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Israel Opinion Palestine

Killings reveal link between homophobia, anti-Arab racism

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published on the Washington Blade on Aug. 15, 2015. Shira Banki, a 16-year-old girl who was stabbed during a Jerusalem Pride march, succumbed to her injuries on Aug. 2,

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Israel Opinion Palestine

Seattle mayor’s Israel trip highlights dangers of ‘pinkwashing’

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published on the Washington Blade. Ed Murray (Photo by Ryan Georgi; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)   On Monday, Seattle mayor Ed Murray touched down in Israel as part of a

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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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  • Iran’s Protesters Are Caught Between State Repression and Foreign Intervention
  • Quiet Solidarity: The Underground Networks that Defied Israel’s War on Iran
  • Our Man For Tehran
  • Israel’s Bombs Have Stopped Falling, But Iranians Still Face an Uncertain Future
  • The Take: How can Iranians rebuild while crackdowns intensify?
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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

  • Iran's Protesters Are Caught Between State Repression and Foreign Intervention
    Iran's Protesters Are Caught Between State Repression and Foreign Intervention
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    Quiet Solidarity: The Underground Networks that Defied Israel's War on Iran
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    Our Man For Tehran
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    Inside Mexico's deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians
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    Neither Taharrush Gamea Nor Sexism Are Arab ‘Cultural Practices’
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    Tehran from 435 Meters: The View from Geisha
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    Iranians celebrate US elections with hilarious memes as Trump faces defeat

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