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.
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
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
- The Dedevelopment of Iran After the 1953 Coup: Imperialist Security Priorities and the Disruption of National Development, Mohammad Jamshidi-Manesh
- 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).
- Agrarian-Nomadic Disruption in Southwestern Iran through British Imperial Oil Frontiers (1908–1912), Taha Zeinali Hashjin; Sara Larijani.
- 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
- From Sanctions to Privatization. The Slow and Structural Harms of Iranian Sanctions Regime, Helyeh Doutaghi.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- The Agrarian Counter-Revolution: Imperialist Re-Subordination and Class Re-Formation in Neoliberal Algeria, Brahim Rouabah
- War as accumulation: Analyzing the implications of the Israeli-American ecocide on Southern Lebanon, Julia Kassem.
- 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
Session I — 9:00 - 10:15
- Productive Sovereignty and Self-Reliance: Research Agendas and Hypotheses Max Ajl
- 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.
- Yemen: labour and skill to the fore, Martha Williams MUNDY.
10:15 - 10:45: Discussion
10:45 - 11:00: Coffee Break
11:00 - 12:30 Keynote, Ali Kadri: Imperial Rents and Revolutionary Consciousness
12:30 - 13:30: Lunch Break
Session II — 13:30 - 14:30
- 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
- Nur Shams Prison Labor Camp: Super-exploitation & Resistance of Palestinian Prisoners (1919-1948), Samar al-Saleh
- Agrarian (im)Mobility amidst an Infestation in the Highlands of the West Bank: Indigenous Ecologies, Feminist Resilience, and Steadfastness From Below, Saad Ismail Amira
14:30 - 15:00: Discussion
15:00 - 15:15: Coffee Break
Session III — 15:00 - 16:15
- 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.
- From Karez to crisis or riches? Investigating pathways of accumulation, dispossession, and revolt through Agrarian change, in Balochistan , Hammal Aslam.
- Building Food Sovereignty in Palestine: The Al-Safa Project for Cow Rehabilitation as a Case Study, Ameed Faleh
16:15 - 17:00: Discussion
Session I — 9:00 - 10:15
- War, Primitive Accumulation, and State-Led Development during the Nahda: Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi as Political Economist, Zeyad el Nabolsy
- Beyond the End of History: Renewing the Agrarian Question of National Liberation in Palestine and Zimbabwe, Bikrum Singh Gill.
- Debating peasants and farming in the era of imperialism and capitalist barbarism, Ray Bush
- The Peasantry as Revolutionary Subject in the Context of Post-Colonial Arab State in a Changing World Order, M.Wajdi Abu Sweireh
- Zimbabwe Land Reform: Prospects for Autonomous Development and Ecological Justice, Freedom Mazwi
10:15 - 10:45: Discussion
10:45 - 11:00: Coffee Break
11:00 - 12:30 Keynote, Sami Zemni: “Does the Arab World has an Imperial Question?"
12:30 - 13:30: Lunch Break
Session II — 13:30 - 14:45
- Peasantries and state social formation: roles and significance in the anti-colonial and post-colonialism, Brivery Siamabele & Mbengwa Monde
- The ecological question in Tunisia post-2011, Aziza Fakher
- ‘Food Sovereignty of the Exploited’: Class Struggle in Rural Tunisia, Haithem Gasmi
- Food Security through Self-Sufficiency: Understanding Iran’s Agricultural Policies Since 1979 Revolution, Mohammad Hassan Khani
- Seeds, Sovereignty and Social Reproduction, Veronika Mallan.
14:45 - 15:15: Discussion
15:15 - 15:30: Coffee Break
15:30 - 17:00 Keynote, Paris Yeros: Systemic Transition Beyond Imperialism and Colonialism
To attend the conference
The conference will be held on the first floor of the Hotel Africa, in the "Malawi" room.