The MERIP Podcast

Today’s podcast is a special edition of the MERIP Roundtable featuring Lina Attalah, editor in chief of Mada Masr, the leading independent media organization in Egypt. James Ryan and Hesham Sallam spoke with her about Egypt’s current crackdown on independent journalism, and Mada Masr in particular. Following the arrest of the independent fact-checkers at Matsadaash in late September, Lina Attalah was subjected to a six-hour interrogation by Egyptian authorities on October 21. She was later charged with operating a news organization without a license, despite the fact that Mada Masr has made numerous attempts to obtain one. Those charges were referred to trial last week, which resulted in a fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds (over $54,000 ), Atallah’s brief imprisonment and a court order to close Mada Masr’s operations. Last week, MERIP’s Board of Directors signed two separate letters, along with over 100 other civil society organizations and media outlets, to condemn the Egyptian government’s prosecution of Mada Masr and Attalah. In addition to updating listeners with the latest news about their struggles, Attalah discussed Mada Masr’s origins, how the political situation in Egypt has led to such severe repression of independent media and how regional and international supporters are working together to fight the ongoing prosecution of Mada Masr, Matsadaash and others. Further ReadingMada MasrMatsadaashThe MERIP Podcast features exclusive interviews with contributors to the Middle East Research and Information Project from the present and past about their work for MERIP, as well as audio from events we've conducted online and in-person that examine contemporary issues in the politics, economy, society and culture of the Middle East. Hosted by James Ryan, MERIP's Executive Director. Visit our website, www.merip.org, to read all of our work without paywalls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today on the MERIP Podcast we have another installment of our In the Archive series, featuring executive director James Ryan’s interview with Ammiel Alcalay about his essay, “Jerusalem, the Islamic City” which appeared in Middle East Report Issue 182 “Jerusalem and the Peace Agenda” (May/June 1993). The conversation covers a wide terrain of thinking about what makes Jerusalem an Islamic City, including how the interplay between urban and rural, tradition and modernity that has been essential to the city’s character has been slowly eroded over the last 30 years of occupation in favor of what he calls a “disneyification” of the city. Alcalay also discussed how his view of Jerusalem in the pre-Oslo era encapsulated the interpretive generosity necessary to advance justice, not just in Jerusalem but in all of Palestine, and especially in Gaza today.Previous Episodes of In the Archive: Episode 11: In the Archive with Beshara DoumaniEpisode 15: In the Archive with Brahim El GuabliFurther Reading: Ammiel Alcalay, “Jerusalem, the Islamic City” Middle East Report Issue 182 (May/June 1993)Ammiel Alcalay, After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 1993)Ammiel Alcalay and Kholoud Hammad, Imperial Abhorrences / For Palestine (Birds LLC., 2026)Nathan Thrall, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: An Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy, (Macmillan, 2023)Dina Matar and Venetia Porter, eds., Archiving Gaza in the Present: Memory, Culture and Erasure (Saqi Books, 2025)Nasser Rabah, Gaza: The Poem Said its Piece translated by Ammiel Alcalay, Emna Zghal and Khaled al-Hilli (City Lights, 2025)The MERIP Podcast features exclusive interviews with contributors to the Middle East Research and Information Project from the present and past about their work for MERIP, as well as audio from events we've conducted online and in-person that examine contemporary issues in the politics, economy, society and culture of the Middle East. Hosted by James Ryan, MERIP's Executive Director. Visit our website, www.merip.org, to read all of our work without paywalls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today on the MERIP Podcast we’re sharing an interview with Nafiseh Sharifi about her recent article in Middle East Report, “Soundtrack of Dissent–Protest Music in Iran.” Sharifi is an Iranian anthropologist and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. She has written extensively on gender and sexuality politics in Iran, including her 2018 book, Female Bodies and Sexuality in Iran and the Search for Defiance (Palgrave Macmillan). In “Soundtrack of Dissent” Sharifi provides a fascinating short history of protest music in Iran since the 1979 revolution drawn from her own experiences in student protests, the 2009 Green Movement and the more recent wave of protests that culminated in this January’s “Dey Protests.” In this interview with James Ryan, Sharifi discusses how protest music under the Islamic Republic connects to earlier protest movements under the regime of the Shah and how massive changes in media and technology have altered both the mood and the prevalence of Iranian protest music. Sharifi and Ryan also discussed her recent visit to Iran and how politics and music have been playing out on the streets and in