War on Terror. The war has remained fluid and ill-defined and this flexibility has allowed the framework of the War on Terror to be replicated by leaders across the globe. The primary issue with this, which this essay will focus on, is that the initial military strategy America adopted aimed to defeat both an adversary, Al-Qaeda, and also the tactics they employed, terrorism. These strategic aims ensured America tied itself to a military objective that did not allow for achievable political ends. By targeting the broad idea of terrorism, rather than the specific threat posed by groups such as Al-Qaeda and now Daesh, America engaged itself in a conflict that would always remain open ended, for even if terrorist groups were defeated, terrorism itself would still exist. As academics Peter Neumann and M. L. R. Smith put it, ‘A war against terrorism has no more meaning than a “war against war” or a “war against poverty” in that it defines no specific threat or realizable political ends.’ Terrorism in not dependent upon the the ideology groups such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda represent, rather, terrorism is a tactic, which is therefore distinct from the actors that employ it. So long as conditions exist where terrorism is appealing, it will continue to exist. America and its allies, through the War on Terror, have arguably facilitated such conditions, ensuring that the political ends the conflict intends to achieve will remain unrealized. RICHARD BEWLEY Hegemonic Stability in The Gulf: Saudi Arabia’s War in Yemen In recent years The Republic of Yemen has struggled with separation, reunification, extreme poverty and prolonged internal conflict. It has been rocked by the presence of AQAP, the so-called Islamic State, and it now finds itself at war with a coalition of Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia. The war is largely being fought in between the Houthis, a group of Shiite insurgents that fought the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh intermittently between 2004 and 2011 until he stepped down, in wake of protests during the Arab Awakening, and the Saudi-led coalition in support of President Hadi who was forced to resign by the Houthis in January 2015. But, former President Saleh and his remaining loyal security forces however are collaborating with the Houthis – a prime example of the shifting alliances at work in Yemen. This paper argues that Saudi Arabia’s interest in Yemen is derived from an attempt to maintain hegemonic stability in the region through show of force, and how it has exploited the turbulent situation in Yemen, to justify a campaign of belligerence against Yemen’s land and people. Saudi Arabia’s hegemony in the region through has weakened through; oil prices, the decision by the US to sign a nuclear deal with Iran, growing internal dissent against the Saudi government, and the death of King Abdullah in January 2015. In response, Saudi Arabia decided to flex its military might, and stress-test it’s the extent of its regional hegemony. This decision may have been responsible for significant civilian casualties, but it also appears to have worked. Thus far, the war in Yemen has not elicited a significant reaction from its allies in the US and Europe. And as long as weapons - and allegedly military advice - continue to flow from the West to Saudi Arabia, we cannot expect to see an end in sight for Saudi Arabia’s campaign for hegemonic stability in the region. TAHA AL-MOUAYAD HAJ AHMAD The Buffer Zone in Syria: A Dream! But for Whom? “Erdogan’s dream of a buffer zone in northern Syria will never come true”, a comment made by an Al-Jazeera analyst is the starting point of this paper. When did the buffer zone in Syria become “Erdogan ́s dream”? When did it stop being a popular demand of Syrians? After all there was a Syrian protest in 2011 dedicated to demanding its implementation. Moreover, why would Erdogan dream of a buffer zone in Syria? What could this give him that he does not have? These more recent questions build upon older questions exploring how this sort of zone would affect the ongoing war between the Syrian regime and its rebels, as well as the thousands of refugees passing through it? A buffer zone in Syria, especially one located in the north of the country, would have huge effects on Syria’s short term as well as long term future. From its immediate effect on the war “between the rebels, regime, and ISIS”, to the change in the

daily lives of the Syrians, which would change the emigration patterns to the surrounding and far countries. In my attempt to answer the questions I have highlighted I will analyze news reports about the buffer zone in order to gain new insight on the potential outcomes of implementing this geo-political tool. ZARUHI BAGHDASARYAN The Role of Information Technologies in the Middle East The 21st century is characterized by a completely new level and speed of globalization and informationalization processes. This signifies the rise of network societies throughout the world. The unprecedented spread of networked, digital information and communication technologies has been accompanied by profound socio-political, economic and cultural changes, altering the state-citizenry relationship and reshaping