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Alex Shams

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Alex Shams

  • About me
  • Reporting
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Opinion

France’s burkini ban is a dangerous, Islamophobic assault on feminist values

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Mondoweiss on August 25, 2016. One of several viral photos showing a woman removing her tunic while surrounded by police on a beach in Nice. (Photo: ABDUL

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Iran Reporting USA

The Tourist’s Guide to Tehrangeles: Exploring the Capital of the Iranian Diaspora

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on August 10, 2016. Los Angeles is the undisputed capital of the global Iranian diaspora. Home to a community of at least 700,000 Iranians

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Opinion

München und die Sehnsucht, weiß zu sein

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Carta on July 27, 2016. Translated from the English original, which can be found here. Warum flehte uns der Münchener Amokläufer an, ihn als Deutschen zu betrachten?

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Opinion

Why Did The Munich Killer Beg Us To See Him As German?

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published by MuslimGirl.net on July 23,2016. Republished on Huffington Post and Hummus for Thought. Translated to German and republished on Magna. Around and around we go. Yesterday, an 18-year old

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India Reporting

Syriac Churches and Sephardic Synagogues: The Urban Legacy of Indian Ocean Cosmopolitanism in Kerala

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on March 2, 2016. At the southwestern tip of India in the state of Kerala sits the elegant port city of Kochi, the bustling

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Iraq Reporting USA

Chicago’s Assyrians embrace new technology to save ancient language

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Alex Shams

Assyrians based in Chicago are united in keeping Syriac alive in the US while hoping to spark a revolution in language learning

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Opinion

Yara Shahidi, the Iranian-American Star of ‘Black-ish,’ Is Breaking Stereotypes On & Off Screen

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Muftah on June 3,2016. Over the last two years, the hit ABC sitcom “Black-ish” has deftly explored issues of race, class, and gender in the United States

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Israel Opinion

‘Broad City’ Didn’t Just Go on Birthright — It Spent 21 Minutes Mocking It

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published on The Forward on April 28, 2016. Written by Alex Shams. When Ilana and Abby from “Broad City” announced last week that they were going on Birthright Israel,

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Reporting

Transgender Muslims in America Fight Bigotry on Two Fronts

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Muftah on April 15, 2016. The wave of Islamophobia erupting across the United States has taken a toll on every aspect of Muslim American life. A climate of

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Reporting

Palestinian Christians celebrate identity in Easter rituals

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Alex Shams

Palestinian worshipers across Holy Land mark ‘Saturday of Fire’, an Orthodox celebration and yearly revival of community pride

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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

  • Workshop: Investigating Power
  • The “Terrorists” in My Grandmother’s Neighborhood
  • A Persian Christmas Story: How A Jewish Shrine in Qazvin Connects Palestine and Iran
  • ‘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
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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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