This week marks the 11th anniversary of the tragic 2013 Ghouta chemical attacks.
For
@TimepDC
&
@arabifactshub
, I wrote on how the Assad regime has strategically employed disinformation campaigns to obscure the truth and hamper urgent medical interventions/humanitarian efforts.
NEW: How has the Assad regime weaponized disinformation to obscure war crimes?
On the anniversary of the Ghouta chemical weapons attack, fellow
@salma_daoudi1
explores how disinformation is used to hinder humanitarian efforts & undermine public health:
Morocco’s win being a source of collective euphoria in Rabat, Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut, Cairo, Tunis, Algiers… is heartwarming. We are a people who deserves more reasons to celebrate and to unite 🤍
I am, once again, dismayed by the amount of scholars/ analysts treating the « Middle East » as a fictionalised space where they can fantasize about various violent scenarios as if they’re discussing the upcoming season of their favourite TV show.
The normalisation of the weaponisation of health and its incorporation in strategic warfare is one of the most alarming developments in the 21st century.
Denying access to health services and attacking health workers, in clear violation of int law, can only be condemned.
As postgrad admission applications for
@UniofOxford
open in September, here’s a thread compiling a few resources and scholarships for applicants from Arab countries. 🧵
Absolutely horrific images coming in from different parts of Morocco.
Over 800 deaths, thousands of displaced families with nowhere to go,
insurmountable losses everywhere.
This catastrophe will scar us forever.
May our dead rest in peace.
This world cup is emerging as a political microcosm, unveiling a strong pan-Arab unity and solidarity amongst the people.
Many thought this solidarity was no longer present nor relevant to understand the region's socio-political dynamics, but truth is, it has never died.
"To our beloved Palestine, the most beautiful of all countries"
Morocco World Cup fans sing in solidarity with Palestine in Qatar. The North African country went on to beat Belgium today in a historic 2-0 win, their first World Cup victory in 24 years
Today marks the 12th anniversary of the Syrian Revolution.
Forever standing in solidarity with Syrians, until the regime is held accountable for its long series of crimes against humanity and the people can rebuild a country where freedom and dignity are inalienable rights.
In case you couldn't see how concentrating aid in the hands of the regime whose very violence has, among many other things, weakened infrastructural resilience and the capacity to respond to disasters would be detrimental to afflicted populations.
Helpful infographic from
@anadoluagency
to keep track of Arab countries' positions on Syria's return to the AL. Countries in dark brown refuse to normalize, those in light brown are still reviewing their options, and those in yellow have officially restored diplomatic ties.
Il y a 12 ans, Mohamed Bouazizi s'immolait par le feu, revendiquant le droit à la dignité, marquant le début d’une vague de soulèvements populaires à travers la région.
12 ans plus tard, après un enchaînement révolutionnaire et contre-révolutionnaire inouï,
l’espoir s’étiole.
Arab solidarity is well and alive, whether in joy or in sorrow, but our joy is so rare that it bursts in the most euphoric and cathartic ways. May this usher a new era of hope, solidarity, and freedom for all.
Eid Moubarak to all those celebrating🌙
This Ramadan, many families have broken their fast in harrowing circumstances, under the sounds of shooting and shelling, under financial hardship, away from their loved ones. Praying for everyone's safety, may we know the peace we deserve.
Rhodes Scholars for Palestine, BARS, and
@OxfordSyriaSoc
are collaborating to host a panel in Rhodes House on cross-movement solidarity between Syria, Palestine and Black liberation movements, a much needed discussion to reflect on barriers and opportunities for int solidarity.
There is such a sense of doom in watching the same tragedies unfold, down to the same details. This reenacts the same stories I heard from Syrian women about giving birth under strikes, undergoing c-sections with no anesthesia, being forced to evacuate without getting stitches.
Syria just received 2M doses of cholera vaccines, the first to reach the country after months of suffering from an outbreak. Yet, these vaccines have been given to Damascus solely, jeopardising the life of the millions who live outside of regime-held areas
While Syria's cholera outbreak is driven by the consumption of untreated water, the contaminated waters of the Euphrates are but a symptom of a more profound disease plaguing the country: the weaponization of core public goods, including water and health.
My latest for
@TimepDC
NEW: "The outbreak of cholera in Syria draws attention to the degradation of living conditions across the country."