the very essence of the form, idea and functions of the state apparatus. One of the key regions of the world that has been significantly affected by the information technologies is the Middle East. Historically, long-standing authoritarian regimes of the Middle East have sustained their power and dominance, in part, by limiting communications and controlling the information flows. However, the digital revolution and the emergence of information technologies has fostered an expansion of the public sphere even in the most autocratic and totalitarian countries in the region. Newly established modes of communication, shifted the balances from state-cultivated models of citizenship to citizens taking charge and holding accountable the ruling authorities. Thus, the digital age, has empowered the civil society and new actors within the public space by enhancing the informational freedom and undermining the basis of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. The main aim of this paper will be to observe and grasp the changing nature of relationship between state actors and citizens and the role of citizenry in state politics empowered by information technologies of a new era. ASAL DARDAN ”WHY DID WE HAVE A REVOLUTION?” Iranian Film in the Build-Up to and Aftermath of The Green Movement During the 2009 protests against the controversial reelection of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which came to be known as The Green Movement, some of the most prominent voices supporting the millions of Iranians who took to the streets were filmmakers such as Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi and Rafi Pitts. Having found vivid images to represent the conflicts of Iranian society in the decades before and reminded audiences of the unrealized ideals of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, they had already laid down some of the groundwork by the time the protests erupted. Artists and filmmakers were among the most affected in the brutal crackdown of what had been the most serious public uprising against the country’s ruling elite since the Islamic Revolution. Some, like Jafar Panahi, were imprisoned, while others were banned or forced into exile. In my study of avant-garde and documentary films connected to the Green Movement (e.g. The Hunter by Rafi Pitts, 2010; The Green Wave by Ali Samadi Ahadi, 2010; Taxi Tehran by Jafar Panahi, 2015) I want to concentrate on their presentation of the motives and strategies adopted by Iranians to cope with and also bypass restrictions imposed on them by the state. Moreover, I want to examine what traces remain of the Green Movement, while also highlighting Iranian cinema in a broader light. After all, Iranian films have become a fixture at prestigious international film festivals such as the Berlinale. Therefore, one could argue that they not only give a glimpse into contemporary Iran, but also form international perspectives on the country and its people. In this sense, the national cinema finds itself at the heart of the conflict between the forces of liberalism and authoritarianism in Iran. GINA FRISTEDT MALMBERG Social Media as Space, Not a Tool, For Resistance: A Case Study of the Online Social Movement “My Stealthy Freedom” in Iran. Women’s movements and feminist activists in Iran are often framed by their new imaginative ways of mobilizing, informing and, organizing in order to bypass the Iranian state’s restrictive laws regarding freedom of speech and freedom of meeting. In 2015 the online social movement “My Stealthy Freedom” (MSF) became an international phenomenon when Iranian women photographed themselves without Hijabs in public spaces in Iran with the intention to post the picture on the movement’s Facebook site, the core platform for MSF. Another campaign posted pictures of men holding signs saying that they give the rights back to their wives. This was a way to protest against specific laws and regulations that in MSF’s view governs women’s lives and leaves them without freedom of choice. The use of internet as tool is debated within social movement theories, and cyber studies where both negative and positive arguments are raised over the effectiveness in organizing and mobilize, and safety of the movement’s participants toward state crackdowns. The focus of this presentation is how women’s movements in Iran use the internet to find new ways of displaying their dissent and publicly framing their resistance against the state. ‘Framing process’ within social movement theory is used as this study’s theoretical framework since it is focused around agency and tactics in how the resistance is framed by the participants rather

