One supposition is that the developments concerning football in Pakistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia are part of the considerable changes that sport, religion and politics have undergone in recent decades. Hence, the aim of this study is to scrutinise the lens on how football manifests several social, cultural, religious, and political modes and expressions. The three states in this presentation are no exception to this, rather the opposite. The histories of football in the three countries are not entirely overlapping, but the agency and production of formally trained Muslim scholar’s express opinions on football in Syria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. How Muslim footballers in elite leagues envisage Islam is significant, but equally important is how Muslim majority countries are building female football. Interpretations concerning women and the practice of Islam, are important, and the role of women’s football is shifting the discourse on Islam. In general, the response from fans, clubs, players and the public when they articulate an Islamic identity also impacts on how the religion is practiced. In sum, the aim here is to account for complexity, demonstrating how football functions as a window for examining interpretations of Islam, politics, nationalism and identity in three societies, Syria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

This panel analyses state-religious relations in the Arab world in the post-Covid period (2022-). We believe that the late 2010s constituted a fundamental shift in the way state-religious relations were configured due to three factors.

First, the regional campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood, led by the GCC states and Egypt, followed by Tunisia. In parallel, the discredit of Islamism among ordinary Muslims due to the exactions during Daesh’ rule, and its electoral demise due to poor management (Morocco, Tunisia, exception of Jordan).

Second, the increasing bureaucratization of Islam and state-controlled revival of traditional religious institutions and discourses, especially in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt. In the Saudi case, we observe top-down modernization of the state and society and religious scholars’ decline in influence.

Third, the growing digitalization of the state services (e-government) in the Arab world and in the GCC countries in particular since Covid 19, leading in turn to more efficient state services for citizens, more monitoring, and generally a shift in state-society relations.

The papers in this panel are all based on recent, original fieldwork in the region, as well as primary sources in Arabic. The presenters focus on different aspects of the reconfigurations of state-religious relations in recent times: religious governance and the homogenization of religious discourse in Tunisia, Islamic charity in Egypt, the positioning of activist groups, and the streamlining of the legal system in Saudi Arabia. By this broad focus, we wish to analyze religious influence and the relation to the state, in mondain everyday life, in mosques, in the legal system (courts), and in social affairs. The findings across cases seem to be a growing state-imposed homogenization of religious discourse and a centralizing role of state institutions Examining the cases of Egypt, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia, we also discuss the societal effects of these changes in terms of radicalization, actors’ autonomy, and societal religiosity.

Tine Gade (NUPI) - A Tale of Two Legal Systems? Lawyers and Judges in the New Saudi Arabia

What was, and what is Zionism? With a narrow focus on Great Men and the State of Israel, the answer may seem obvious, both to Zionists and anti-Zionists. However, Zionism did not start with Herzl, nor did it end in 1948. This panel explores alternative histories of Zionism, decoupled from canonical personalities, entities, and territories. We reframe the question in a global sense and interrogate the history of Zionism from multiple temporal, geographic, and epistemic perspectives. Given the Zionist movement’s European and colonial origins, what did Zionism mean to the Jews of the Middle East? What alternative histories emerge if we focus on emotions, such as indifference, reluctance, suspicion, and disappointment? What does Zionism do to Jewish tradition and identity? How do we make room for Palestinian narratives of Zionism? And, with the State of Israel simultaneously experiencing crisis, triumph, and expansion, what is Zionism today?

The legal position of extra-marital and unregistered children remains remarkably similar across Arab states irrespective of ratification of international conventions on children’s rights. In Morocco, statelessness exists despite amendment to the patriarchal nationality law in 2007 which gave Moroccan women the right to transfer nationality to their children. In Kuwait, statelessness among children of Kuwaiti women persists despite the unanimous passing of Law on the Child in 2015. Lebanese and Syrian women find it harder to register their children in official personal records in the wake of the 2011 Arab revolts due to complex certification practices, including in cases where filiation and marital conditions are met. The paper addresses two aspects pertaining to the entanglement of family law and nationality law: (i) registration practices concerning paternity (ubuwwa) and filiation (nasab); and (ii) nationality laws that discriminate against children of single mothers, and children born to female citizens married to non-nationals.

