The piece opens with voice notes exchanged with my cousin in Tehran, my childhood best friend unseen for 27 years, as internet servers fall under shutdown and cyberattack, and moves outward: into the Persian concept of ghorbat, the open-ended strangeness of exile; into the false binary Western media has imposed between supporting foreign intervention and tolerating the Islamic Republic’s repression; and into a genealogy of American and Israeli interference that has historically destroyed the very conditions for democratic flourishing.
Middle East
Last week, Riyadh hosted a comedy festival. I did not attend—let’s call it limited funds. After all, this is the […]
Frank Herbert’s novel and Denis Villeneuve’s film borrow from Middle Eastern cultures, but what does that really mean?
Pandemic life has shown us that loneliness and togetherness are closer to each other than we once thought.
Fahrenthold’s new book reveals a complex story of global migration and shifting identities and allegiances, as both the Middle East and Latin America were transformed.
How place determines race for racially in-between immigrants. July 4, 2002, was a particularly humid Independence Day in […]
When major world events occur, observers and analysts are often quick to jump to speculative conclusions – aided […]