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Alex Shams

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Alex Shams

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Palestine Reporting

In photos: Hiking the ruins of Lifta

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on January 3, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Lifta is a Palestinian village that was mostly destroyed in 1948. Today, its ruins lie in Jerusalem’s

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Palestine Reporting

FEMEN threatens to ‘cancel’ Christmas in Bethlehem

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on December 24, 2013. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — As Christmas Eve celebrations took over the streets of Bethlehem on Tuesday, rumors swirled of a plot

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Palestine Reporting

Storm disaster in Gaza ‘man-made’

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on December 17, 2013. As thousands in the Gaza Strip remain displaced and streets across the coastal enclave are still flooded Tuesday, it is

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Palestine Reporting

Widespread flooding in Gaza forces thousands to flee homes

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on Dec. 13, 2013. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Gaza Strip was pounded by fierce winds and rain again on Friday as flooding reached dangerous levels

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Israel Palestine Reporting USA

American Studies Association endorses academic boycott of Israel

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on December 4, 2013. A top body of the largest scholarly association dedicated to American Studies voted unanimously in a landmark decision on Wednesday

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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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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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