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Paper won 2 merit awards in print category, 1 digital merit award for documentary marking newspaper’s 50th anniversary.
Arab News has picked up three merit awards from The Society of Publication Designers as it continues its streak of recent accolades.
Saudi Arabia’s first English-language daily won two merit awards in the print category: a 2025 year-end opinion page on predictions for 2026 — featuring a dove holding an olive branch atop a globe-shaped hand grenade — and a spotlight page focusing on children’s education being caught in the crossfire of conflict, illustrated with a child-like hand-drawn image of books and students amid the bombs.
Arab News also received a digital merit award for its documentary marking the newspaper’s 50th anniversary.
Omar Nashashibi, head of design at Arab News, said: “It’s always an honor to win awards, especially in design competitions as prestigious as the SPDs. These awards wouldn’t be possible without the talented teams across Arab News, and the brilliant partners we collaborated with for our ‘Rewriting Arab News’ documentary and illustration for ‘The year that could be’ opinion piece.”
Founded in 1965, the SPD celebrates “anyone contributing to the creation of visual stories” and is dedicated to promoting excellence in editorial design, photography and illustration across print and digital platforms.
This year’s competition included entries from The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Wired, Eater, and The Economist.
The total number of accolades won by Arab News has now reached 163 under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Faisal J. Abbas, who has overseen the newspaper’s digital transformation.
Past recognition includes special projects such as Arab News’ 50th anniversary edition, “The Kingdom vs. Captagon” deep dive and the “Paris 2024 Olympic Games” special edition.
Launched in 2025, the Art Basel Awards are dedicated to recognizing excellence across the contemporary art world
Medalists are evaluated on: vision and innovation, skill and execution, engagement, and broader impact.
The Diriyah Biennale Foundation has been named as a medalist in the 2026 Art Basel Awards.
Selected as part of the Museum and Institution category alongside The Brick in Los Angeles and SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin, Diriyah Biennale Foundation has been recognized as a “key platform for regional artistic development” by the leading Swiss art fair.
“The Diriyah Biennale Foundation has been committed to bringing together artists, communities, and ideas across geographies,” said the foundation’s CEO Aya Al-Bakree in a statement.
“This award affirms that Saudi Arabia has a vital role to play in the global cultural conversation.”
Launched in 2025, the Art Basel Awards are dedicated to recognizing excellence across the contemporary art world.
Medalists are evaluated on: vision and innovation, skill and execution, engagement, and broader impact.
“Through this initiative, Art Basel reaffirms its role as a global platform for the advancement, discovery and production of art — not only recognizing excellence but actively creating the conditions for it to grow,” said Vincenzo de Bellis, chair of the award’s jury and chief artistic officer and global director of Art Basel Fairs.
“We are deeply grateful to our jury, nominators and the many experts whose insight and commitment make this process both rigorous and collaborative. It is this community-driven approach that defines the awards, reflecting the breadth and complexity of today’s cultural landscape.”
Founded in 2020 and chaired by Minister of Culture Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the Diriyah Biennale Foundation has emerged as a transformative force in the international cultural landscape.
Through its two flagship recurring events, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale in Diriyah and the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, alongside the stewardship of the JAX creative district in Riyadh, the Diriyah Biennale Foundation is a force that drives cultural exchange between Saudi Arabia and the world.
“In Interludes and Transitions,” the third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale and the fifth Biennale organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, is open until May 2, 2026 at JAX District.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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In Interludes and Transitions,” the third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale and the fifth Biennale organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, is open until May 2, 2026 at JAX District. (Supplied)
Basim Khandakji describes conditions in Israeli prisons and his journey to writing despite the challenges.
The night Basim Khandakji’s novel won the 2024 “Arabic Booker Prize”, Israeli prison guards stormed his cell, assaulted him, bound his hands and feet, and threatened him.
The 42-year-old was then placed in Ofer Prison’s solitary confinement for 12 days.
It was retaliation, he believes, for embarrassing the Israeli prison system, managing to publish a book under the noses of guards, drawing attention to himself and the conditions he faced.
Now he is out of Israeli prison after serving 21 years of three life sentences.
“I still feel like I’m dreaming, and I’m terrified I might wake up and find myself back in a cell,” Khandakji said.
After his release, he remains unable to return home to his family in Nablus. Exiled from his homeland by Israel, he now waits in Egypt as his family fights to reach him.