This paper investigates how our recent typological map (Mjøset, Meijer, Harpviken & Butenschön, 2024) of the colonial period (1870s to the 1930s) in the Middle East can be developed into a tool for comparative analysis of state formation in the post-war period. Above all, this requires an analysis of Israel’s insertion as a new state formation project in the region with Yishuv since the 1920s and a full-blown state after 1948. Israel’s preconditions are traced through four sets of typologies: of diasporas, of European nation-building movements, of settler colonial state formation, of great power support and of soft power. Israel’s history as a state is then periodized up to the present. Its strong state formation trajectory (Tilly) is marked by thoroughly institutionalized security imperatives, first related to warfare against the neighbouring Arab states, later also treating any effort at Palestinian nation building and state formation as threats to be countered.

Prisons are central institutions in the SWANA region, and imprisonment has long been used as a form of political crackdown, becoming even more prevalent after the 2010-11 Arab revolts. Narratives about prisons are abundant: written from within the prison cell or after the prisoner’s release, they often take the form of novels, memoirs, and diaries, contributing to the well-established genre of adab al-sijn (or adab al-sujun, prison literature). These narratives also circulate as oral accounts and social media posts. Prisoners' narratives are often in stark contrast to how governments discuss imprisonment.

In this panel, we seek a multidisciplinary engagement with prison narratives that takes into account both lived and imagined accounts. Drawing on a variety of primary sources that include literature, social media, and material culture from Egypt, the Levant, and the Maghreb, we tackle the following questions: Who narrates imprisonment today? Which genres and aesthetics are used to narrate prisons? How do these narratives circulate, and who are the intended recipients? Our methods of analysis include close reading, fieldwork observation, and social media research .

The concept of ”relics” is pivotal in the History of Religions. This panel seeks to explore the diversity of relic veneration in Islam across various historical periods, geographical locations, and traditions. We aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of relics by examining their role in different Islamic movements and their strategic use by political leaders and dynasties to assert authority, as well as by ordinary people for various purposes.

We contend that the study of Islamic relics requires a comprehensive approach, incorporating both contemporary and historical material, and employing diverse methodologies and theoretical frameworks. The term athar (“traces”), broadly defined, encompasses body parts, specific objects, places, and is often used interchangeably with hadiths. This indicates that narratives about the Prophet’s sayings and actions were also considered relics, as they represent remnants connected to him. Analytically, relics can thus be conceptualized as a distinct object category, tied to particular narratives, values, forms of authority and practices. However, if we conceptualize relics as a functional category understood as “transmitters” and “contact points” and “containers”, they can be compared to other objects, such as petitions and souvenirs connected with pilgrimages and other religious travels.

In this panel, we will engage with both textual sources and physical objects, applying a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives. Our objective is to contribute to the systematic comparison and conceptual development necessary for a deeper understanding of this broad phenomenon.

What role does technology play in informing and undergirding Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine? How has technology enabled, and been enabled by, erasure and fragmentation of Palestinian space over time? How is techno-capitalism – digital, infrastructural, military innovations, including their affective and cultural aspects – leveraged for colonial objectives? The panel explores interrelated Israeli practices and industries, connecting militarization and territorial engineering with settler colonial imaginaries of technology as well as their global circulations and extensions.

The papers on this panel deal with topics such as nuclear weapons, waste, and toxicity; surveillance technology and settlements; startups and death; and global circulations of (in)security technologies. By providing theoretical and empirical context regarding the links between technology and settler colonialism, the panel simultaneously reflects on Gaza today, where Israeli genocide has been accelerated by artificial intelligence, and which has witnessed ethnic cleansing alongside policies aimed at bantustanization and control through privatized regimes of security.

Fatwas are issued in their thousands every day and tend to confirm an existing order. But sometimes, more significant fatwas work to change it, or at least register a new order, be it in the realm of politics, social life, cultural expressions, or religious norms.