@Salma_daoudi1
investigates the effects of Assad's weaponization of core public goods, including access to safe 🚰 post-
#SyriaEarthquake
There is something to be said about the (ab)use of flawed medical analogies by authoritarian/ authoritarian-leaning regimes, from Kais Saed’s dialysis comparison to justify ‘epurating’ Tunisia, to Bashar al Assad justifying bleeding out Syria by ‘amputating’ its infected limbs.
Definitely agree. I think the conclusion should not only be that we didn’t do enough for Syrians, but also that we need to do more.
Atrocities are still committed at the present tense. Assaults against Idlib have even intensified after Oct 7.
Une des plus belles expositions qu’il m’ait été donné de visiter ces dernières années.
Une beauté étouffée par les formes transitoires d’une vie politique cinglante et sanglante, mais qui demeure immarcescible, envers et contre tout.
Extremely honoured to be one of the first recipients of the Gil Loescher Memorial Funding award and to carry the legacy of such a renowned scholar and dedicated humanitarian, whose scholarship on refugee protection has always been inspiring.
We are delighted to announce the first recipients of funding awards from the Gil Loescher Memorial Fund: Abdirashid Ahmed
@OxfordDeptofEd
and Salma Daoudi
@Politics_Oxford
Congratulations to both Abdirashid and Salma!
Read more on their research 👇
Very honored to be joining
@TimepDC
as a fellow for the upcoming year and to work on health in conflict across the MENA, alongside such a brilliant cohort.
Very grateful for the opportunity!
Today marks the 13th anniversary of the Syrian Revolution.
Forever standing in solidarity with Syrians, until the regime is held accountable for its long series of crimes against humanity and the people can rebuild a country where freedom and dignity are inalienable rights.
Today marks the 12th anniversary of the Syrian Revolution.
Forever standing in solidarity with Syrians, until the regime is held accountable for its long series of crimes against humanity and the people can rebuild a country where freedom and dignity are inalienable rights.
Looking forward to joining this conversation exploring the gendered dimensions of the interrelation between health, conflict, and climate change at
@KingsCollegeLon
on the 12th of Sept, a great opportunity to recognize women's role in promoting peacebuilding and climate justice.
📢 Speaker announcement!
We're thrilled to be welcoming
@salma_daoudi1
as one of our brilliant panellists on Tuesday 12 September 🙌🏽
Register now to join us alongside
@WLHC_
for an evening of community building and discussion:
Tunis, Monastir, Mahdia 🇹🇳 .
Des villes étrangement familières, familièrement étrangères. Presque l’impression d’être au Maroc, sans pour autant avoir les mêmes repères.
It truly infuriates me that many are awaiting what they deem to be an « exclusive report » on what has been going on in Gaza, when Palestinian journalists have been putting their lives on the line to document every single crime they have witnessed.
68 were murdered.
Women in traditionally male-dominated fields, such as IR and politics, are often silenced, interrupted, and belittled.
Holding conversations like these surrounding gender biases is only a first, but needed step, towards making academic and policymaking circles more inclusive.
Really enjoyed holding a humanitarian-design workshop with students from Mohammed V University (Rabat), for the purpose of co-designing prevention and mitigation policies to protect most vulnerable populations from interwoven human insecurities related to climate change.
The Oxford SyriaSoc welcomes distinguished experts
@Karam__Shaar
@WaelAlalwani
, &
@IbrahimOlabi
to discuss the findings of the
@SyrianLDP
@oopensyr
report on how companies linked to human rights abusers in Syria have profited from UN procurement contracts worth $10s of millions.
Incredibly grateful that
@OxfordSyriaSoc
was part of
@MadaniyaNetwork
’s inaugural conference at
@imarabe
.
The Syrian civil society continues to be a vibrant hub for brilliant minds who will never cease to fight for the right to exist and resist.
Friends in Oxford, please join us to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the January 25th Revolution, as the Oxford Arab Society will be hosting
@MarwanMuasher
for a talk deconstructing common myths surrounding the perceived failure of Arab revolutions.
The right to health is a non-negotiable right.
Both overtly violent and structurally violent attempts to restrict access to healthcare are traumatic biosocial events that erode resilience to diseases and compound vulnerabilities. A death sentence essentially.
I joined a crucial discussion last week on health/conflict/climate, to highlight the multiple dimensions threatening women’s security in Syria, with access to food, water, health, only worsening from conflictual dynamics, politicized reconstruction, and environmental degradation.