‘We saw new horrors’
As happy as he is about escaping “the cemetery of the living” in Israeli prisons, Khandakji is still trying to process the horrors that he saw there and his sadness at leaving other prisoners behind.
He was convicted in 2004 of being part of a “military cell” and being involved in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, a crime he says he was forced to confess to.
“The lawyer told me I had to sign a confession … so that three young men could be spared life sentences. There was a kind of quid pro quo: You admit to a particular charge in exchange for getting some younger men out of life sentences, and that is what happened.”
The United Nations estimates that at least 75 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons since October 2023, and organisations like B’Tselem and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights have revealed systematic abuse.
Khandakji spent months at a time in solitary confinement and was often moved between prisons, spending time in most of Israel’s 19 facilities that hold Palestinians – each as “hellish” as the last, he tells Al Jazeera.
“There are deliberate policies of starvation, abuse, psychological and physical torture, constant humiliation, and intentional medical neglect.”
Images of released Palestinian detainees have prompted outrage around the world. Appearing fit and healthy in photos of them before incarceration, on release, many had been reduced to emaciated, cadaverous shadows of their former selves.
Things changed, Khandakji says, after October 7, 2023 – the date of a Hamas-led attack during which 1,139 people died in Israel and some 250 were taken captive, in response to which Israel launched a two-year genocidal war on Gaza.
Khandakji says prisoners began to die with shocking regularity, with guards using “new horrific methods” – particularly on detainees rounded up by the hundreds from Gaza.
“Inmates saw guards hanging up the bodies of dead prisoners in cells and leaving them there, decaying,” he said.
“Another told me he saw more than 12 dead bodies packed into cells at al-Jalama detention centre.”
Khandakji says the harrowing memories of dead Palestinians and the brutal torture he witnessed and experienced will haunt him for his entire life.
“The main strategy authorities used to break prisoners was starvation,” he said. “There was also ‘cooling’, meaning denial of clothing, blankets, or any heating during the bitter winter.
“There was also constant beatings,” he added. “They use horrifying, savage methods – targeting the head, neck, and spine.”
Al Jazeera reached out to Israeli prison authorities for comment on Khandakji’s accusations, but received no reply.
Communication with friends and family was banned, he added, and he was prevented from accessing news from the outside world – although he did receive word of his father’s death.
“I was deprived of my father while he was alive, and after his death I was denied the chance to bury him,” he said.
Nearly 9,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli jails, many taken in mass roundups, and more than 3,500 are held under “administrative detention”, which Israel created to justify imprisoning people indefinitely without charge or trial.
Smuggling out an award-winning novel
In prison, Khandakji says: “Writing gave me … a refuge, a hiding place through which I could escape the brutality of the jail and reclaim my freedom, even if only in my imagination.”
He had to go on hunger strike repeatedly to get notebooks and pens.
He wrote as much as he could, keeping his manuscripts hidden from the guards and staying out of their way until he could smuggle his writing out via his lawyer or any other visitor.
In 2023, his award-winning novel, A Mask, The Colour of the Sky, was published in Lebanon in Arabic and was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, known as the Arabic Booker.
The book tells the story of Nur, a Palestinian archaeologist who finds an Israeli ID and takes on the identity of “Ur”, eventually joining an archaeological dig on an illegal Israeli settlement.
In it, Khandakji reflects on the uncovering of Palestine’s antiquity and the difference between the constrained life of Nur with his Palestinian ID and Ur, whose sky-blue ID allowed him to go anywhere.
Hearing of the shortlisting, an enraged ultranationalist Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, demanded harsher conditions for Khandakji, while others on the Israeli extreme right called for his murder.
His award triumph included a $50,000 prize and funding for an English translation, paving the way for a global readership.
When Israel launched its war on Gaza, conditions became worse in the prison, and guards confiscated Khandakji’s writing material and smashed his reading glasses.
He felt “completely powerless”, he says. “Being deprived of my pens and notebooks felt like being deprived of air.”
Now free, he aims to publish another novel, which he wrote in his head in his final year of captivity. It is based on one of his closest friends, writer Walid Daqqa, who died of cancer after allegedly deliberate medical neglect by prison authorities.
Aside from writing, Khandakji’s only solace in jail was the friendships he made “that even death cannot erase”.
“I live with sorrow and pain because I left behind so many friends in prison, still suffering,” he adds.
One of these friends, with whom he shared a cell, was Fatah politician Marwan Barghouthi, sentenced to five life sentences plus 40 years in 2004.
Barghouthi is often compared to South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, due to his decades behind bars as a political prisoner and the unifying popularity he has among Palestinians.