This panel addresses both the many small and the few great fatwas. Inspired by the seminal volume on Muftis and their Fatwas by Masud, Messick, and Powers (1996), the panel discusses developments in the ifta' of official state fatwas by analysing a selected fatwa and placing it into a broader context of ifta' and its role: What does the fatwa represent? What function does it serve, and how could we categorise it? What might it tell us about the questioner (mustafti), the mufti, and the function of ifta'? And what does it tell us about religion and religious authority in Egypt and Iraq today?

This panel discusses a century of Middle Eastern independent music. Invigild Tomren investigates how Sayyid Darwish and others used popular songs and poetry to create an influential counterculture during the Egyptian Nahḍa between 1918 and 1923. Douglas Mattsson also looks at music as a form of resistance by exploring how Turkish black metal bands utilize Islamic symbols of blaspheme to oppose Turkey’s current government. By contrast, Erling Sogge shows how Lebanese metal musicians create subcultures that integrate their work into their society while gradually expanding the boundaries for cultural expression. Sean Foley and +Aziz, a Kuwaiti-American musician and co-founder of the multiethnic band Kuwaisiana, discuss Kuwaiti and American independent music and how musicians market and monetize their work.

These papers, which draw on interviews and field research, show how independent music serves as a critical framework for understanding the Middle East and the place of music in today’s world.

This panel explores how green energy transitions intersect with state-building and socio-political dynamics in both resource-rich and conflict-affected contexts focusing on the Arabian Penisula. Drawing on examples such as NEOM, the Saudi Green Initiative, and Yemen’s solar energy expansion, the papers explore green energy as a tool for rethinking traditional power structures and envisioning transformative futures. The panel highlights the interplay between state authority, external interventions, and infrastructure politics, revealing how energy transitions reshape political, social, and environmental landscapes. At the same time, it critically assesses the paradoxes and challenges inherent in these transitions, particularly in the Arabian Peninsula, home to some of the world’s largest oil and gas producers. By analyzing these dynamics, the panel aims to shed light on broader struggles over sustainability, sovereignty, and the region’s evolving role in global energy transitions.

Directly after the roundtable there will be a meeting of the Network of Arabic Teachers in the Nordic Countries in Seminar room 3, Sophus Bugge house

As the Mediterranean Sea has been recognised as the deadliest migration route in the world, ongoing journeys raise questions about the risk perceptions held by refugees and other migrants who took the journey or planned to do so. Based on narrative interviews with Syrians in Sweden, this study delves into their post-factum reflections on the migration decision-making process. It examines how private risk perception, stemming from participants' experiences in the world, interferes with expert risk assessment based on universal calculative methods. Although the latter logic might not support the decision made by the participants, their choice had their own rationality, which was deemed reasonable given the circumstances.

However, the decision deemed reasonable was insufficient to alleviate anxiety in the face of risks with potentially deadly outcomes. Therefore, participants drew on both material and non-material strategies to comprehend and manage risk. In particular, this study demonstrates the interplay between mundane and spiritual risk-management strategies. It showed that spirituality was neither a last resort on which migrants unquestionably relied nor a blinding force that hindered their rational reflection techniques. Rather, spirituality is embedded in rational cognitive practice. The latter forms the basis for migration decisions, while spirituality has an auxiliary function.

The Cultural Politics of Saudi Nationalism

Kristin Diwan (AGSIW) - A Picture of Saudi Arabia's New Nationalism through its Visual Arts

Sultan Alamer (Harvard University) - Debating “Constitutional Monarchy” in Saudi Arabia

Mohammed Alsudairi (The Australian National University) - Thought Security in Saudi Arabia

Bruno Schmidt-Feuerheerd (University of Cambridge) - The grassroots origins of Saudi nationalism

Laura Wickström (Åbo Akademi University) – Ecocide as Nonviolent Environmental Activism in Climate Justice and Governance in the Mediterranean

Idunn Lüllau Holthe (University of Oslo) – Reviving Ruins: Abandonment, Sustainability, and Mudbrick Architecture in the Red Sea Region

Chair: Oliver Scharbroudt 

Convener: Nina Gren

Mohsen Jafari (Independent researcher) - The Islamic Republic of Iran: A Non-Ideological Regime with a Religious Mask