As a scholar working on the weaponization of health, I am terrified by the erosion of IHL, terrified by the criminalization of medical neutrality, terrified by the targeting of healthcare workers, terrified by the impunity we are witnessing today.
My heart burns for Gaza.
Israel just bombed a major hospital in Gaza City filled with patients, doctors, nurses, medical staff, and people taking shelter.
The Ministry of Health estimates the death toll at 500. In a single attack. A hospital.
@omarAlshogre
This is both beautiful and incredibly heartbreaking. I hope you never get separated again and I hope many more will experience the joy of reunion 🤍
Perhaps this is a knee-jerk reaction to the amount of grant and funding applications I have been filing for fieldwork, but I find it baffling how much more time in academia is spent justifying the importance of our research, rather than actually conducting it.
Left Amman for Beirut to continue field research in perhaps one of the most distressing times (regionally, nationally, but also personally), but finding shreds and glimpses of comfort in shared collective grief.
Will be here for a month, eager to connect with people around!
Whether the selective prosecution of the ICC, the selective outrage of the int community, or the selective amnesia glossing over the crimes associated with the Iraq invasion, we are again reminded that MENA/ Arab lives barely matter. We’ve been dehumanized beyond repair.
Sharing a new co-authored article exploring the intersections between health-security and highlighting the need to align health security practices towards equitable, inclusive and decolonial approaches in global health/ public policy.
Gaza has become one of the few places where death is unescapable. Even when its people survive relentless bombing, death still awaits, under the form of disease, starvation, dehydration...
For
@TimepDC
, I write on the weaponization of health in Gaza.
NEW: The Israeli army’s invasion of
#Gaza
's hospital complex and assaults on health infrastructure are a stark illustration of Israel's larger strategy to weaponize health against the population to serve specific military objectives,
@salma_daoudi1
writes.
“For all of us who have suffered, the narrative of easing tension and reintegrating the Assad regime implies that the conflict in Syria was a temporary hiccup that can now be resolved with minimal effort.”
This essay by
@WafaMustafa9
is haunting.
@Levithomus__
Quelle honte d’instrumentaliser une tragédie nationale, d’exploiter des images douloureuses, pour avancer des propos fascistes. On est tous humains, personne ne mérite de souffrir. Vraiment l’indécence de vos propos, manque de respect total aux marocains et aux palestiniens.
I was very humbled by the opportunity to participate at the "Politics of Infrastructure in the Middle East and North Africa" conference hosted by
@APSNtweets
and
@CEDEJ_Egypte
-
at AUC.
After being shunned for 12 years over his record of human rights abuses and well-documented repressive violence, Bashar al-Assad is gradually regaining the trust and allyship of key regional regimes.
Today, Syria officially returns to the Arab League.
Palestinians do not need to be journalists/doctors to be mourned. All civilian lives deserve to be protected.
Obviously, intentionally killing journalists or doctors has significant implications and terrible consequences, but the rest of Palestinian society is not indispensable.
We are hosting Haifa Al Kaylani on Wednesday the 26th to discuss the role played by Arab women in fostering economic development, as well as the importance of women empowerment and emancipation for sustainable and inclusive growth.
Please join us if you’re around Oxford!
Very excited to have been selected to join this year’s cohort of the Atlantic Council’s
#DigitalSherlocks
program with the Digital Forensic Research Lab. Looking forward to building more OSINT investigative skills and meeting the community!
Very honoured to have hosted
@IAmAnaDiamond
&
@AliKh420
to discuss Iranians’ struggle in the face of repression and the decades-long activism of Iranian women. This talk, weaving personal experiences & political analyses, helped better understand Iran’s socio-political landscape.
How it breaks my heart that the only way we can prompt action against the polio outbreak in Gaza, is by alerting about spillover risks to other countries (read « global north »).
Are Gaza’s children not worthy of being saved from a lifetime of paralysis?
Israel's horrific war on Gaza has now caused a POLIO epidemic. Using disease to decimate Palestinians is not only a genocidal crime against humanity, it's a threat to global polio eradication efforts.
Cut off US aid and demand an immediate ceasefire to stop the epidemic NOW!
