Ifpo (Institut français du Proche-Orient)

Faculty Member, Études Contemporaines

About

Born in 1980, I am an Arabic speaking political scientist. I submitted my Ph.D. in International relations under the supervision of Bertrand Badie in October 2007 at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. At IFPO since September 2010, based in the Palestinian Territories, I am also an associate researcher at the Institut de recherches et d'études sur le monde arabe et musulman (IREMAM / University of Provence) and at the Centre français d'archéologie et de sciences sociales de Sanaa (CEFAS, Yemen).

A result of extensive field work in various regions of Yemen, my thesis focused on contemporary transnational religious relations between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. This research was particularly interested in the development and adaptation of the Salafi movement in the context of Yemen, where it is widely seen as exogenous. Between November 2007 and June 2009, post-doc in the ANR project "From the Persian Gulf to Europe: between violence and counter-violence", headed by François Burgat, I continued my fieldwork in the Arabian Peninsula by focusing in particular on the roots of political violence and on Islamist militant trajectories.

My research project at the IFPO aims to extend my study of the Islamist transnational field, including Salafism, to new societies of the Middle East.

My book, Salafism in Yemen. Transnationalism and Religious Identity, will be published this Autumn 2011 by Hurst & Co. and Columbia University Press.