International Journal of Middle East Studies: Volume 55 -

Markets of Civilizations: Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria Muriam Haleh Davis (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022). Pp 288. $99.95 cloth, $26.95 paper. ISBN: 9781478018506
Sara Rahnama
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06 June 2023, pp. 390-392
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A Social History of Modern Tehran: Space, Power, and the City Ashkan Rezvani Naraghi. The Global Middle East Series (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2023). Pp. 488. $120 cloth. ISBN: 9781009188906
Mehdi Faraji
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14 September 2023, pp. 584-586
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Cairo in Chicago: Cairo Street at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 István Ormos (Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 2021). Pp. 462. $120.00 cloth, $96.00 e-book. ISBN: 9782724707663
Brian L. McLaren
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06 March 2023, pp. 173-175
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“A Nation in Turmoil, A Field in Crisis: The Upshots of Woman, Life, Freedom”
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
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11 January 2024, pp. 777-785
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By now, it is well known that the murder of the Kurdish woman, Jina Mahsa Amini, last fall sparked nationwide protests in Iran. Aside from Jina, many other young protestors were killed, imprisoned, or permanently disabled, as security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran began blinding demonstrators by firing rubber bullets at their eyes.1 These ghastly scenes were accompanied by other disturbing and violent acts that included the raiding of universities, sexual abuse of students, targeting of minority populations, and shockingly the execution of young men for their involvement in these fracases.2 The Woman, Life, Freedom (Persian: Zan, Zendegi, Azadi; WLF) uprising, which erupted in response to gender discrimination in the Islamic Republic, promptly embraced other social causes. What began as gender protests amplified people's strident cries against political repression in Iran. Despite raising awareness of a range of sociopolitical problems in Iran, the gender focus of this movement remains its singular achievement. This uprising,whose slogan (Kurdish: Jin, Jiyan, Azadi ) gained inspiration from the struggles of Kurdish women fighters, has put gender issues center stage and restored women's presence as primary agents of change in Iranian society.

The Egyptian Labor Corps: Race, Space, and Place in the First World War Kyle J. Anderson (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2021). Pp. 288. $55.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781477324547
Marie Grace Brown
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08 May 2023, pp. 392-394
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Beautiful Agitation: Modern Painting and Politics in Syria Anneka Lenssen (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2020). Pp. 283. $65.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780520343245
Judith Naeff
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14 February 2023, pp. 175-177
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Navigating “Sensitive” States: How Surveillance Practices Affect Research Development between the United States and Iran
Nat Nesvaderani
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03 January 2024, pp. 786-794
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I had completed two months of exploratory dissertation research in Tehran in the winter of 2015 when I was called in for questioning by two men who declined to provide me with their names or that of the office they called from. We met in an unmarked building adjacent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in downtown Tehran. They were middle-aged and sat on opposite sides of a table with a framed picture of Ayatollah Khomeini. When they offered me tea, I declined, remembering my cousins’ hurried advice an hour earlier. “God forbid someone puts something in your drink and they take you away to a different location,” he had said.

A Landscape of War: Ecologies of Resistance and Survival in South Lebanon Munira Khayyat (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2022). Pp. 286. $85.00 cloth, $29.95 paper. ISBN: 9780520389991
Lara Deeb
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30 August 2023, pp. 586-588
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The Politics of Stardom, Entertainment and Industry: New Studies in Egyptian Cinema History
Ifdal Elsaket
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19 October 2023, pp. 795-801
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Since at least the 1970s, Egyptian cinema has animated scholars of the Middle East; a by-product of a cultural turn in the discipline and broader interest in using film as a scholarly source. No doubt, Egypt's rich history of film production—often (and perhaps misleadingly) referred to as the “Hollywood on the Nile”—has encouraged scholars to use its films to examine broader political issues or capture the “mood” of a particular historical moment. Scholarship has mainly focused on films of the post-1952 era, often ones that reflect a definitive ideological bent or didactic message. The early period of cinema in Egypt, from the 1920s to 1940s, is much less studied. The perception of early Egyptian films as mere “imitations” of Hollywood and devoid of blatant political messaging contributed to consigning it to the dustbin of cinema history.