Arabs
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A Land and a Camera
The world is made of stories, and most journalists will discover in their career more stories than they can ever tell, even if they never leave where they were born. We are tragically seeing that today with the young journalists in Gaza. Unlike them, I have had the opportunity to travel much further in pursuit Continue reading
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Sex/ish in the City
I heard Sex/Life is coming back for a second season. I got to say some things. Continue reading
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My Heart Groans Like a Mack Truck on a Steep Slope
My Heart Groans Like a Mack Truck on a Steep Slope Continue reading
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The Sweet Spot in Arabia
I have never heard an Arab woman call her sweetheart the Arabic word for honey—or vice versus–even though Arabic is a language with scores of other terms of endearment. I have never read any Arabic children’s stories about goofy bears getting stuck in honey pots, and I’ve never seen honey come in cutely shaped squeezable Continue reading
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How Dubai Stollen Christmas
Bloodshed, flooding, people fleeing persecution, the fodder of biblical stories from the Holy Land. Only sadly they’re not ancient stories trotted out for the Christmas season. They are present day Christmastime in the birthplace of Christmas. But Noel in its current incarnation is supposed to be about fun. And really, why shouldn’t it be? A Continue reading
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Rooftops
An Algerian film by celebrated Algerian director Merzak Allouache called Rooftops was probably my favorite film at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival this year. Of the films I saw, it’s the only one that kept my full attention. Just like rooftops get my full attention in real life, especially in the Mediterranean areas of the Continue reading
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Ya Tair al-Tayer (Oh Bird in Flight)
It’s plane…No, it’s a bird…No, it’s a bird on a plane… At the Amman airport yesterday, I ran into an old childhood friend and her family. Coincidence as neither one of us lives in Amman. Then we all ran into Arab Idol winner Mohammad Assaf and posed for a photo with him. Small world that Continue reading
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Ketching Up With Freedom
Freedom is the gotcha word of the Middle East decade—it’s the reason everyone is claiming to be helping—i.e. bombing, maiming, spying on and killing–everyone else. The definition of freedom (and its purpose) is a little vague under the circumstances. But I was set straight this past summer. I was on an airplane and sitting next Continue reading
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Saudi Sombreros
And the lady in the big hat is….? Having a bargaining competition at the souq over the price of a heavy Yemeni clay pot with a woman covered in black, including her face and hands, is not easy—you can’t hear what she’s saying through her niqab so well and you’re not sure what she’s thinking Continue reading
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Go Ahead and Film Me—Nothing Changes
“So what are you here to film?” he asked from his battered bamboo chair, as he exhaled from the stub of the cigarette in his hand, the smoke blending in with the dust sweeping through the camp. He was about 40, and had been sitting in that dark alley his entire life. One of my Continue reading
Alia Yunis 