than on the opportunities that is controlled by the state. Furthermore, I will use a perspective that describes social media as a new space of resistance when the physical space is unaccusable because of state control. By analyzing MSF as a virtual space for resistance, this paper seeks to explore how MFS’s online usage becomes a space for resistance where an oppositional narrative of women’s right and freedom. Rather than primarily using social media as a tool to organize and mobilize, it is creating a forum space for protests and as a way to become visible as protesting citizens. This analysis will be based on the Facebook page, their homepage and hash tag campaigns on twitter and mainstream, as well as critical responses in newspapers. The material will be coded so as to be able to answer the questions: how they frame themselves, and with what actions (such as campaigns, pictures and statements) are they trying to do that. SOFIE DAHL HANSEN The Gendered Impact of International Interventions: Iraqi Women Under Sanctions and Invasion Violence and humanitarian crisis have again turned the world’s attention towards Iraq with the advance of ISIS. Amongst the variety of atrocities carried out, media reports on severe sexual assaults and killings of women and homosexuals have terrified readers. However, gender-based violence is not a new phenomenon in Iraq or in warfare in general. Current events in Iraq are an intensification of a state violence that has shaped the lives of Iraqis for decades. With the UN sanctions imposed on Iraq in the early 1990s and the tumultuous post-invasion period following the US-led invasion in 2003 as a case, this study investigates the gendered impact of foreign interventions. International interventions, whether political or economic, are often considered gender-neutral but in many cases, and as emphasised by feminist scholars, this assumed gender-neutrality is in fact gender-blind. Blindness disadvantages all genders but tends to harm women more than men because of the patriarchal value hegemonies that predominant at the level of international decision-making to the local scene of intervention. Years of sanctions and invasion have wrecked the Iraqi state and national economy, and the repercussions include the grave deterioration of women’s rights and opportunities. The foreign interventions have contributed to a revitalisation of traditional patriarchal values and power structures in the Iraqi society which has reinforced the relapse. This study presents an analysis of the changing position of Iraqi women as an outcome of the interplay of interventions and patriarchal dynamics, drawing on feminist analyses of women’s testimonies and socioeconomic statistics. With a definition of violence as any aspect of a culture that legitimises direct or structural violence, everyday lives of Iraqi women from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s can be viewed as a continuum of violence. In addition to high levels of insecurity, physical violence and food scarcity, the limited access to jobs and education for women and the increasing social control and patriarchal dominance in both domestic and public spheres has contributed to this continuum. The Iraqi case serves as an example of the profoundly gendered character of foreign interventions and stresses the persistent need to think gender. Not the least in the latest wave of international interference in the Iraqi, and Syrian, fight against ISIS. Keywords: Iraq, women, feminism, international interventions, gender-blindness, patriarchy, continuum of violence. LIZA, LUNSTROO Jordanian Civil Society Organizations Vis-à-vis the State: Change or Continuity? The Jordanian state apparatus is increasingly limiting civil society in Jordan from engaging in open debate, and organizations are gradually inhibited from executing their activities and events. These are the premises on which this research is based, and in exploring them several questions arise. What do these obstacles look like in practice? And why are civil society organizations (CSOs) repressed by the Jordanian state machinery? Interviews conducted with different active CSOs inside Jordan reveal the extent of the obstacles they are facing, and the internal state mechanisms behind it. This analysis is placed against a wider backdrop of regional political developments that have recently had a huge impact on Jordan’s societal structures and dynamics: the Arab uprisings, the wars in Iraq and Syria, and the influx of large numbers of Syrian refugees. JOSEPH O’CONNELL Has the Media’s Representation of Refugees Contributed to a Rise in Anti-Immigrant Feelings? In 2015, the Syrian refugee crisis reached an unprecedented level, leading to practically blanket media coverage of the events at their peak. In the midst of this coverage, many personal stories were highlighted by the media, allowing refugees a platform from which to give voice to the struggles they, and others like them, have faced. Abdullah Kurdi, father to the late Aylan Kurdi, is one such refugee whose story was told around the world. The image of his son on the beach near Bodrum elicited sympathy from all corners, galvanizing governments and large sections of the public into more concrete action to help the refugee situation. However, as attitudes to those seeking asylum in Europe have hardened, so too has the media’s coverage. Following the initial sympathy, some media sources have attributed a sense of threat or “other-ness” to the refugees. This discursive shift re-establishes the idea of a “Clash of Civilizations”, in which Europe, or ‘the West’ are in perpetual conflict with ‘the East’. In turn, the media strengthens the convictions of those who hold such views, which prompts further coverage

