نشریه مطالعات خاورمیانه
سال بیست و یکم شماره 1 (پیاپی 76، بهار و تابستان 1393)

Women played a significant role in the 2011 developments in the Middle East, making their voice heard almost anywhere. Arab women’s militancy surprised many observers particularly those in the West who for long viewed them as oppressed victims of religious patriarchy. The main question of this paper revolves around the role played by women in recent Middle East developments, examining historical conditions of women in Egypt and Tunisia as pioneers of the movements. Drawing upon statistical data, the authors conclude that in spite of progress made by women in the two countries concerning education and legal status, their insufficient participation in sociopolitical spheres as well as undesirable place in economic activities made women attend street protests.

Between 2011 and 2013, three governments ruled over Egypt, which made many foreign states perplexed on how to take stances towards them. In this respect, Saudi Arabia’s conduct and position towards Egypt notably towards Mohamed Morsi government from June 17, 2012 to July 4, 2013 have gained the attention of scholars. This paper seeks to answer the following question: How can Saudi conduct towards Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government and his subsequent overthrow be explained? There are four factors that affect Saudi-Egyptian relations as follows: 1. Sociopolitical nature of the Muslim Brotherhood, 2. Syrian crisis, 3. New U.S. strategy in the Middle East, and 4. Formation of Egypt, Turkey and Qatar bloc. The first factor has an adverse impact on their bilateral ties, whereas the second would influence the ties positively. New U.S. strategy in the region heightened Saudi sensitivity towards the Muslim Brotherhood. The formation of the Egypt, Turkey and Qatar bloc as a rival to the House of Saud among the Sunnis encouraged Saudi leaders to increase their efforts at bringing Morsi down.

One of the main requisites for the successful implementation of public diplomacy programs is the preparedness of the host society. Lebanon is a fertile ground that is susceptible to the implementation of public diplomacy programs and soft influence of foreign governments. The author enumerates four factors including the tribal fabric of the society, weak government, open cultural atmosphere and inefficient economy that overall make Lebanon an ideal place for the presence of governmental and nongovernmental foreign institutions as well as free conduct of public diplomacy activities. Drawing upon his own personal observation and field study, the author has tested this hypothesis with respect to the public diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has concluded that significant success gained by Iranian public diplomacy in Lebanon, in addition to the activities of Iranian institutions, has resulted from the four aforementioned factors. Taking these factors into consideration and comparing them with the conditions in other countries would provide guidelines on how to devise viable public diplomacy strategies by the Iranian foreign policy-makers.

The Amal movement and Hezbollah have experienced two different types of coexistence since the mid-1980s. The first experience in the 1980s entailed very violent forms, but since the early 1990s onwards the two sides have gradually moved towards strategic convergence. In this process, a variety of factors such as outlook and motivation as well as environmental factors (including Lebanon’s domestic and foreign environment) have played a role in the convergence of the two sides. The factors arising from Lebanon’s domestic setting have been by far the most important ones in bringing the two sides closer. Some of the related factors in such convergence include personal character of the new leaders and mutual respect between the two sides, liberation of southern Lebanon from the Israeli occupation, assassination of Rafik Hariri, withdrawal of Syrian army from Lebanon and finally activation of Takfiri cells within Lebanon as a result of current crisis in Syria.

The Middle East is of utmost importance to the West particularly to the United States. U.S. double standards and lack of neutrality towards the Middle East is pretty evident. Western powers’ intervention in and position towards the Islamist movements in the Arab countries has become extremely troublesome as they seek to ignite anarchy there and suppress those who wish to raise the flag of Islam. The theory of Islamic Awakening concerns the revolutions in the Middle East which is in contrast to the Western outlooks. The West wants these revolutions to meet Western demands and interests and even it does not shun military intervention, if needed. The formation of other governments like that of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the region is unacceptable to the West as they have made every security, defensive and aggressive efforts within the past three decades to prevent such governments to be forge d. However the Iranian Revolutionary patterns have expanded. This writing seeks to investigate the West’s positon towards the revolutions and awakening that have taken place in Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria.

The United Nations created the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan after the September 11th events and the fall of the Taliban government according to the Bon Agreement in order to help stabilize Hamid Karzai’s transitional government. ISAF is intended to establish reliable security structures in Afghanistan, help reconstruct the country and train future Afghani security forces. Is ISAF’s operation consistent with international law? The authors conclude that the large part of ISAF’s activities in Afghanistan conforms international law but there have been occasional cases mainly related to human rights where their activities have violated international law. For instance, casualties among the civilian population during the course of ISAF’s battle on terror are apparently a violation of human rights, but was there any other option for ISAF? May a cancerous tumor be treated with chemotherapy without victimizing other living cells?