Why GATEKEEPERS?
Free speech for the Middle East and North Africa — voices from across the center of the world — is what we fight for.
TMR 44 • GATEKEEPERS
Featured Artists: “Barred From Home”
Refugee camps, control, and dispossessed lives by artists Heba Tannous, Mahmoud Alhaj, Tayseer Barakat, Alaa Albaba, and photographer Iason Athnasiadis.
Mohammad Hafez Ragab: Upsetting the Guards of Cairo
Maha Al Aswad sheds light on Egyptian writer Mohammad Hafez Ragab, a literary figure of the 1960s whose works have been vastly overlooked.
Meta’s Community Standards as a Tool of Digital/Settler-Colonialism
Omar Zahzah argues that Meta censors free speech for Palestine because it is a US dominant corporate platform that takes support for Israel for granted.
Forget Social Media—Government is the Real Threat to Freedom
The most dangerous gatekeepers aren’t social media platforms, but local, state and federal governments dictating what we can read and say.
Who Decides What Makes for Authentic Middle East Fiction?
In Nektaria Anastasiadou's experience, agents, publishers and editors often have peculiar ideas about what constitutes Middle East fiction.
Egypt’s Gatekeeper, President or Despot?
Maged Mandour’s new book examines El-Sisi's exercise and abuse of power in post-revolutionary Egypt.
Lebanon’s Holy Gatekeepers of Free Speech
When religious fanatics in Lebanon aren’t fighting one another, they make the best war comrades against modernity, secularism, and freedom of expression.
My Life Among the Gatekeepers
Ammiel Alcalay writes of the gatekeepers who have affected every aspect of his writing, cultural, and public life.
“Made to Measure”—fiction from Farah Ahamed
Sarah realizes that gatekeepers come in all shapes and forms — over the radio, at the end of an email, in government and the person right next to us...
“Dear Sniper” —a short story by Ali Ramthan Hussein
Gatekeepers of Baghdad decide who lives, who dies, during 2019 protests against high unemployment, state corruption, and poor services.