Ma récente contribution au Rapport Géopolitique du
@PolicyCenterNS
porte sur la militarisation de la santé. Ce phénomène porte le sceau de la complexification des conflits armés, au sein desquels les systèmes de santé peuvent être sciemment paralysés, politisés et/ou détruits.
I’d be super happy to chat with anyone considering applying and help review your application material or give further tips and advice. You can DM and/or email me, I’m always glad to help 🤍
Ce fut un honneur de prendre part la semaine dernière à une discussion enrichissante, infusée de sagesse et de bienveillance, avec Monsieur le Chancelier et Gouverneur de la Banque Centrale du Maroc, Si Jouahri, en tant que vice-présidente de l’AAA.
يحق لنا، نحن القاطنون في العالم العربي، ان نفرح، ان نعيش بكرامة، وان ننتصر للحياة مع اهلنا واولادنا.
شئنا ام ابينا، هذا انتصار ضد الظلم، والقمع، واليأس.
انه انتصار الأمل.
Last Saturday, while in Rabat, I was invited by the Youth Policy Center to their first expert-led roundtable to critically engage in a conversation surrounding Palestinians’ right to health and water under occupation and the weaponization of both resources.
Looking forward to moderating this panel on Gender in IR and Academia (9th of May, 2.30pm).
With fellow co-organizers, we’re hoping to discuss how gender biases in academia intersect with other racial/class biases to shape academic experiences and propose steps to address this
These dehumanising analogies usually serve to stigmatise opposing political forces by presenting them as foreign bodies whose ideas are infecting the health of societies, and hence justify any amount of force employed to ‘purge’ the country of similar threats.
Incredibly honoured to be invited to present my research alongside brilliant peers working on timely, vital, and intersectional research.
Platforming MENA voices has never been so urgent.
I am happy to announce that our 2024 Hilary term calendar for
@oxfordMec
Middle East Politics and Women’s Rights Research Seminars, chaired by
@MaryamAlemzadeh
, is now live with brand new additions!
@W_Alhusseini
C’est une lecture terriblement erronée, car en réalité, leur combat est exactement le même.
Ces femmes se battent pour la liberté de choisir, liberté entravée quand on oblige le port ou le non-port du voile.
I was very humbled to meet the Oxford Qatar Thatcher sponsors funding my Dphil project at
@UniofOxford
@Politics_Oxford
on the weaponisation of health in Syria and to present the research on the scholars' bulletin.
Health can never be normalised as a target, in Syria and beyond.
Syria has been elected vice-president of the international conference on the Early Childhood Care and Education.
Why is the international community rewarding a regime that has murdered, tortured, maimed, sexually abused, displaced, and orphaned its children?
For
@NewlinesInst
, I discuss how given the regime’s track record of weaponizing health, regional normalization with Syria might prompt the reconstruction of a heavily politicized and weaponizable health system, at the detriment of the Syrian population.
Arab governments’ efforts to normalize relations with Syria puts the country’s reconstruction in the hands of the very regime responsible for its devastation, writes
@salma_daoudi1
Read more of our latest dossier here:
The
@OxfordSyriaSoc
is helping organise a charity market tomorrow to raise funds for Syrian and Turkish relief efforts.
We have prepared a food corner, a donations sale, and information stands, incl on aid (or lack thereof) in NW Syria.
Please come visit us at our Syria stand!
@MeyLouise
Le nombre incalculable de gars qui m’expliquent mon sujet de thèse doctorale, parce que, c’est bien connu, les femmes ne s’y connaissent pas en géopolitique et/ou en sécurité, tandis qu’eux ont lu un article dessus qui leur confère une légitimité incontestable.
Lovely evening with former UK Ambassador to Morocco
@TSAReilly
, with a very insightful and engaging conversation.
PS: It was an absolute delight to finally encounter someone in the UK who shares my love and nostalgia for Morocco.
Au cours de cet épisode, nous revenons sur les principaux défis en terme de sécurité sanitaire et de santé publique en Afrique, notamment au sein des zones en conflit 🇸🇩🇪🇹🇨🇩 qui souffrent des conséquences de la militarisation de la santé.
A regarder via :
📺
#Africaf
é
⏳ RDV aujourd'hui à 17h30 avec
@salma_daoudi1
&
@hamzamjahed
pour explorer la
#s
écurité sanitaire en
#Afrique
, un continent aux multiples réalités socio-économiques. 🔎Focus: mortalité infantile, financement, ressources,
#conflits
, infrastructures. Restez connectés!
