Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
Recent studies on social media have begun to unravel how these sites pave the way for a new type of surveillance: social media surveillance (Trottier 2012). Compared to conventional understandings...Show moreRecent studies on social media have begun to unravel how these sites pave the way for a new type of surveillance: social media surveillance (Trottier 2012). Compared to conventional understandings of surveillance as top-down and hierarchical, social media surveillance is mutual: users watch and are watched. Most studies on the practice of watching and being watched on social media are based on the experiences of ‘white’ North-American students and tend to overlook the experiences of a more diverse global population. This qualitative study aims to contribute to a broader understanding of social media surveillance, by examining the experiences of fifteen female Dutch-Moroccan students in higher education. Findings from the interviews suggest how the students engage with social media surveillance in ways that represent their personal, cultural and religious values of modesty. This study argues that the students’ emphasis on online modesty can be explained in two-fold: (1) as a general effect of institutionalized disciplinary techniques on social media, and (2), as online pious micro-practices, conceptualized in this study as ‘virtual piety’. In doing so, this study not only contributes to a broader understanding of social media surveillance, but also contributes to studies investigating the way everyday practices are part of the process of becoming a pious Muslim subject (Jouili 2009).Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
Al-Hashd al-Shaʿbi or the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is an umbrella of armed groups in Iraq that united in 2014 in cooperation with the government in order to defeat IS. Officially, the...Show moreAl-Hashd al-Shaʿbi or the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is an umbrella of armed groups in Iraq that united in 2014 in cooperation with the government in order to defeat IS. Officially, the organization is under the control of the Prime-Minister (PM). In reality, however, it has retained operational and administrative independence, often directly ignoring orders from the PM and even attacking foreign forces in Iraq and the region. This thesis addresses the question of how the PMF has been able to retain much of its independence throughout the six years of its existence, in which the government has often attempted to rein it in. It also considers the implications of the PMF’s independence for the notion of the sovereignty of the Iraqi government. It finds that the PMF is not a singular organization, but rather a collective of independent groups that vie with each other for funding, influence, and power. The key grouping within the PMF is that of the Iranian-backed Hashd. Many other PMF groups rely on this alliance because of its control of the PMF’s central administration, which distributes funding. Iran and its allies in Iraq benefit from the PMF’s independence from potentially anti-Iranian PMs, and the cover and plausible deniability that the lack of oversight grants them. This is abetted by the support the PMF enjoys in the Iraqi parliament through its own presence there, and through political opportunists or pro-Iranian ideologues. The PMF uses its military, social, and political power to actively undermine the government in different ways. Iraq’s security sector can only properly be understood as an ‘armed political order’ in which different actors and groupings continuously vie for influence in violent and non-violent ways. The office of the PM is one venue for contestation, and the person of the PM only one of its actors. Coercive organizations of all sorts participate in this contestation. An anti-governmental Hashd group is not inherently different in this regard than a unit of the Iraqi Army. Its position is different because of the different structural constraints on both groups, and their alignment towards the government. The competition between the different Hashd groups and the recent protests which led to the appointment of PM al-Kadhimi indicate that no one – including the pro-Iranian camp – is truly dominant in the Iraqi armed order.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
This thesis provides a detailed case study of the Syrian Archive, the Syrian-led human rights organization that collects, verifies, and contextualizes visual material of human rights violations in...Show moreThis thesis provides a detailed case study of the Syrian Archive, the Syrian-led human rights organization that collects, verifies, and contextualizes visual material of human rights violations in the Syrian conflict. This research draws on diaspora mobilization and social movement theory literature and employs an interpretive approach to thematic analysis to examine how the Syrian Archive contributes to accountability for human rights violations in Syria. The primary data collected are in-depth semi-structured interviews with the Syrian Archive team, in addition to in-depth semi- structured interviews with people working at prominent international organisations in the human rights field. As the findings show, the Syrian Archive contributes to accountability in three ways: by turning digital material into digital evidence, by facilitating political action, and by providing a counter narrative. The interviews with external interviewees from Human Rights Watch, Bellingcat, Amnesty International, and ECCHR reveal the continued impact and mutual dependence that has emerged. The case study of Syrian Archive shows how civil society actors can experiment with new bottom-up possibilities of addressing and pushing for accountability and justice for human rights violations.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
under embargo until 2024-09-26
2024-09-26T00:00:00Z
