Middle East

As a young widow with two boys to raise, Horia El-Gharib struggled to reconcile tradition and change. She dared to take on a man's role in commerce and trade to protect the future of her    More >

Globalization and changing political economies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are affecting women's labor-force participation, educational attainment,  and access to    More >

For more than a decade, policymakers and observers in the Muslim world and the West have struggled with the specter of political Islam—or "Islamic fundamentalism"—often    More >

A candid critique of the institutional systems and practices that define, and in many cases limit, the administrative state in the Arab world, this study centers on the factors contributing    More >

This comprehensive, up-to-date bibliography covers nearly 3,000 English-language books and articles on Muslim women throughout the world. Works are listed alphabetically by author, with an    More >

An assassination, the election of a new prime minister, and a fresh round of Palestinian unrest have highlighted the ongoing tensions between religious and secular Israeli Jews. Among the    More >

An innocent yet stinging—and always absorbing—account of the lives of two young expatriate girls in Kuwait in the 1960s. Isabel, the red-headed daughter of an American mother and    More >

Long dominated by authoritarian regimes, the Arab World is now experiencing a variety of factors—both internal and external—-that pose the challenge of change. Significant    More >

Jabra's highly acclaimed novel is a masterful exploration of the post-1948 Arab world, with its frustrations, yearnings for homeland, and struggle for survival. As his characters    More >

The violence of war leads to the euphoria of Algeria's newly won independence from France—and then quickly deteriorates into a harsh and cynical reality in this brutal yet lyrical    More >

Dealing with sexual mutilation, Accad’s lyrical, tragic novel shows woman as prisoner, victim, and target of man’s age-old preoccupation with domination by and fear of women. Set    More >

A revealing study of a girl growing to maturity in middle-class Syria and of her family’s struggle to survive in the tumultuous years of 1940–1961 in Damascus. Attar’s work    More >

In this turbulent novel of shame, violence, and hypocritical morality, the adolescent son of a repudiated mother grows up in a hostile, erotic, bourgeois world, where he must fight for his    More >

After many years abroad, Brahim, the author of stories about a detective (alter-ego) named Ali, returns to Morocco with his pregnant Scottish wife and two sons. Soon to join them are his    More >

As in many developing countries, women in Egypt play a key role in the agricultural sector. This has not been adequately reflected, however, in the official statistics on services,    More >