“Marwan Barghouthi is a great man,” he said. “If he were released, he could become a unifying national figure.”
The 66-year-old was beaten unconscious last month by Israeli jail authorities, and his son, Arab, told international media his father fears for his life as Israel continues to ignore international calls for his release.
His homeland lives within him
Khandakji was arrested in 2004, at the age of 21, while in his final year of a journalism and political science degree at An-Najah National University in his hometown of Nablus.
Raised in a family of socialists, Khandakji became active in the Palestinian People’s Party as a teenager. He is now an elected member of the party’s political bureau.
But during the second Intifada in the early 2000s, he decided to join the armed resistance in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Looking back, he says: “In the end, violence in all its forms is inhuman.
“As human beings, we should first try to solve our issues through peaceful and civilised means,” Khandakji said. “But when someone tries to erase you – to annihilate you – your struggle becomes one of existence.
“But if time could go back… I might look for other ways,” he adds, of seeking a different path, one that didn’t deprive him of his family for 21 years.
He was one of 250 high-profile detainees freed by Israel on October 13 as part of the United States-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
Israeli captives held by Hamas were released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees, most of whom were “disappeared” by Israel from Gaza, according to the UN.
Khandakji described the night of his release as “terrifying”, adding that his body was shaking as he “knew the moment of freedom had finally come”.
When he passed the prison gates and his bus went south instead of towards Nablus, he knew his full freedom would be denied a little longer.
“Being exiled from your homeland is a burning, painful feeling,” he said. “My first joy, first sorrow, and first dreams were all in my city, Nablus.
“Palestinians, unlike others, do not live in their homeland – their homeland lives within them,” he said.
For now, Khandakji will continue writing and plans to pursue a PhD after achieving a master’s degree in Israeli studies while imprisoned.
His family is fighting desperately to reunite with him in Egypt, only to be repeatedly thwarted by Israel.
“I still hope that in the coming period, there will be some human justice that allows me to embrace my mother,” he says.
“Not as a freed prisoner – but simply as a child searching for the scent of his childhood in his mother’s arms.”
source/content: aljazeera.com (headline edited)
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Freed prisoner and novelist Basim Khandakji was deported to Egypt after being released from Israeli prisons under a prisoner exchange agreement [Al Jazeera]
Thanks for highlighting Oman’s cultural wonders, UNESCO. Here’s everything you need to know about them.
As the oldest Arab state with over 100,000 years of human history, the Sultanate of Oman is home to a wealth of cultural and natural treasures that have captured the imagination of poets and travellers for centuries.
From the rugged peaks of the Hajar Mountains to the pristine shores of the Arabian Sea, this mesmerising country possesses a diverse collection of sites that have been recognized by UNESCO for their cultural, historical, or natural significance – all things we look for when we’re choosing our next global destination.
To be considered for inscription on the prestigious World Heritage List, sites must meet at least one of ten criteria, which include representing a masterpiece of human creative genius, exhibiting an important interchange of human values, bearing a unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition, or containing outstanding examples of geological formations and/or habitats of significant biodiversity.
So, we figure if it’s good enough for UNESCO, it’s good enough for us. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the five Omani cultural sites that have been given UNESCO’s special designation, providing you with the information you need to dive into the rich history of this breathtaking Middle Eastern country.
Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman
Ad Dakhiliyah, Ash Sharqiyah South and Al Batinah South / 500 AD
Oman’s Aflaj Irrigation Systems are a feat of ancient engineering. These networks, which collect and transport water across the country using gravity, date back to 500 AD.
This revolutionary technology shaped the development of agriculture, particularly date palm cultivation, in arid Oman. There are more than 3,000 still-functioning aflaj water distribution systems in Oman, and UNESCO has highlighted five locations for their historical significance: Falaj Al Jeela, Falaj Muyasser, Falaj Daris, Falaj Malki, and Falaj Khatmein. Four of these sites are found in the Al Jabal Al Akhdar mountain range, and the fifth is located in the Sharqi mountains.
Ancient City of Qalhat
pix credit: whc-unesco.org/en
The remnants of this once-thriving port city are tucked into Oman’s rugged eastern coast, right by the Indian Ocean.
A bustling city centre of trade and commerce between the 11th and 16th centuries, Oman’s first capital – of which there is not much left – contains the remnants of necropolises, residences, workshops, and the tomb of an Omani queen, Bibi Maryam. Believed to have been commissioned in the 13th century by a local ruler in honour of his beloved wife, this mausoleum is the best-preserved monument in the historic city.
