Middle East
-
Sex/ish in the City
I heard Sex/Life is coming back for a second season. I got to say some things. Continue reading
-
Poetic Pomegranates
Nothing like a Rumi poem about pomegranates to sum up what is hip in literature and food circles today. Both these Middle Eastern imports—Rumi and pomegranates– have gone from near obscurity to near cliché levels in Western cultural hotspots over the past few years. Yet another reason for the pomegranate to laugh in Rumi’s poem. Continue reading
-
A Good Library is Hard To Find
What is more important in a library than anything else – than everything else – is the fact that it exists. ~Archibald MacLeish, “The Premise of Meaning,” American Scholar, 5 June 1972 The other day in Jordan, my mother made the day of a young Spanish woman with whom we were chatting by telling her Continue reading
-
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
-
Muslims in 2030
Ever wondered what will be the birth rate of Muslims in 2030? The largest Muslim country in Africa in 15 years? Or the Muslim majority country with the lowest number of people living below the poverty line? Neither have I. At first they may seem like trivia questions, but on further thought, the answers can Continue reading
-
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
-
What Arabs Talk About At Dinner
On a recent work trip to Kuwait, my American colleague started chuckling while he listened to my Syrian cousin and me arguing about the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Is this what sitting down to dinner with family sounds like in the Middle East?” he asked. Yep. Pretty much always unless there is a divorce Continue reading
-
Cue the Camels and the Donkeys…and the Cool Cats
It’s time that we get our Middle East animals straight. The other day when I was watching men on camels and horseback charge through Tahrir Square in Cairo, whipping demonstrators, I felt like I was witnessing a bad Hollywood remake of Ben Hur or any other “cue the camels” movie depicting battle in the Holy Continue reading
-
MY PSYCHIC POWERS AND THE MIDDLE EAST
The other day a colleague told me he was really excited to see how his students would react to a short story he had given them to read. “They’re not going to read it,” I predicted. He didn’t believe me. Sure enough, the next day no one had read it. “How did you know?” he Continue reading
Alia Yunis 