homes there since the recent war began in February 2026. Further Reading: Nafiseh Sharifi, “Soundtrack of Dissent–Protest Music in Iran” Middle East Report Issue 319, August 2026“Taraneh: A Documentary” Pegah Ahangarani, dir. BBC Persian, December 25, 2025The MERIP Podcast features exclusive interviews with contributors to the Middle East Research and Information Project from the present and past about their work for MERIP, as well as audio from events we've conducted online and in-person that examine contemporary issues in the politics, economy, society and culture of the Middle East. Hosted by James Ryan, MERIP's Executive Director. Visit our website, www.merip.org, to read all of our work without paywalls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today on the MERIP Podcast we’re sharing a recording of a live event featuring Lisa Hajjar and John Ryan discussing their last two decades of reporting, researching and writing from Guantanamo Bay. This event, which took place in Washington, DC, at Busboys and Poets on September 13th, marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the opening of the Guantanamo Bay facility that has housed those captured and imprisoned in the course of the so-called war on terror. Hajjar and Ryan discussed the continued injustice of the indefinite detention of prisoners at this US military compound, the obstacles to accountability put in place by the US Department of Defense and the present and future prospects of the facility and those who remain detained there. Lisa Hajjar is a longtime MERIP contributor and editor, as well as a professor of sociology at the University of California-Santa Barbara, and the author of The War in Court: Inside the Long Fight Against Torture, which chronicles her observations of trials at Guantanmo and was published in 2022 by the University of California Press. John Ryan is a co-founder of Lawdragon Inc. and has won numerous accolades as a legal affairs journalist over the past 25 years. Since 2015, John has been one of just two reporters to report regularly on the military tribunals from Guantanamo Bay, earning three New York Press Club Awards for his work. His book, America’s Trial: Torture and the 9/11 Case on Guantanmo Bay was published by Skyhorse in 2025. The event was moderated by Alka Pradhan, an expert on the application of human rights and humanitarian law to counterterrorism situations, and the impact of torture on fair trials. She is currently Human Rights Counsel at the Guantanamo Bay Military Commissions, representing one of the defendants in the capital case of United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (the “9/11 case”).Further Reading: Lisa Hajjar, The War in Court: Inside the Long Fight Against Torture (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2022)John Ryan, America’s Trial: Torture and the 9/11 Case on Guantanmo Bay (New York, Skyhorse, 2025)The MERIP Podcast features exclusive interviews with contributors to the Middle East Research and Information Project from the present and past about their work for MERIP, as well as audio from events we've conducted online and in-person that examine contemporary issues in the politics, economy, society and culture of the Middle East. Hosted by James Ryan, MERIP's Executive Director. Visit our website, www.merip.org, to read all of our work without paywalls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today on the MERIP Podcast James Ryan talks with Arran Walshe, a journalist and researcher based in Amman. Walshe is the author of “Alternative Amman–Making Counterculture in the Jordanian Capital,” which appeared in our summer issue of Middle East Report, Art at Work–People, Power and Cultural Production. This issue digs into the forces that shape art making across the region in a time of social and political upheaval. Walshe’s article explains how heavy metal and hip hop musicians, and other performance artists, have grappled with regional and domestic political shifts over the last several decades. Walshe interviewed musicians and participants in Amman’s countercultural scene about the changing pressures they face amid the ebbs and flows of support for the arts. He also investigates how they have struggled with Jordan’s unique place in recent regional catastrophes. In their discussion, Ryan and Walshe get into what “politics” has meant for Jordan’s countercultural music scene and how its artists have positioned themselves vis-a-vis the Jordanian state, geopolitics and the Arab diaspora. Further reading: Arran Walshe, “Alternative Amman–Making Counterculture in the Jordanian Capital” in Middle East Report Issue 319 “Art at Work–People, Power and Cultural Production” (Summer 2026)Rolling Stone MENAEbrazus (Instagram)The MERIP Podcast features exclusive interviews with contributors to the Middle East Research and Information Project from the present and past about their work for MERIP, as well as audio from events we've conducted online and in-person that examine contemporary issues in the politics, economy, society and culture of the Middle East. Hosted by James Ryan, MERIP's Executive Director. Visit our website, www.merip.org, to read all of our work without paywalls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.