Those hoping to visit this site should be aware that, due to conservation efforts, it might not be open to the public.
Bat, Al-Khutm and Al-Ayn Archaeological Sites
Al Dhahira / 3rd Millennium BC
Dating back to the 3rd millennium B.C., the Archaeological Sites of Bat, Al-Khutm, and Al-Ayn provide a glimpse into the prehistoric settlements and burial grounds of Oman. These three sites cover 14 square kilometres and are situated within the rocky landscapes of the Al-Dhahirah Governorate.
A trip to these ancient sites gives travellers the opportunity to examine and explore the enigmatic ‘beehive tombs’ dotting the surrounding hills.
Older than the Pyramids of Giza, these tombs are free for anyone to visit.
Bahla Fort
Ad Dakhiliyah / 12th–15th century
The immense Bahla Fort can be found in a palm-filled oasis in the Omani desert.
The fort and settlement was the capital of the Banu Nebhan tribe, who dominated what is now central Oman from the 12th to the 15th century. An intricate irrigation system of wells and tunnels brings water from distant springs to this ancient settlement – a testament to the skills of mediaeval engineers in this region. Visitors to this heritage site can see the ornate Friday Mosque, the remains of a semi-covered market, and the towers and parapets of the fort’s walls.
This site is open to visitors, and is widely considered to be one of Oman’s top attractions.
Land of Frankincense
Oman’s Dhofar Governorate is one of the few places where frankincense trees still thrive. These plants carry important historical and economic significance in the region, as frankincense was one of the most luxurious trade items in ancient times.
There are four sites included in this UNESCO heritage listing that preserve the remains of the caravan trade of this precious commodity. One of these is the Frankincense Park of Wadi Dawkah, which allows visitors to learn about how incense is sourced. Another, Shishr, is an agricultural oasis that – in the past – allowed caravans transporting this precious resource to refuel on their trade routes. Sumhuram in the Khor Rori Nature Reserve is another component of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was once the heart of the world’s frankincense trade. A trip to this city offers views of structures from the 3rd Century BC to the 5th century AD, including storerooms and city fortifications. The final component of this heritage site is the Al Baleed archeological park. Although this site is open to the public, it is also still being explored, with new discoveries being made. This park includes a Frankincense museum, citadel, and more.
The best time to visit this area is in April, when the fragrant frankincense trees are in bloom.
Riyadh-based academics’ findings on broad beans being tested in US.
At the same time when the Fifa World Cup is being held in South Africa, another fascinating tournament of sorts has been held in Singapore — a “medical championship”, so to speak, on broad beans.
Tens of scientists from all over the world presented and discussed research and papers in the first international conference titled: “Neuro Talk 2010: from Nervous Functions to Treatment”, held from June 25-28.
Scientists and doctors from 30 countries discussed brain and nervous system malfunctions and diseases, Professor Mustafa Abdullah Mohammad Saleh, consultant neurologist at the College of Medicine at King Saud University in Riyadh, who attended the conference, told Gulf News.
He said the conference discussed the latest methods of treatment by gene and stem cell therapy.
“The conference discussed a paper on the scientific discovery we have recently made and which was published in the US medical journal about the therapeutic potential of broad beans in preventing epileptic fits,” he said. Western news reports had earlier said that professor Saleh and his countryman, Ali Ahmad Mustafa, professor of pharmacology at the College of Medicine at King Saud University, had discovered that broad beans have a positive effect on epilepsy treatment.
Plant extracts
The two Sudanese scientists agreed in research on the treatment of epilepsy using plant extracts, to conduct joint research to decide the anti-convulsant substance in broad beans that prevents convulsions.
Professor Saleh’s discovery about the characteristics of broad beans in treating epilepsy is currently being tested in the labs of Harvard University.
He said his discovery was sparked by his observation that epilepsy cases among schoolchildren in Sudan who eat foul (broad beans) for breakfast (and sometimes dinner) rated between 0.9 per cent and one per cent per 1,000.
This figure is remarkably lower than that in countries which do not eat broad beans like North and South America which was about 2.6 per cent per 1,000 students and other African countries which was two to three times higher than that of the Americas.
“This is how I got the idea that broad beans must contain a substance that protects against epileptic convulsions. I immediately started the research work with my colleague, Professor Ali Mustafa,” he said.
