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Quote by Annia Ciezadlo

“There is a feminist proverb I learned from my mother: The personal is political. There's a powerful literary stereotype that men write about war and politics and public life, while women confine themselves to family and food and personal life.”

Quote by Annia Ciezadlo

Author

Annia Ciezadlo is a respected journalist recognized for her work in international journalism. The specifics of her birth and death dates are unknown. more

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“We're taught that domestic life is not a "serious" political topic, like war and peace, but the fact is that we spend most of our lives doing everyday things: at the dinner table, in the kitchen, washing dishes, grocery-shopping, commuting. These things make up the fabric of our lives.”

“Americans are curious about the texture of everyday life in the Middle East because they rarely get to see it. I wanted readers to feel like they were sitting around the dinner table with me and my friends, hearing what average people really say and really think, [where] the dinner table is the best place to find out.”

People Thinking Feels Wanted Middle Reader Sitting My Friends Tables Everyday Average Hearing Dinner East Curious Middle East Everyday Life Texture Sitting Around Best Place Dinner Table

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“So much of what we see and hear about the Middle East focuses on what we call politics, which is essentially ideology. But when it comes to the Middle East, and especially the Arab world, simply depicting people as human beings is the most political thing you can do.”

People World Humans Political Can Do Human Beings Middle East Ideology Middle East Arab World

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“I chose to write about food: food is inherently political, but it's also an essential part of people's real lives. It's where the public and private spheres connect. I wanted to show readers that the larger politics of war and economics and U.S. foreign policy are inextricably bound to the supposedly trivial details of our everyday lives.”

People Writing War Real Shows Wanted Political Policy Reader Essentials Economics Everyday Bounds Details Real Life Spheres Foreign Policy Everyday Life

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“In the Middle East, bread is so essential to everyday life that word for it in Egyptian Arabic is aish, which means life. It's always been the staple grain. But the predicament is that the Fertile Crescent, where wheat cultivation began, has now become the part of the world most dependent on imported wheat.”

World Mean Middle Essentials Everyday East Bread Dependent Middle East Grain Everyday Life Wheat Fertile Cultivation Egyptian Meaning Life Predicaments Staples Crescent

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“If you look at the list of the top wheat importers for 2010, almost half of them are Middle Eastern regimes: Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Tunisia. Egypt is the number-one importer of wheat in the entire world. Tunisia leads the entire world in per capita wheat consumption. So it's no wonder that the revolutions began with Tunisians waving baguettes in the streets and Egyptians wearing helmets made of bread.”

“Rulers like Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser started subsidizing bread as a way to buy loyalty, or at least obedience, and this system became so pervasive that the Tunisian scholar Larbi Sadiki described countries who used it as dimuqratiyyat al-khubz - "democracies of bread." But the problem with this system of offering bread in exchange for genuine democracy is that it can never last - sooner or later, the bread will run out, and people will start demanding bread and roses too.”

People Way Country Problem Running Lasts Used Democracy Rose Loyalty Genuine Bread Obedience Als Offering Scholar Rulers Sooner Or Later Egypt

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“The Middle East is the only region in the world outside of sub-Saharan Africa where rates of malnutrition actually rose over the past decade or two, instead of falling.”

World Two Past Fall Middle Rose Rate East Decades Regions Middle East Over The Past Malnutrition Sub Saharan Africa

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“There's a long history in the Middle East of "bread intifadas," starting with 1977 in Egypt, when Anwar Sadat tried to lift bread subsidies. People rebelled and poured into Tahrir Square, shouting slogans against the government just like they did earlier this year. Sadat learned his lesson and kept bread subsidies in place, and so did a host of other Middle Eastern dictators - many of whom were propped up for years by the West, partly through subsidized American wheat.”

People Years Long Government Middle Lessons West Starting East Bread Lifts Squares Host Middle East Dictator Egypt Eastern Slogans Shouting Wheat Subsidies Sadat Tahrir Square

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“As a journalist, or an anthropologist, the convention is that people are there for you to study, and they are your objects.”

People Study Objects Journalist Conventions Anthropologists

Author:Annia Ciezadlo