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Gender

Opinion USA

Trump’s ‘honour crimes’ order is a racist distraction

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Aljazeera on March 11, 2017. The key to protecting American women is defeating American sexism and racism, not scapegoating migrants or Muslims. Trump’s proposal to track ‘honour

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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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Opinion

Neither Taharrush Gamea Nor Sexism Are Arab ‘Cultural Practices’

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Huffington Post.   In recent days, a new term has suddenly appeared in the media to describe a supposedly Arab cultural practice: “taharrush gamea.” The term, which

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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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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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Popular posts

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    Neither Taharrush Gamea Nor Sexism Are Arab ‘Cultural Practices’
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