International Conference:

Development, War, and Agriculture in the Arab-Iranian Region

Rethinking the Agrarian Question

November 6–8, 2025 | Tunis, Tunisia

Simultaneous translation will be provided in English, French, and Arabic.

Program

Day 1, 6 November 2025 - Development under the yoke of imperialism

8:30 Welcome & Introduction

9:00 - 10:30 Keynote, Utsa Patnaik: “Imperialism  Yesterday and Today ; Changing forms of its Impact on Food Sovereignty and Poverty in the Global South”

10:30 - 10:45: Coffee Break

Session I — 10:45 - 12:00

  1. The Dedevelopment of Iran After the 1953 Coup: Imperialist Security Priorities and the Disruption of National Development, Mohammad Jamshidi-Manesh
  2. Imperialist-Settler Genocide, Militarization, and the Agrarian Question: Dispossession and Resistance in Tunisia and Palestine, Corinna Mulin.
  3. Palestine, the ‘weakest link’ in the chain for Yemen, Jude Kadri  (ONLINE).
  4. Agrarian-Nomadic Disruption in Southwestern Iran through British Imperial Oil Frontiers (1908–1912), Taha Zeinali Hashjin; Sara Larijani.
  5. De-ruralization and Financial Capital: the re-Structuring of Colonial Formations, Omar Qassis.

12:00 - 12:30: Discussion

12:30 - 13:30: Lunch Break

13:30 - 15:00 Keynote, Prabhat Patnaik: “Imperialism Crisis and the Agrarian Question”

Session II — 15:00 - 16:15

  1. From Sanctions to Privatization. The Slow and Structural Harms of Iranian Sanctions Regime, Helyeh Doutaghi.
  2. Women-led agricultural cooperatives as a conduit for neoliberal policies? Reflections on rural Tunisia’s Post-1990s Trajectory, Mariateresa Natuzzi.
  3. The socio-ecological implications of endless agrarian modernization in Morocco: The Plan Vert and the agrarian questions of land, food, gendered labour and nature, Giuliano Martiniello.
  4. From State-Led Development to Neoliberalism: Impact of Agrarian Policy Changes on Smallholder Food Systems in Southern Africa, Patience Sibanda.
  5. From commons to commodities: The dispossession of collective irrigation systems in Tunisia, Khadija Limem.

16:15 - 16:30: Coffee Break

Sassion III — 16:30 - 18:00

  1. Beyond comparative advantage: olive oil, ecological unequal exchange, and postcolonial trade dependency in Tunisia, Kais Bouazzi
  2. The impact of the transition from a traditional agricultural society to a rentier-monetary economy on women's roles and power over their bodies, Asmaa Abdel Aziz
  3. Land, Capital, and the Absence of a National Bourgeoisie: Agrarian Transformation and Imperial Domination in Pre-Revolution Iran  Alireza Kheirollahi, Zahra Memarianpour, Sajjad Moqayyad.
  4. The Agrarian Counter-Revolution: Imperialist Re-Subordination and Class Re-Formation in Neoliberal Algeria, Brahim Rouabah
  5. War as accumulation: Analyzing the implications of the Israeli-American ecocide on Southern Lebanon, Julia Kassem.
  6. War and the Sustainability of Agriculture Livelihoods in Palestine: The Impact of Colonial Violence on Olive and Vegetable Farming in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Fairouz Salem

18:00 - 18:30: Discussion

To attend the conference

The conference will be held on the first floor of the Hotel Africa, in the "Malawi" room.