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This thesis is the first critical critical study of animated cartoon production in the Arab world. From the 1930s until the recent spread of online animations, animated cartoon production in the Arab world was the privilege of individuals and institutions with strong links to academic, media and political elites. These elites had maintained both direct and indirect authority over production in a number of ways, including funding, regulation and censorship expressed through television channels. Therefore, Arab animated cartoons became a legitimate target of well-defined cultural policies and, in some cases, even of political and religious agendas. As cultural and media texts, Arab animated cartoons have been deeply engaged in the making and remaking of religious and political identities. By reviewing and reconstructing the history of animation production in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates, this thesis shows how rival notions of “national,” “pan-Arab” and “Islamic” identities are advocated and fused by Arab animated cartoons. Using theories of production studies, this thesis explores Arab cultural and media productions in their broader political and social context, and show how animation production in a particular country has been linked to and integrated into local, regional and even global cultural and media production industries. This research also adds a non-Western perspective to the study of identity issues as presented in Arab cultural and media texts. It answers how political, religious and social discourses over identity are reflected in the texts of a particular animated cartoon. Analyzing over forty important animated productions, this dissertation explores how the symbolic function of language, the visual characteristics and, also, the narratives themselves articulate the identities of the productions as texts. This textual analysis largely incorporates political and cultural analysis in order to decode the references that construct the notions of identities. Using theories on hybridity, this thesis also analyzes how different animation genres (such as sitcom animation) hybridize to reflect local identities, and investigate how particular productions moved beyond hybridization, creating unique Arab animated cartoon genres.

In the last decades of the 20th century large numbers of Shi‘i Muslims, mainly from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, sought refuge in western countries, including the Netherlands. From the 1990 Shi‘i religious authorities began to issue fatwas specifically for Shi‘i Muslims living in the West. This thesis analyses the contribution of these fatwas to the process of negotiation of Shi‘i young adults with respect to correct religious practice and living as good Shi‘i Muslims in the Netherlands. This research explores the lives and practices of Shi‘i young adults in the Netherlands from their perspective. Most young Shi‘is are shaped by Shi‘i and ethnic discourses as well as Dutch discourse. As full participants in Dutch society they often have to deal in everyday Dutch life with situations in which Shi‘i religious precepts and Dutch mores are at odds. The study provides insight into the negotiations of young Shi‘is between Islamic, ethnic and Dutch discourse from their perspective. In the Netherlands I had in-depth interviews with 35 practicing Shi‘i youngsters. Moreover, I attended religious youth gatherings and followed developments within the Shi‘i youth community in the Netherlands on social media. I also had interviews with specialists in the field of Shi‘i religious law and representatives of the Shi‘i religious authorities in Qum (Iran) and Beirut (Lebanon). A valuable concept for this study proved to be the notion of Islam as a discursive tradition (Asad, 1986). It enabled me to see the Shi‘i tradition as a composition of different religious discourses that emerged in the countries of origin and that are subject to reinterpretation in the social context of the Netherlands. The dissertation reveals that the genre of fatwas for Muslims in the West is a supplement to existing religious regulation. The objective of the fatwas for Muslims in the West is to protect Shi‘is from going astray from Islam due to Western influences by maintaining religious practices and preserving the Muslim identity, with great emphasis on Islamic morality.Another objective is the contribution of Shi‘is in the West to a positive image of Islam. The study shows that young Shi‘is in interactions with the Dutch adjust their religious practices to the Dutch social context by negotiating between Islamic practice and Dutch mores. In Dutch social life Shi‘i youth draw as little attention as possible to their religious practices. This research also reveals that Dutch influences and conditions stimulate processes of reinterpretation of fatwas and rituals within the Shi‘i community, mainly in the fields of mixed gender interaction, gender relations and practices related to marriage. Finally, this study highlights developments within the Shi‘i youth community aimed at unifying the ethnically divided Shi‘i populations into a united youth community, based on the shared elements: faith, the Dutch language, and being ‘Dutch’ Shi‘i Muslim. A major initiative in this regard is the reinterpretation of the most important Shi‘i ritual, Muharram, for united gatherings in the Dutch language with a focus on living as a good Muslim in the Dutch context.

The remarkable political change that Morocco has witnessed after the death of King Hassan II in 1999 and the succession of his son, Mohammed VI, has contributed to the development of Moroccan satire due to the margin of freedom allowed by the new regime. As a result of this political reform, satire becomes visible as a recent phenomenon in the cultural scene of Morocco, moving from the private sphere in which it has been circulating clandestinely, to certain extent, to the open public sphere where satirists tackle issues that were, not long ago, censored or strictly prohibited. Satirical sketches and shows that ridicule senior political figures, jokes about religious authorities and sacred icons, cartoons that expose sexual materials have become public and commonplace, and contributed to bringing about many debates and inquiries about very controversial issues. Satire thus has gained an important position and popularity in contemporary Morocco as a critical and provocative medium that tends to unmask and condemn the flaws of the political and social system, like corruption, injustice and power abuse. This research project raises many questions about the role and the functioning of satire in contemporary Morocco. How does satire function as a critical form and how does it negotiate the power relations that prevail in society and contest the existing boundaries that limit somehow the scope of its attack? What are the political and legal constraints that limit the workings of satire? What are the satirical stratagems used by satirists to challenge protected political, religious and cultural boundaries and evade punitive censorship and oppression? How does the new “liberal” political context stimulate satirists to try to redefine the boundaries of the permissible in contemporary Moroccan satire? To answer these questions, this study brings together a wealth of examples of satiric expressions in the Moroccan context and analyzes these materials in terms of agents, audience, targets and aims. A special emphasis will be given to the study of various types of satire by collecting and interpreting examples from printed media, television and films. It attempts to link these examples to earlier historical forms of expressions in Morocco. The study of these historical modes help to show how contemporary Moroccan satire replicates western models along with remediating traditional forms. That is why it is necessary to dig into history and analyze traditional satirical forms. The thesis consists of seven chapters. The first chapter studies four early forms of Moroccan satire and how these traditional modes functioned in the socio-political context of their time. The second chapter is devoted to the Moroccan satirical press and the legal corpus that regulates it. The third chapter addresses political satire during the reign of Hassan II, while the fourth chapter discusses political satire in the new era of Mohammed VI. The fifth chapter focuses on satire about religion as a taboo subject. The sixth chapter addresses the theme of sexuality in Moroccan satire and the last chapter deals with satire in public media, especially on television and cinema.