International Conference:
Development, War, and Agriculture in the Arab-Iranian Region
Rethinking the Agrarian Question
November 6–9, 2025 | Tunis, Tunisia
Simultaneous translation will be provided in English, French, and Arabic.
The Arab-Iranian region, long marked by violence and inequality, occupies a pivotal yet understudied position in global processes of accumulation, development, and agrarian transformation. This conference seeks to critically re-examine the agrarian question in its multifaceted dimensions—political, economic, ecological, and gendered—as a lens to understand the region’s historical and contemporary crises.
From colonial-era monocrop systems and anti-colonial peasant revolts to post-colonial state planning, Green Revolutions, and neoliberal de-development, agrarian structures have shaped—and been shaped by—war, imperialism, and uneven global capitalism. Yet scholarly discourse often divorces these dynamics from their material roots, reducing conflict to “sectarianism” or treating war economies as isolated phenomena. This conference aims to recenter the agrarian question as an analytic framework for interrogating:
- The role of peasantries in anti-colonial and post-colonial state formation.
- The intersection of war, militarization, and agrarian devastation.
- Gendered and ecological contradictions in rural transformations.
- Neoliberalism’s erosion of food sovereignty and rural livelihoods.
- Intellectual histories of development planning and agrarian thought.
We invite contributions that bridge theory and empirics, connecting the Arab-Iranian region to broader tricontinental dialogues on agrarian struggle, imperialist extraction, and alternatives to capitalist underdevelopment.
Program
8h30 : Conference introduction
9h - 11H Keynote speaker : Utsa Patnaik
Panel 1 — 11h15 - 13h: Imperialism, development and the agrarian question in the region
- The Dedevelopment of Iran After the 1953 Coup: Imperialist Security Priorities and the Disruption of National Development, Mohammad Jamshidi-Manesh.
- From Sanctions to Privatization. The Slow and Structural Harms of Iranian Sanctions Regime, Helyeh Doutaghi.
- Imperialist-Settler Genocide, Militarization, and the Agrarian Question: Dispossession and Resistance in Tunisia and Palestine, Corinna Mulin.
- Palestine, the ‘weakest link’ in the chain for Yemen, Jude Kadri (ONLINE).
- “The Agrarian Counter-Revolution: Imperialist Re-Subordination and Class Re-Formation in Neoliberal Algeria”, Brahim Rouabah
Pause
Panel 2 — 14h - 15h45 : Critique of Agrarian Politics/Policies
- Women-led agricultural cooperatives as a conduit for neoliberal policies? Reflections on rural Tunisia’s Post-1990s Trajectory, Mariateresa Natuzzi.
- 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.
- From State-Led Development to Neoliberalism: Impact of Agrarian Policy Changes on Smallholder Food Systems in Southern Africa, Patience Sibanda.
- The Peasantry as Revolutionary Subject in the Context of Post-Colonial Arab State in a Changing World Order, M.Wajdi Abu Sweireh
Panel 3 — 16h - 18h : Critique of Agrarian Politics/Policies
- From commons to commodities: The dispossession of collective irrigation systems in Tunisia, Khadija Limem.
- Beyond comparative advantage: olive oil, ecological unequal exchange, and postcolonial trade dependency in Tunisia, Kais Bouazzi
- 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
- Land, Capital, and the Absence of a National Bourgeoisie: Agrarian Transformation and Imperial Domination in Pre-Revolution Iran Alireza Kheirollahi, Zahra Memarianpour, Sajjad Moqayyad.
- Yemen: labour and skill to the fore, Martha Williams MUNDY
Panel 4 — 8h30 - 10h30 : Ecological & Agrarian logics of accumulation
- War as accumulation: Analyzing the implications of the Israeli-American ecocide on Southern Lebanon, Julia Kassem.
- De-ruralization and Financial Capital: the re-Structuring of Colonial Formations, Omar Qassis.
- Agrarian-Nomadic Disruption in Southwestern Iran through British Imperial Oil Frontiers (1908–1912), Taha Zeinali Hashjin; Sara Larijani.
- The Agrarian Counter-Revolution: Imperialist Re-Subordination and Class Re-Formation in Neoliberal Algeria, Brahim Rouabah.
- Seeds, Sovereignty and Social Reproduction, Veronika Mallan.
11h-13h Keynote: Paris Yeros
Pause
Panel 5 — 14h - 16h : Resistance
- The Paradox of the Resistance Economy and the Agrarian Question under Global Capitalism, Mariam Abazeri.
- Reconsidering the Axis of Resistance: South-South Collaboration and Development Alternatives, Nzanin Zarepour.
- Agrarian Questions of Resistance in Lebanon?, Karim Eid-Sabbagh.
- From Karez to crisis or riches? Investigating pathways of accumulation, dispossession, and revolt through Agrarian change, in Balochistan , Hammal Aslam.
- Samar al-Saleh
Panel 6 — 16h15 -18h15 : Palestine
- 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
- Settler-colonialism as Peripheralization in the Palestinian Central Highlands (West Bank), Faiq Mari
- Tunnel Warfare and the Agrarian Question in Palestine, Bahar Orang and Zarah Khan
- Agrarian (im) Mobility amidst an Infestation in the Highlands of the West Bank: Indigenous Ecologies, Feminist Resilience, and Steadfastness From Below, Saad Ismail Amira
- Settler Colonialism, Agrarian Destruction, and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Palestine, Fadia Panosetti.
- Food Sovereignty, Power, and the Limits of Political Sovereignty in Palestine, Jamila J. S. Ewais.
Panel 7 — 8h30 - 10h 30 : Perspectives
- War, Primitive Accumulation, and State-Led Development during the Nahda: Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi as Political Economist, Zeyad el Nabolsy
- Zimbabwe Land Reform: Prospects for Autonomous Development and Ecological Justice, Freedom Mazwi
- Peasantries and state social formation: roles and significance in the anti-colonial and post-colonialism, Brivery Siamabele & Mbengwa Monde
- Food Security through Self-Sufficiency: Understanding Iran’s Agricultural Policies Since 1979 Revolution, Mohammad Hassan Khani
11h-13h Keynote 3: Prahbat Patnaik
Pause
Panel 8 — 14h-15h45 : Perspectives
- Debating peasants and farming in the era of imperialism and capitalist barbarism. ,Ray Bush
- The ecological question in Tunisia post-2011, Aziza Fakher
- Food Sovereignty of the Exploited’: Class Struggle in Rural Tunisia, Haithem Gasmi
- Building Food Sovereignty in Palestine: The Al-Safa Project for Cow Rehabilitation as a Case Study, Ameed Faleh
- Beyond the End of History: Renewing the Agrarian Question of National Liberation in Palestine and Zimbabwe, Bikrum Singh Gill.
16h-18h Final keynote: Ali Kadri
18h Closing ceremony
To attend the conference
The conference will be held on the first floor of the Hotel Africa, in the "Malawi" room.