By Nurhidayahti Mohammad Miharja
In MEI’s most recent research seminar, Visiting Research Professor Lilia Labidi led discussions on the emergence of feminist literature, specifically literature of denunciation against political violence, in Tunisia. The themes in such feminist denunciations, which centred on sexual oppression in the 1980s, later expanded to include sociopolitical issues in the 2000s.
Literature by [...]

MEI is pleased to announce its involvement in the Middle East Summit (MES) 2013, a new initiative by the Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) (Independent) to provide students aged 17-18 years old with a deeper understanding of Middle Eastern issues from three broad perspectives – political, economic and social. MES is a simulation of a summit featuring [...]

By Faeza Abdurazak
At the MEI seminar on “The Kremlin and the Jihadist Issue: Understanding the Russian Situation Today,” Didier Chaudet argued for a strong correlation between Russia’s nostalgia for its “Great Power” status from the Soviet period and the way the country has been dealing with the jihadist issue. Chaudet, a consultant on post-Soviet and [...]

MEI recently held its 2013 annual conference at the Four Seasons hotel in Singapore from 29th till 31st May 2013. Titled Converging Regions: Global Perspectives on Asia and the Middle East, the conference had brought together an international line-up of speakers for an intellectually stimulating three-day journey about the crossroads and intersections between the Middle [...]

MEI’s Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Dr. Fanar Haddad, has recently contributed a chapter in Chatham House’s May 2013 publication, Iraq Ten Years On, which emerged from a conference of the same name. Titled “The Politics of Sectarianism in Iraq,” Haddad argues that current protests in Iraq have failed to create cross-sectarian solidarity because of the [...]

By Faeza Abdurazak
In a follow-up interview with MEI, Dr. Asma Lamrabet, Director of the Center for Women’s Studies in Islam of the Rabita Mohammedia of Ulema in Rabat, Morocco, pointed to the need for religious content in gender justice initiatives in order to transform Moroccan society. She noted that many Moroccan men and women shun [...]

MEI warmly congratulates its distinguished new colleague, Ali Allawi, for being named among the world’s top public intellectuals in a recent poll published by Prospect magazine. Allawi came in fourth out of 65 figures in the magazine’s “World Thinkers 2013” list, beating the likes of Slavoj Žižek, Amartya Sen, and Mohamed ElBaradei. As a former [...]