of this position, and so on. Using a few examples, this presentation will indicate the ways in which the media builds sympathy for refugees before implying that the refugees’ story was deceptive. By highlighting refugees in the mind of the public before dismantling their reputation, distrust of the refugees is made general, with the actions said to be carried out by an anonymous few are attributed to the many. When an event such as the Paris attacks occurs, this allows the pattern continues, the few are no longer anonymous, and they are then presented as ‘poster boys’ for a group they do not belong to. DANIELLE SOSKIN An Exploration of the Changing Position and Perception of Women in Saudi Arabia through an Analysis of the December 2015 Elections December 2015, following King Abdullah’s decree in 2011, marked the first time Saudi women were permitted to take part in the electoral process both as voters, and candidates. Internationally this has been received by some as a positive step for women’s rights within the kingdom, albeit a limited one. The encroachment of women into the political space may signify a change in Saudi culture and identity; reflecting the intersection between: the pressure of modernity, the growing youth demographic and increasingly vocal women’s rights movement as they meet deeply embedded conservative and religious views. However; the effect of women’s votes, and the election of a female candidate, appear to be superficial. Between 1965 and 2005 no Saudi’s were given the opportunity to vote. In 2005 men over the age of 21 were able to vote for half of the municipal seats. Thus, the effectiveness of the municipal positions that the women voted for, with respect to affecting Saudi political decisions, needs to be explored. Further, inadequacies in the procedure of women’s voting limited the practical effects of this change. Importantly, the Saudi government took steps following the 2011 uprisings in the region to appease opposition groups within the Kingdom: is female electoral involvement simply an extension of this principle? To explore these issues this work will begin by focusing on the history of political power within Saudi Arabia and its relationship with religion and cultural identity. Secondly, it will explore the growing push for change of Saudi norms and principles and the methods employed by both conservative religious groups, and women’s rights organizations to do this. Finally, it will look towards the future and offer suggestions on the trajectory of women’s electoral involvement in Saudi Arabia. CHRISTOPHER BRANDON An Orientalism Critique of ‘Islamophobic’ American Documentaries The relationship between the various sociological identifiers and their ‘others’ has historically been central to their ideological formation. Numerous nationalisms’ identities have often been delineated in direct relation to a perceived other. American nationalism’s historical discourse is replete with examples of its ‘others,’ which have endured, disappeared, and evolved over time. In order to analyze the epistemological construction of a particular ‘Other,’ the ideal ‘American’ type must first be acknowledged. The first decade of this postwar era, when the aforementioned American archetype reigned supreme, also ushered in a new age for a novel communication technology medium, television. One of the television genres which emerged through this second generation mass medium was the television documentary, often produced by one of the ‘Big Three’ news agencies. These television documentaries, which purported to be objective, straddled the line between ‘hard’ news and entertainment. Through various forms of media, including some of the more polemic documentaries, Americans were socially conditioned to especially fear the two chief postwar ‘others,’ the political ‘other’ the ‘communist and the racial ‘other’ the ‘negro.’ As some urban African-Americans from the industrial North explored their historical connection with Islam, one television documentary in particular helped launch their social movement. The Hate that Hate Produced which caricatured ‘Black Islam’ was America’s first exposure to its ideology. Over the subsequent decades, as the United States became increasingly involved in the Middle East, numerous television documentaries often portrayed Muslims and Islam in a negative light. As the Cold War ended the ‘Islamic terrorist’ gradually replaced the communist as the ‘other’ which represented an existential threat to the United States. Post September 11th, outright Islamophobic documentaries have proliferated. This paper hopes to demonstrate how these pieces of ‘Yellow Journalism’ have contributed to the social construction of Muslims as the new primary American ‘Other.’ ADILE SEDEF DÖNMEZ Memory, Identity and Place: Istanbul’s past and present in the formation of its Local’s Identities The paper will explore the interactive relation between memory, identity and place. The paper will delve into the concepts of “places of memory” and “communicative and collective memory”, and using Istanbul as a point of focus, it will look at their affects on the formation of identity. In order to investigate the relation, the paper will look at the transition from Ottoman to Modern Istanbul [including the Byzantine Past] and how this transition influenced the construction of local identities.

