Travel
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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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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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Volunteering Because You Can
As a child, I could tell you a lot about fjords and olive trees, even though I had never seen either one. This is because I grew up around a lot of Norwegians and Palestinians. The Norwegians were my neighbors and classmates in Minnesota, the Palestinians our family friends, part of the handful of Arabs Continue reading
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Where are the Actors?
Every year I ask this, and here I go again for the third time, “Know any enthusiastic student filmmakers living in the Middle East?” If so, please let them know about the Zayed University Middle East Film Festival, which brings together student films from across the Middle East to reveal an industry in rebirth, as Continue reading
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Work Horse in Egypt
My friend Natasha Ghoneim went to Cairo this summer, as she does most summers. But this time she went with the goal of finding some of the untold stories of the revolution. As Egypt’s revolution made clear, human rights are not something guaranteed to anyone, not just in the Middle East but in many places Continue reading
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Just Peachy in Jordan
In Jordan, my mother’s garden has a peach tree that doesn’t stop giving at this time of the year. She hands out bags of peaches to neighbors and relatives and anyone who passes by on the street. She makes peach jam with whatever peaches she can save, and still she mourns the peaches that fall Continue reading
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Jordan: “Yes, I don’t know”
“Where can I get a Blackberry battery?” I asked in the Nokia shop. The two men working in the shop both pointed and said, “That way.” They were both pointing in different directions. It didn’t result in a “jinx” moment where they both looked at each other, laughed and then agreed on a direction. Nope, Continue reading
Alia Yunis 