Culture
Topics
-
Mitra Sumara's "Dream"
Seventies retro
Recalling pre-Islamic revolution Iran, Mitra Sumara's second album offers a collection of jazz-infused retro Persian hits that will get everyone on the dance floor
By Richard Marcus -
Cinema showcase in Morocco
Arab women filmmakers challenge Western preconceptions
Female filmmakers from across the Middle East are increasingly being recognised and celebrated. But the challenges they face are not always what you might expect
By Cathrin Schaer -
Lebanon: Film-makers face death threats
'Hardabasht' pulls no punches
A film released by two Lebanese comedians dared to poke fun at almost anything. The result? Death threats
By Lena Bopp -
Sofia Alaoui's film "Animalia"
Aliens land in Morocco
Moroccan terrain has long proved a popular backdrop for American film productions. In "Animalia", director Sofia Alaoui highlights Morocco's scenery from a local and personal perspective, focusing in particular on the Atlas Mountains
By Shady Lewis Botros -
Turkey's 100th and contemporary art
What's left of the 'Republican woman'?
The modern, well-educated, progressive woman was a key pillar of the Turkish Republic's social project when it was founded a hundred years ago. How have female visual artists engaged with this ideal and its reality?
By Ceyda Nurtsch -
Bahla: 'City of djinns'
Magical myths haunt ancient Omani oasis
Deep in Oman's parched interior, the ancient oasis town of Bahla abounds with myths of camel-eating, fire-mouthed hyenas and men turning into donkeys – a reputation for magic and mystery that persists to this day
-
Music in Taliban Afghanistan
Forgotten sounds
Kharabat was once Kabul's sacred music district, but since the Taliban returned to Afghanistan, music has been banned. Yet those brought up for a life of performance have not given up hope
By Emran Feroz -
Kurdistan + 100
Stories from a future republic
"Kurdistan + 100" is the third anthology in Comma Press's "future past" series, and a fourth – Egypt + 100 – is set to be published next year. Writers are asked to imagine a moment in the future connected to an event in their shared past
By Marcia Lynx Qualey -
Palestine's cultural heritage
The first digital Palestinian embroidery database
Award-winning entrepreneur Zain Masri has so far digitised about 1,000 traditional Palestinian cross-stitch patterns, now available for download from her platform, Tirazain
By Jennifer Holleis -
Lebanon
Khalil Gibran's hometown celebrates 'The Prophet' centennial
Nestled in the mountains of northern Lebanon, a museum dedicated to Khalil Gibran in his hometown of Bsharre has been celebrating the centennial of "The Prophet", the renowned author's most famous work
-
Canada: "Manufacturing the Threat"
The sting that bit back
Islamophobic incidents are once again on the rise across the Western world following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. "Manufacturing the Threat" reminds us what lengths governments will go to to achieve the results they believe people want to see
By Changiz Varzi -
Dialogue in the shadow of war
Music unites Israelis and Palestinians in Berlin
At the Barenboim-Said Academy in the German capital, young Israeli and Arab musicians study together. The Hamas attacks on Israel happened just before the start of a new semester. What has been their reaction?
By Elizabeth Grenier