Rather than producing a case study, the object is to investigate the methodological possibilities of understanding the ways in which place and memory intervenes in the construction of individual or collective identities. Furthermore, with this object in mind, in order to further situate the place of Istanbul in the cultural memory of locals the significant literary work relating to Istanbul, how different authors and artists defined and described the relation between the mentioned elements will be taken into account. GIORGI MODEBADZE Motivations for young Muslim fighters from Georgia to join the Islamic State In his essay, ISIS Is a Revolution, Scott Atran, the director of research in anthropology at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, École Normale Supérieure, identifies the main reasons which inspire young people from outside of the Middle East to join ISIS and become its most lethal assailants. According to him, rather than the Quran or religious teachings, it is a thrilling cause and a call to action, promising glory and esteem in the eyes of friends, that is the major inspiration for those joining ISIS today. A failure of states outside the Middle East to incorporate Muslim minorities into society creates self-identification problems for young Muslims within these communities. Subsequent issues of self-realization and a feeling of humiliation are the main motivations for them to look at the world differently. My presentation will try to examine this thesis using the example of fighters from Georgia who have joined the Islamic State. For several reasons, this country is an interesting case to explain the role of social, economic and cultural factors in motivating young Muslim fighters to join the Islamic State. These reasons are: The country’s geographic closeness to the Middle East, as well as the high share of Muslims in the population of Georgia and an increasing number of young Georgian Muslims fighting in Syria and Iraq. It’s also interesting to analyze why the factor of religious teachings is outweighed by other influential social aspects when identifying young Georgian Muslims’ motivation to join ISIS. These factors include: he economic underdevelopment of the region, high rates of unemployment, a failure of the educational system in Georgia, the identity crisis and subsequent problems of self-realization among the youth. Thus, in a broader context, my presentation will show that the failure of states to deal with specific social and economic issues, even beyond the Middle East, affects the conflict in this region and also acts as an obstacle to economic and political development globally. MARTINA CASTALDINI “Why Western Muslim Women Join ISIS?”: A Feminist Analysis Since Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) in April 2013, over 4000 citizens of “Western” countries have migrated to the territories controlled by the “Caliphate” to fulfil their duty as devoted Muslims and play an active role in the creation of a pious and just Ummah. Among these migrants, over 550 are women. This relatively high number of women joining the patriarchal extremist organization represents an intricate puzzle for Western media and public opinion, much harder to understand than the phenomenon of Western men jihadi ready to die for the sake of the Caliphate. “Why do Western muslim women join ISIS?” has become one of the most recurrent questions related to ISIS. While various answers have been identified, highlighting the need for this question to be asked, the language, tools and means used to explain the phenomenon are intrinsically shaped and defined by a gendered and religious-based perception of Muslim women, their role and their supposed priorities in the Western society. This perception, mostly based on false preconceptions, usually leads the “West” to reach the conclusion that women joining ISIS do so lacking awareness and active will. This research aims to reach a wider understanding of the reasons behind women’s decision to join ISIS through a feminist analysis of the way in which the phenomenon is addressed. The starting point of the analysis will be to identify not only the pull and push factors leading women to take such a decision, but to understand the reasons why the question is asked in the first place. This will provide important elements to understand the extent to which the gendered portrayal of Western Muslim women affects not only the understanding of the phenomenon, but the phenomenon itself. The analysis will be based on post-structuralist feminist discourse theory, in particular on the different conceptions of women’s deployment of agency within the frameworks they live in. DOUGLAS MATTSSON “From the Sacral to the Profane: Islamic representation in Turkish Black Metal” Black metal, known as one of the most extreme subgenres of metal, is famous for its anti-religious agenda. Black metal bands often utilize anti-religious imagery in order to communicate their rejection of religion and society. Several Church burnings and murders in Norway during the 90s made the genre infamous and strengthened the view of its supporters as rejecting religion. However, since black metal is born out of a Christian cultural context, the usage of Islamic representation in black metal music has, until now, been a rare phenomenon. A few years ago, some black metal-bands in Istanbul started utilizing Islamic imagery in their artistic production

