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Alex Shams

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Alex Shams

  • About me
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Reporting

Bethlehem man detained over anti-USAID Christmas tree decorations

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on December 4, 2013. A Bethlehem man was detained on Tuesday by Palestinian police for helping decorate a tree with used American-made tear gas

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Reporting USA

Are Iranians People of Color? Persian, Muslim, and Model Minority Race Politics

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on December 3, 2013. In the lead up to the 2010 US National Census, campaigns emerged across the country calling for Iranian-Americans to stand

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Palestine Reporting

Video round-up: Thousands rally in anti-Prawer ‘Day of Rage’ protests

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on December 1, 2013. A global “Day of Rage” against the Prawer Plan took place in nearly 30 cities worldwide on Saturday, Nov. 30.,

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Israel Reporting

Tel Aviv ‘Nakba’ film festival keeps alive memories of 1948 in Israel

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on Dec. 1, 2013. TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — The first-ever International Film Festival on Nakba and Return took place on Nov. 28-30 in Tel

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Palestine Reporting

Reviving the Palestine pound to strengthen Palestinian independence

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on Nov. 26, 2013. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — In markets across historic Palestine, tourists can buy coins and bills emblazoned with the phrase “Palestine pound.” The

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Palestine Reporting

Sewage floods Gaza streets as lack of fuel plunges strip into darkness

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on November 15, 2013. Sewage has flooded the streets of a central Gaza City neighborhood as an ongoing fuel shortage and the shutdown of

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Palestine Reporting

Global Palestinian ‘Right to Education Week’ kicks off at Birzeit

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on November 12, 2013. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A week of events focusing on the Palestinian Right to Education kicked off Monday afternoon at Birzeit

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Palestine Reporting

Women-only cafes offer new visions of Palestinian public space

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on November 2, 2013. Discreetly located at the foot of a staircase, the cafe offers a familiar scene: shisha pipes are stacked neatly on

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Palestine Reporting

World Bank: Israel control of Area C costs Palestine $3.4 bln annually

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on October 8, 2013. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s control over the largest part of the occupied West Bank deprives the Palestinian economy of an

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Palestine Reporting

Tel Aviv conference plans for Palestinian return

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on Ocrober 4, 2013. TEL AVIV (Ma’an) — There are few topics that scare the Israeli public more than the potential realization of the

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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

  • ‘They Hit Everyone and Anyone’: From Lebanon, residents share what life has been like since Israel launched its attack.
  • Iran Braces for Uncertainty After President Raisi’s Death
  • Universities should defend students’ right to free speech, not aid their repression
  • They Risked Their Lives for Freedom in Iran. Now They Fear Israel’s Bombs.
  • How Jesus’s Hometown Is Coping With War at Christmas
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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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