Why "MENA"?

Salaam is the Middle East and North Africa Cultural Center at UIUC. The Middle East and North Africa, or MENA, refers to a region stretching from Mauritania in the southwest to Kazakhstan in the northeast. The exact list of countries included in MENA varies depending on who you ask. Sometimes we refer to “Greater MENA,” signaling a more open definition that spans a wider area.

As stated on our Mission and Goals, Salaam intends to “create a home for a borderless MENA and their global diasporas as a haven to explore their multi-layered identities.” As such, we don’t have a specific list of countries that we consider to be MENA, and we use the widest definition possible. We welcome anyone who wants to visit us and learn more, regardless of their heritage. 

MENA is often reduced to its Arab or Arabic-speaking peoples, but this is far from the much more diverse and culturally rich reality. The region is home to many other groups whom we honor and celebrate, including but not limited to Afro-Arabs, Persians, Circassians, Armenians, Amazighs, Cypriots, Druze, Copts, Jews, Georgians, Yazidis, Kurds, and Somalis, as well as Turkic peoples such as Turks, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and more. This list is nonexhaustive, and cultural identities often overlap and intermingle.

Many people have started saying Southwest Asia and North Africa, or SWANA, instead of MENA. The term “Middle East” is a remnant of orientalist attitudes, referring to the region’s location in relation to Europe and the West. For familiarity and ease of access to funding, however, we decided to stick with MENA for now. After decades of advocacy, the MENA category was finally added to the US census in 2024. A few months later, Illinois was the first state to add the category. We hope that using the term MENA will help us participate in this monumental increase in recognition. 

Check out our Mission and Goals as well as the Intellectual Corner for more information, or contact us with your questions!