Aimed at endowing the Moroccan youth with the tools to better understand the political/legal context of occupation, the YPC is organizing a roundtable for students this Saturday (3pm) about the legal foundations of the right to water and health and their weaponization in Gaza.
مقال حول تفشي الكوليرا بسوريا، ساهمت فيه بتعاليق حول آثار تسييس الصحة و استعمالها كسلاح حرب على الحالة الوبائية.
I contributed to an article on the recent cholera outbreak in Syria, discussing impacts of the weaponisation of health/ water.
@enabbaladi
The Oxford ArabSoc was honoured to welcome Prof
@BayoumiMoustafa
for an enlightening talk on the challenges faced by the Arab diaspora.
While our experiences are unique, they share undeniable similarities calling for continued solidarity within the community.
Syria was appointed to the WHO's Executive Board in 2021 all while continuing to bomb hospitals and (para)medics, and now the WHO chief in Syria is accused of collaborating with gov officials, meeting Russian military, mismanaging funds, accepting bribes…
J'ai récemment rédigé un policy paper sur la sécurisation du
#COVID19
et la manière dont cette crise sanitaire redéfinira profondément les priorités de
#s
écurité nationale, au même titre que les événements du
#11septembre
.
@PolicyCenterNS
Highly recommend watching « Fez Summer 55 », Abdelhaï Laraki’s latest film about Morocco’s national resistance movement and struggle for independence.
A powerful reminder that occupation is always bound to end.
L’utilisation du terme « arabes » pour parler des Palestiniens vise à réfuter l’existence d’une identité palestinienne distincte attachée à sa terre, comme s’il leur était égal de vivre dans n’importe quel autre pays arabe.
C’est confondre ethnie et nationalité.
Les Russes avec l'Ukraine = les Arabes avec la Palestine : ils ont des millions de kilomètres carrés à disposition, mais continuent de réclamer une petite vue supplémentaire sur la mer.
The radicalization of state authoritarianism is always matched by further counter-revolutionary solidarity.
KS' justification that Syria's internal matters only concern Syria is an attempt to pre-empt any criticism directed against his own regime.
Setting aside the major logical and ethical flaws of such suggestion, I think opinion pieces that call for invading, starving, or slaughtering a population should not be published in mainstream media.
Editors have the responsibility to avoid platforming calls for violence.
« Pour écrire une poésie
qui ne soit pas politique,
je dois écouter les oiseaux.
Et pour écouter les oiseaux,
il faut que le bruit du bombardier cesse. »
- Marwan Makhoul
In addition to legitimizing a regime that has killed, maimed, and tortured its population, and empowering other authoritarian regimes to follow suit, normalization will not put an end to the political crisis, nor to human suffering in the country.
Very honored to have hosted Prof Ilan Pappé
@pappe54
for a talk on the forgotten history of Palestine and Palestinians, debunking common myths.
This selective amnesia is weaponized to deny Palestinians the right to their land, the right to freedom, and the right to return.
🇵🇸
Not only are the numbers factually incorrect, they also gloss over the mass atrocities Syrians have been experiencing at the hands of the Syrian and Russian regimes for the past years.
Ukrainian suffering does not need validation through minimising others’ suffering.
While still somewhat positive, public attitudes towards the 2011 uprisings seem to reflect growing disillusionment, given significant setbacks, democratic backsliding, and dire economic crises.
These, however, result from counterrevolutionary, rather than revolutionary forces.
📊
#Arab_Opinion_Index
2022: 46% of the respondents still consider the Arab uprisings of the 2011 to have been positive, and 39% consider them to have been negative.
🔗Read more:
La couverture médiatique de l'échange d'otages traduit des biais inquiétant: Des otages nommés face à des prisonniers anonymisés. Tout tend à la déshumanisation et à la vilification des palestiniens.
@anadoluagency
The accelerated pace of normalization is quite worrying.
Besides the clearly morally flawed basis upon which countries are restoring ties with the Assad regime, there is little evidence that this rapprochement will effectively counter Iran's influence or stabilize the region.
The Arab League suspended Syria's membership, in response to the regime's violent repression, but the Saudi-led initiative to bring back Syria into the Arab fold is in full force.
Morocco is one of the countries refusing to rehabilitate the Assad regime.