Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #10: Borders - Lines in the Sand or in the Mind?

When ISIS announced the establishment of the so-called ‘Islamic State’ it fuelled discussions as to whether this would herald the ‘end of Sykes-Picot’ – borders artificially drawn by the colonial powers at the beginning of the twenti­eth century. But borders are more than ‘lines in the sand’: they divide. While the privileged few may cross legitimately by simply presenting their passport, for most, these borders present difficult if not insurmountable hurdles. People fleeing from war, climate change or economic hardship, attempt to cross the Mediterranean but many drown trying.

While borders between nations might be the best documented, there are plenty of other lines of division: social, ethnic, religious and ideological. How firm or permeable the divi­sions are is subject to change, but any border is a painful memory of the fact that it is not an individual’s choice to define which side he or she is on.

Our tenth edition of Perspecives Middle East is illustrated by the Lebanese artist Nadine Bekdache with her take on space, borders and transgression.