(Map source: North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula, Free Use, the Nations Online Project)The section for the Middle East and North Africa includes Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iran. Coverage also includes the Middle East diaspora, Kurdistan, and the Arabic-speaking world more broadly.
Within this geographic scope, the websites captured emphasize responses from communities of art, culture, activism, health, technology, and business. Close attention has been paid to artists, community workers, medical professionals, small businesses, and non-governmental health organizations. Alongside NGO documentation, COVID-19 resources produced by news organizations have also been captured, as web materials created by both groups in the region can at times be unstable. The Middle East and North Africa section therefore includes general COVID-19 information and health and safety regulations, as well as caricatures, music videos, children's books, art installations, and many other responses.
The Middle East and North Africa section is curated by Deborah Schlein (Near Eastern Studies Librarian, Princeton University) and Sean Swanick (Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Librarian, Duke University). This section also benefitted from links contributed by Abdus Salam (Coordinator Collection Development, Library of Congress Field Office Islamabad, Pakistan) and Guy Burak (Librarian for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University). If you are interested in contributing by recommending a website, you can do so via this Google form or by emailing the curators directly.
