Saudi Arabia

January 27, 2024

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

Arab Americans, Arabs, Arts and Culture, Author, Film, Food, Islam/Muslim, Middle East, Saudi Arabia

aramco-world, Aseer, bo-kaap, cape-town, cheese, dugongs, filmmaking, honduras, Jordan, journalism, madaba, majlis-painters, mosques, Tromsø, Writer, Writing
July 17, 2021

My Heart Groans Like a Mack Truck on a Steep Slope

My Heart Groans Like a Mack Truck on a Steep Slope Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, bedouins, Islam/Muslim, Middle East, poetry, Saudi Arabia

bedouins, Nabati poems, Najd, poetry
March 25, 2014

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

Arabs, Food, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Travel

Arabs, honey, Middle East cuisne, Saudi Arabia
August 6, 2013

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

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Islam/Muslim, Middle East, Saudi Arabia

Aseer, Asir, Islamic dress, Saudi Arabia, Traditional Dress
July 3, 2011

How To Behave in the UAE

Today I read on the regular old Internet that the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed, is making his website available as an iPhone application. It’s pretty cool to be an iPhone application. At least it may be my only public appearance that impressed my Apple-a-day-keeps-the-meltdown-away nephews. On these International Herald Tribune apps, I share Apple Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Islam/Muslim, Middle East, Saudi Arabia

Behavior, Business, Culture, iPhone app, UAE
May 25, 2011

The Right To Drive Well

I support jailed Saudi Manal Al Sharif’s right to drive. I support her right to join the men on the roads in her country, a country that has one of the highest car accident fatalities in the world, like most of the countries in the region. See, having spent big chunks of my life in Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Arts and Culture, bahrain, Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Travel

Driving, Manal Al Sharif, Middle East, Safety, Saudi Arabia, Women

About Alia

Alia Yunis is a writer, journalist and filmmaker. She is currently producing and directing “The Golden Harvest,” a feature length documentary about how olive oil has shaped the Mediterranean culture, cuisine and history for 6,000 years, through war and peace. Her debut novel, The Night Counter (Random House) has been critically acclaimed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. It was also chosen as a top summer read by the Chicago Tribune and Boston Phoenix. The Boston Globe has called it “wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious.” Alia was born in Chicago and grew up in the U.S., Greece, and the Middle East. She has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in several cities, especially Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including The Robert Olen Butler Best Short Stories collection, and her non-fiction work includes articles for The Los Angeles Times, Saveur, SportsTravel Magazine, and Aramco World. She currently teaches film at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.