in an anti-Islamic fashion. Based on lyrical and visual analysis, fieldwork, and in depth-interviews, my research explores this new relationship between Islam and black metal. It seeks to answers the questions of what representations are used, in what context they are used, and why they are used. Further, my research investigates the context of Turkey, which has, since AKP’s ascend to power a decade ago, become more conservative in the political sphere. In this context, what are the consequences of playing anti-Islamic black metal? How do members of the Turkish black metal scene navigate in the local context and what impact does it have in the construction of subcultural identity? OMAR MOKHLES IBRAHIM ABDELHALIM The Religious Position of the Current Egyptian Regime The current regime in Egypt came after huge popular protests that took place on the 30 th of June 2013. These protests were launched after widespread popular disappointment in the Muslim Brotherhood’s president, Mohammed Morsi, and his political rule. The religious position of the Muslim Brotherhood could be considered one of the main causes of frustration, which could be measured through the pressure that both the Christians and the non-religious Muslims felt during the one-year of Muslim Brotherhood rule. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi´s position at the top of the Egyptian army made it possible for him to influence the post-coup consecutive events. After one year, El-Sisi reached the presidency. Following the election of el-Sisi, and in order to complete the legal process of the regime transition, a new constitution has been written and a new parliament has been elected. Since then, no real opposition has been active – neither within the spheres of national politics, nor civil society. Both spheres have once again been centralized. The official religious position of the Egyptian regime has always claimed a moderate Islamic position. However, during the one year of Brotherhood rule, Egyptians experienced a religiously oriented government and as a result, the topic of Egypt’s religious identity became a point of public debate. El-Sisi’s regime is believed to have restored the continuous moderate religious identity of Egypt. Nevertheless, the effect of Brotherhood rule has had some consequences on the restoring of this identity, which was once thought of as a basic component of the Egyptian society. Restoring the moderate religious identity is a big challenge for the new regime, as it must create a balance between restoring the trust of the Christians and non-religious Muslims on the one hand, while not losing the trust of the religious non-politicized Muslims on the other hand. Therefore, this paper will try to situate the new regime position in regards to its religious identity and how it is constructed in relation to different institutes and key players at the national level. ESTHER SCHOOREL European Muslim Converts in Dubai: how female Muslim converts negotiate and construct belonging in a complex globalized world. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among female European Muslim converts in Dubai, I explore how these women construct a sense of belonging in and to Dubai. Being European migrants in Dubai and simultaneously Muslim converts, these women defy common ideas about the opposition between “the West” and “the Rest”, simply by being who they are. While on the one hand this gives them the freedom to navigate multiple social and cultural environments, on the other hand it problematizes their national, cultural and sometimes even their ethnic belonging. I argue that European Muslim converts construct a sense of belonging along multiple cultural and national identifications, being attached to multiple places and peoples. Furthermore, I argue that Dubai, as a cosmopolitan city where Muslims from all over the world come together, creates a space where European Muslim converts can imagine a belonging beyond local attachments. Participating in a multi-cultural, -national and –ethnic Muslim environment they construct a belonging to a global Islamic sister- and brotherhood.

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