This thesis studies on the official letters of Anūshtakīnid Khwārazmshāh dynasty written Rashīd al-Dīn al-Waṭwāṭ (508/1112 - 573/1177), the chief kātib (scribe official) in the court of...Show moreThis thesis studies on the official letters of Anūshtakīnid Khwārazmshāh dynasty written Rashīd al-Dīn al-Waṭwāṭ (508/1112 - 573/1177), the chief kātib (scribe official) in the court of Khwārazmshāh dynasty and explores the concept of loyalty in the letters of Rashīd al-Dīn al-Waṭwāṭ with the main focus on the complexity of social and political networks in Khwārazm before the Mongol invasion. The research question of the thesis is “How did al-Waṭwāṭ reconcile the moralism and real politikal interest inside the relationships of loyalty in his letters?”. The thesis first reviews various academic works and arguments on loyalty into four categories based on historical periods and disciplines and the historical background of al-Waṭwāṭ and Anūshtakīnid Khwārazm, then studies the narrative of al-Waṭwāṭ on three types of relationships of loyalty, which are respectively the relationships of loyalty between the populace and the rulers, the relationships of loyalty between the officials and the rulers, and the relationships of loyalty between rulers.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
Since the 1990s, the genre of Dutch Islamic children’s literature has seen an impressive boom in terms of quantity and quality. With increasing numbers of publishers active in the field and books...Show moreSince the 1990s, the genre of Dutch Islamic children’s literature has seen an impressive boom in terms of quantity and quality. With increasing numbers of publishers active in the field and books published, the genre is growing with an exponential speed and continuously transforming in character. Building upon the gradually developing field of study that deals with the everyday lives of Muslims in ‘the West’, this study provides an exploratory insight into a specific manifestation of the daily experiences of Muslims in diaspora: Islamic children’s literature. Through 25 qualitative in-depth interviews with those actors most closely involved in the phenomenon, being publishers, authors, and producers, this explorative study aimed to understand the main intentions and motivations for both producing and using these books. Providing a bottom-up account of the phenomenon, this research intended to answer the following research question: What explains the increasing popularity of Dutch Islamic children’s literature since its emergence in the 1990s? With a new generation of Dutch Muslims, born and raised in The Netherlands themselves, facing an increasing need for renewed pedagogical materials that fit contemporary Dutch context, the genre of Islamic children’s literature is the materialised response to a need for educational and socialising materials in a non-Muslim majority context. Characterised by a diversity of both actors involved and books produced, the genre of Islamic children’s literature serves multiple functions, ranging from the strict didactic teaching of virtue to playful modes of representation. Serving both as a complementary tool in the Islamic upbringing of a future generation at home and as a means of strengthening children in their Dutch Muslim identity, the genre is continuously adaptive to the needs of its ‘BRUNA’ Muslim audience.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
2023-01-29T00:00:00Z
During the summer of 1958 Iran, Israel and Turkey concluded a secret agreement to share intelligence data and information gathering techniques. This agreement, the Periphery Pact (‘Pact’), was...Show moreDuring the summer of 1958 Iran, Israel and Turkey concluded a secret agreement to share intelligence data and information gathering techniques. This agreement, the Periphery Pact (‘Pact’), was initiated by Israel who was anxious to establish relationships with countries on the periphery of the ring of hostile Arab countries that encircled it. The Pact signatories, engaged in a diplomatic marketing initiative to sell the Pact to their Cold War sponsor, the United States in the belief that US support for the Pact was beneficial. Existing research tells us little about how the United States reacted to this sales pitch or what US policy was towards the Pact. My research of the US diplomatic archives indicate that the US response to the Periphery Pact arrangements was decidedly lukewarm. This appears inconsistent with US regional policy which was to stimulate the creation of regional defense arrangements by its regional allies to counter Soviet threats to the region. I argue that the response of the United States to the Pact may not be a complete surprise if analyzed in the light of the US response to the Baghdad Pact, a contemporaneous defense arrangement in the region. I also investigate how the US intelligence services reacted to the Pact. This aspect of the US policy towards the Pact is under-researched. This is surprising given Israel’s track record in clandestine diplomacy and its use of its regional intelligence gathering capabilities as an argument when marketing the Periphery Pact to US officials. My research indicates that the CIA displayed more interest in and provided resources to the intelligence sharing mechanism of the Periphery Pact. It may well be that the United States used clandestine diplomacy in parallel, rather than as a substitute, for normal diplomatic channels.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
