Social and Cultural History of the Modern Middle East

The Middle East is one of the most interesting regions when it comes to politics, governance, and religion. For many centuries, there has been constant turmoil and conflict that has caused the region to be very fascinating to the world, yet equally disturbing. By definition, the Middle East has usually considered the land bounded to the north by Turkey, to the west by Egypt, to the south by the Arabian Peninsula, and to the east by Iran. For the sake of discussion, however, North Africa is also included when talking about the Middle East due to the countries’ similar cultural, political, and economic values. The Middle East (including North Africa) has a population of around 460 million people throughout the twenty countries that it contains. Most of these countries are Muslim by religion and of Arabic descent, but there are a few exceptions such as the predominately Jewish Israel and the Farsi speaking Iranians. One key distinction that makes the Middle East so unique is its systems of government. Like many other regions in the world during the most recent millennium, the Middle East primarily saw authoritarian government systems. While most regions around the world saw these dictatorships and harsh forms of government fall during the last quarter of the twentieth century, most of the dictatorships throughout the Middle East persisted. These persisting dictatorships have had a substantial impact on the region’s political rights and civil liberties. According to the rankings by Freedom House, a non-governmental organization, 16 out of the 20 countries in the Middle East scored above 5 (out of 7) on the political rights and civil liberties test which proves that these countries are considered “not free”. Although there are a few exceptions to the lack of freedom in countries throughout the Middle East, the amount of freedom taken away by most of the region’s governments causes great conflict between the states, their citizens, and international affairs.