Daily: The “BLACK WAVE” that engulfed the Middle East

<p>From the Iranian Revolution to the invasion of Afghanistan, events in 1979 turned the tides on decades of liberalisation across the Middle East. <strong>Kim Ghattas</strong>, journalist and author of <a href="https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Kim-Ghattas/Black-Wave--Saudi-Arabia-Iran-and-the-Rivalry-That-Unrave/25359559" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Black Wave</em></a><em>: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East</em> tells Alex Andreou about our misconceptions of the Middle East and her journey as a reporter. Have Iran and Saudi Arabia, and Sunnis and Shias, always been at each others’ throats? Was Bin Laden a “naïve revolutionary”? And what Biden can take from Trump’s policies on Iran…&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><ul><li><em>“I couldn’t believe that no-one had written a book that brings the story of the whole region together before –&nbsp;but no-one had”&nbsp;</em></li><li><em>“My parents were more concerned about my safety and gun crime in the US than in Lebanon.”</em></li><li><em>“Not every Iranian woman wore a miniskirt, but before 1979, they had the freedom to choose.”</em></li><li><em>“The book’s for a Western audience –&nbsp;but it’s also for us in the region, to understand what happened to us, where we went wrong. And how we can undo some of it.”</em></li><li><em>“Today, we only talk about religion at the extremes. But Iran’s progressive, liberal, pluralistic core were often devout Muslims.”&nbsp;</em></li><li><em>“Trump’s renewed pressure on Iran has actually been welcomed by many Iranians”</em></li></ul><p><br></p><p><em>Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. </em><strong><em>THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production</em></strong></p> &#10;&nbsp;<br /><hr><p style='color: grey; font - size: 0.75em; '>See <a style='color: grey; ' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/priv