Street art, Tahrir Square and a lingering sense of pride in Egypt’s chaotic capital. Continue reading »
How the unexpected taste of a sweet lemon opened my eyes to the richness and opportunities of London life. Continue reading »
“Some people say we’ve got to find a British identity. Where? Which one is it? …the British identity is like the British weather.”
Benjamin Zephaniah, poet Continue reading »
Paris, city of dreams. And of memories. I wander through the familiar streets I once called my own, overcome by the nostalgia of lost moments. I had forgotten how beautiful this city is – it’s air of mystery, of something ephemeral and eternal hidden just out of reach Continue reading »
A review of 66 Minutes in Damascus, first published in The Arab Review The hood smells like cigarettes and old sweat, its blackness tempered by the sliver of light coming through its frayed seams. I can hear my heart thumping in my chest and feel the cold, rough surface of the wall in front of … Continue reading »
This article was originally published on The Arab Review. Even from the outside, I know immediately which apartment belongs to Zena: the open door framed by a cascade of pink lights, the scent of cardamom-laced coffee wafting invitingly down the staircase. Beirut-based artist and writer Zena el Khalil tells me she likes to use pink … Continue reading »
This is an extract of a review I wrote for The Arab Review. Write down:Arab. a name with no friendly diminutive. a patient man, in a country brimming with anger. My roots have gripped this soil since time began, before the opening of the ages before the cypress and the olive, before the grasses flourished… … Continue reading »
I have been mulling over the notion of creating my own online magazine covering arts and culture in the Arab world for the best part of a year now – and last night I decided enough was enough and finally created the website that will hopefully go on to become the manifestation of my dream… … Continue reading »
A new production of the Death of Klinghoffer does not go far enough. Continue reading »
In October 2011, seven months into the Syrian government’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, President Bashar al-Assad warned western powers that they risked provoking an “earthquake” that would “burn” the entire Middle East region if they attempted an intervention in Syria. His words were widely dismissed by critics as scare-mongering, and activist groups accused the … Continue reading »
While Spain’s indignados have made international headlines, there’s a quieter series of revolutions taking place in Italy. Continue reading »
In a dance studio above Barons’ Court Tube Station, as the trains rumble below sending vibrations through the wooden floors and rattling the thin window-panes, a group of ten or so individuals clothed in white gowns are spinning and turning across the dance floor… Continue reading »
The uprisings in Egypt and across the Arab world have done more than undermine the authority of geriatric dictatorships in the Middle East; they have called into question the founding principles of western diplomacy and the prevailing counter-Enlightenment ideology of cultural relativism. Continue reading »
Early morning in the Jordanian desert. Golden rays of sunlight seep silently through the cloudless sky: a stream of light trickling into the barren landscape transforming the blue-grey hue of dawn into a spectrum of red, orange and brown Continue reading »
This travelogue was written as part of a journey overland through the Middle East I completed in 2009 and was originally published in The Alligator. The sun is burning overhead, white-hot in the unforgiving emptiness of the sky. Its relentless heat scorches the stones on which I am sitting and turns the dry earth into … Continue reading »
