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Alex Shams

  • About me
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Alex Shams

  • About me
  • Reporting
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  • Academic Work
  • Contact me
Search for:
Iran Opinion

Sectarian War or Political Mistake?

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally Published in Andisheh-ye Pouya, Tir 1393.

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Palestine Reporting

Amid destruction, ordinary Gazans open homes, churches to displaced

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on August 13, 2014. The first day the bombs began to fall on Gaza, Refqa al-Hamallawy called a meeting in her office at the

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Palestine Reporting

Israeli discourse of sexualized violence rises amid Gaza assault

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on Aug. 6, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — As the bombs have been falling on Gaza over the past four weeks, another war has been ongoing

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Israel Opinion Palestine

Israel and the Palestinian Territories Lonely Planet: Systematic Erasure and Casual Racism

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Jadaliyya. Haifa is a picturesque city of hills, gardens, and trendy cafes perched along the slopes of Mount Carmel in northern Israel. If the Lonely Planetguidebook is

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Palestine Reporting

Israeli forces spray Bethlehem homes with putrid-smelling water

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on June 27, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Rubhiya Abd al-Rahman Darwish was taking a nap on the couch of her family home on Sunday when

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Palestine Reporting

In photos: Bethlehem festival draws thousands to Old City

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on June 19, 2014. The Bet Lahem Live festival kicked off on Thursday night along Bethlehem’s historic Star Street, launching four days of music,

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Palestine Reporting

Bet Lahem Live festival brings Star Street back to life

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on June 18, 2014. Star Street was once the bustling heart of Bethlehem’s Old City, a vital link on the 1,500-year-old pilgrimage route from Jerusalem to

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Palestine Reporting

Palestinians cynical as Israel mobilizes #BringBackOurBoys campaign

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on June 15, 2014. As Israeli forces deployed across the West Bank in hot pursuit of three teenagers who went missing on Thursday, the

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Palestine Reporting

Bethlehem walls transformed in the presence of the Holy See

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on May 24, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — In advance of Pope Francis’ visit to the Holy Land on Sunday, Bethlehem residents and officials have been

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Israel Palestine Reporting

Anti-enlistment performance art turns Israeli cities into battlefields

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on May 23, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — On Sunday, Israeli soldiers invaded the streets of Haifa’s upmarket German Colony neighborhood, beating Palestinian protesters with

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About me

Alex Shams is an Iranian-American writer and a PhD student of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.

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Recent posts

  • “Why Did So Many People Think This War Was a Good Idea?”
  • Looking A Tyrant In the Eye: Iran’s Long Struggle for Freedom and Justice
  • Iran After Khamenei
  • Iran’s Protesters Are Caught Between State Repression and Foreign Intervention
  • Quiet Solidarity: The Underground Networks that Defied Israel’s War on Iran
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About

Born and raised in an Iranian-American family in Los Angeles, Alex Shams has long been fascinated by the stories that places can tell us. Growing up, he learned Persian and Spanish; in college, he learned Arabic and studied abroad at the American University of Cairo before moving to Beirut after graduation. After receiving his master’s in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard, he moved to Bethlehem, Palestine, where he was a journalist at Ma’an News Agency, the largest independent Palestinian news organization. He received his PhD. from the University of Chicago in Sociocultural Anthropology. His dissertation, entitled “Constructing Islamic Modernity: Power, Religion, and Masculinity in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” was based on three years of ethnographic research in Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan as well as archival research in the British Library and Ba’ath Party Archives.

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