Of all the disasters that hit Ottoman cities, earthquakes and fires belonged to the most harmful. Throughout centuries, the capital city of the Ottoman Empire suffered numerous catastrophic city...Show moreOf all the disasters that hit Ottoman cities, earthquakes and fires belonged to the most harmful. Throughout centuries, the capital city of the Ottoman Empire suffered numerous catastrophic city fires, or conflagrations, not in the least because of its wooden architecture and narrow streets that made the city vulnerable to fires. Accidents and sometimes arson were the main causes for the conflagrations which, because of the wooden houses, the building density, and lack of proper prevention methods regularly resulted in major catastrophes which had profound impact on both the personal, social and economic life of the inhabitants of the capital city. According to European diplomats, fires were sometimes so powerful that they not only reshaped entire districts but also had major impact on the larger political and social constellation of a particular period in time. Arson sometimes in combination with plunder was a mechanism that was regularly used by groups, such as the Janissaries, in order to ventilate protest and put pressure on the authorities. The fires of Istanbul were thus sometimes more than mere accidents. This thesis analyses the conflagrations (city fires) of Istanbul, their causes and effects on the capital city throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, a turbulent period during which the state and Janissaries conflicted.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis examines the role of non-state cyber actors in violent conflicts, focusing on the case study of the hacker group Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) in the Syrian civil war. A network analysis...Show moreThis thesis examines the role of non-state cyber actors in violent conflicts, focusing on the case study of the hacker group Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) in the Syrian civil war. A network analysis of all cyber attacks related to the Syrian war between 2012-2015 shows that the SEA primarily attacked Western media. However, the thesis argues that the West was not the SEA's main target, rather, the cyber attacks were meant to influence and control the Syrian opposition with the purpose to weaken them.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
The discussions surrounding the authenticity of the extra-Qur'ānic traditions in Islam has been a prevalent theme in the scholarship for the last six decades. This thesis is about the modern...Show moreThe discussions surrounding the authenticity of the extra-Qur'ānic traditions in Islam has been a prevalent theme in the scholarship for the last six decades. This thesis is about the modern polemics surrounding the parts of the Islamic tradition with supposed Jewish origins, also known as the “Isrāʾīliyyāt”. The term Isrāʾīliyyāt has been the subject of numerous religious-polemical works since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with Modernist Muslim commentators arguing for the ejection of this material to make way for a return to pristine Islam. Although such arguments against Isrāʾīliyyāt find considerable coverage in the academic literature, the dynamic exegetical scene in Turkey is often neglected. Highlighting the discussions in Turkey, this research aims to bring out the contemporary debates about Isrāʾīliyyāt therein with a study of the ‘new media’, a platform that is widely used by preachers from different ideological camps. This thesis seeks to situate the Turkish case within the larger Middle Eastern context of Modernist Islam by discovering the connections between exegetes from different localities and eras, aiming to locate the intellectual influences of the figures that are studied.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This project investigates how memory contributes to the reproduction and contestation of processes of economic dispossession in Tunisia, examining more specifically the relation between memory and...Show moreThis project investigates how memory contributes to the reproduction and contestation of processes of economic dispossession in Tunisia, examining more specifically the relation between memory and political economy in two directions. First, it investigates the dispossession of memory, that is: how the top-down manufacturing and mobilisation of collective memory has consolidated feelings of marginalisation and exclusion among subordinated individuals and social groups, aiming to perpetuate existing social and economic hierarchies. Second, this study also seeks to explore the memory of dispossession, particularly with reference to how the memory of dispossession is experienced from below and eventually contested. Building on Gramscian notions of hegemony, the project argues that struggles over memory are a crucial aspect in processes of dispossession, their reproduction from above, as well as challenges to them from below in Tunisia.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis is engaged in the challenge that non-state actors pose for the international order in a context of human rights violations. For that, it focuses on how these actors influence...Show moreThis thesis is engaged in the challenge that non-state actors pose for the international order in a context of human rights violations. For that, it focuses on how these actors influence international politics, mainly through their role on implementing human rights norms, taking as a study case the Western Sahara pursuit of self-determination. The international and transnational solidarity network are to be seen as advocacy networks, and their actions, history, and role on implementing human rights norms will be analyzed. The domestic dimension of this advocacy will be explored through an initiative emerged from the Dutch society – the Polisario Komitee. The transnational dimension, in its turn, will be analyzed through the European Coordinating Conference of Support to the Sahrawi People (EUCOCO). The work will shed light on how these initiatives operate, in order to analyze if they prove to be effective in promoting the change they are committed to – as well as what are the elements that influence negatively in their advocacy. For that, the methodological approach includes a combination of primary archival sources, interviews, and literature on human rights, International Relations, and advocacy networks.Show less
