Palestine on the Precipice? For Arabs on the other side of the fence, Palestine has always had that unique quality of being very near and unbearably far away. It sits so well at the heart of our identity, perhaps the only distinct object of passion and longing in an otherwise very fluid self. It’s not …
What’s With the Veil? What’s left to say about the veil? After all these years, one would have thought very little. But apparently, there’s still much ground to cover. As proof of its eternal relevance to the times, because our times are always tortured, here it is again, in Iran, at the forefront of the …
A Season of War This is a season of war: here in the Fertile Crescent, there in the North and Horn of Africa, in Europe between Russia and Ukraine… The statistics alone are enough material with which one can draw the starkest of portraits of this age. But along with the faces of war’s victims, …
The Old Amman and its il-Madineh At a small dinner party a few years ago in Beirut, I met George Arbid, then professor of Architecture at AUB and co-founder of the Arab Center for Architecture (ACA). He told me he was working on a region-wide project on monuments to modernity in Arab metropolises–or something to …
Return to Hadath “ Ya, madame,” he shouted from the third floor balcony. I think I finally heard him the third time around. “ My grandfather lived here a long time ago,” I reassured him, instinctively knowing what brought him out. “I just wanted to take a photo or two of the old place.” He …
As The Lebanese Elites Play House… When the 2019 protests in Lebanon began to fizzle, a few of us sat over dinner discussing what might be the key lesson of that season of discontent. The most chilling one so far, I said, is that the ruling cabal realized they can pretty much do whatever they …
“Lina, My Little Muslim Friend” Last week, a Lebanese friend of mine, whom I shall call Samira, went with her daughter and granddaughter to the children’s toy department at London’s Selfridges. Upon entering the store, she was stunned to see little veiled Lina and her playmates on display. The Muslim dolls Lina, Amira and Aamina, …
What’s in A century? I am not sure how many of us Arabs are aware that, in 1920, our Levantine forefathers were the authors of a constitution that decreed Islam merely as the official religion of the king, omitted any reference to Islamic law, and arrogated to religion authority only over religious affairs. To civil …
Lebanon’s Cemeteries of People and Ideas “Parking lots are mass graves here.” It took some time to move past researcher Malena Eichenberg’s words. I was reading about Lebanon’s disappeared. This is every civil war’s chilling catchphrase, I thought. Any two fratricides may not meet in cause, triggers, pace, length, or brutality, but they are almost …
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