Islam/Muslim
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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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Early Morning Calls
How September 11 Made Me a Muslim Writer When I woke up on Sept 11, 2001 in my apartment in LA, it was still dark. I was a struggling screenwriter up with the sun. I was trying to be like Stephen King, who I’d heard somewhere woke up at 3 am to get his writing 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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BEING THE LUXURY ITEM OF A BRAND
I once asked the editor of the liberal newspaper where I was doing my undergraduate internship in Minneapolis to write a letter of recommendation for me. The recommendation was sealed and it was a couple of years later before I would come across it in my file at work. I had assumed the reference letter 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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My Very Short Middle East Movie List
Recently a professor in the US asked me if I could put together a list of Arabic language films she might be able to use in her women’s studies and global studies classes. This is only a short excursion around 20 plus countries sharing a common language and multiple problems and plenty of quirkiness. Continue reading
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Not So Much Like a Virgin
Madonna’s self-proclaimed world peace tour arrived in Abu Dhabi via Tel Aviv and opened with the Material Girl mowing down with her assault rifle as many minimally dressed, mostly black men with well-oiled muscles as possible while repeating for at least five minutes, “Bang, bang, I shot my lover dead.” Fake blood included. Peace. It’s Continue reading
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The Most Joyous Time of the Year to be a Muslim
When I was a child in Minnesota, I used to get worked up into a Christmas nightmare over the fact that my family’s house wasn’t decorated and festooned, that we had no huge Christmas plans, no big gathering with our relatives planned. All the merry was not for us, the secular Muslims who never seemed Continue reading
Alia Yunis 