Professor Saleh said they injected a group of mice with strychnine and picrotoxin, two drugs which cause convulsions leading to death, while they fed another group of mice with a fluid made of foul before giving them the two drugs.
“Convulsions and deaths from strychnine were decreased by about 66 per cent in the group of mice which were pre-treated with foul,” he said.
Professor Saleh said the rate of protection was 100 per cent in the mice which were given both foul and valium before they were injected with strychnine.
He explained that following this and other experiments, a drop of broad bean concentrate was examined by a form of chemical analysis (chromatography) and compared with drops of phenobarbitone (anticonvulsant drug), valium and glycine substance.
“The drop of foul had the same speed as that of glycine,” he concluded.
Professor Saleh had earlier discovered, along with other scientists, a new inherited gene which causes muscular myopathy. This gene has been named after him as ‘Salih myopathy’.
Should scientists look into people’s lifestyle around the world for treatments on different diseases? Is this discovery proof that people should start eating less processed food and more whole food?
Arab Women in Science Platform: Igniting a Collective Spark for Gender Equality in Science.
On the occasion of the United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science and Technology, the Arab Women in Science Platform was officially launched on February 1, 2024, in Alexandria, Egypt. The enchanting event hosted by the UNESCO Regional Office of Egypt and Sudan / Liaison office with the League of Arab States and the Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) at AASTMT Main Campus in Abu Qir brought together over 150 high-level participants from diverse generations and fields, including natural sciences, human and social sciences, to discuss challenges faced by women scientists in the Arab region and explore strategies to advance women’s participation in science, technology, and innovation through the new Arab Women in Science Platform initiative.
A compelling initiative driven by the voice of Arab women scientists themselves, shaping a brighter future in the world of science
The figures remain dramatic. According to the UNESCO Science Report, women still account for only 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of computer science graduates worldwide. Women accounted for one in three researchers (33%) in 2018, just 5 years ago, and represent only 22% of professionals working in AI, the field of the future. Focusing on the Arab States, only 24% of senior management positions in science and engineering are held by women, and even though 47,3% of Egyptian universities STEM graduates are women, they only represent 38% of the STEM workforce (CAPMAS, 2018).
The Arab Women in Science Platform, launched one year after the call of the Egyptian and Sudanese women scientists’ made during the “Paving the way for Women Leadership in Science” dialogue in February 2023, to empower women in natural and social sciences across generations in the Arab region. It offers both online and offline spaces for women scientists to connect, share experiences, and access career-enhancing programs, including mentorship and training. Additionally, the platform raises awareness of gender stereotypes in science and advocates for gender-transformative policies and open science, with Arab women scientists actively involved in shaping the initiative.
10 & 11 February: Igniting a collective spark for gender equality in Science
The launch event featured insightful conversations, two panel discussions, and a workshop to structure the new community of Arab Women in Science, assess the platform prototype and identify innovative pathways to ensure inclusivity and foster systemic transformations in the scientific realm, and promote gender equality and support women scientists across the Arab region. Discussions and exchanges led to key recommendations that in the development of the platform include:
Translating the Arab Women in Science Platform into an inclusive, accessible, attractive, clear and interactive website.
Creating a strong community of Arab women scientists and men allies by investing heavily at the outset.
Actively engaging with the private sector and the industry to ensure initiatives’ financial sustainability and women scientists’ employment.
Addressing the professional challenges and opportunities of women scientists in the Arb region with a focus on research and training accessibility, women role models, gender stereotypes and displaced women scientists ‘support.
UNESCO office in Cairo also wish to acknowledge and warmly thank the bravery of women scientists in sharing their experiences and the difficulties they have encountered throughout their career, with a special thank to the Sudanese scientists, directly and violently impacted by the civil war.
Hearing the Voices of Arab Women Scientists: A National Surveys
Who better to shape the future of science in the Arab world than those who have dedicated their lives to its pursuit? These remarkable women, pioneers in their respective fields, embody the very essence of scientific exploration and discovery. Their voices, resonating with passion and dedication, hold the key to unlocking the full potential of Arab science.
UNESCO Office in Cairo recognizes that true empowerment stems from a deep understanding of the challenges faced by Arab women scientists. To this end, a participatory approach has been adopted, involving extensive consultations and a regional survey designed to capture the experiences and aspirations of these remarkable women.
The survey, now available, seeks to engage the voices of all Arab women scientists. UNESCO office in Cairo extends a warm invitation to all Arab women scientists to participate in this transformative initiative. Your voice matters.
Growing up, Ifrah F. Ahmed never planned on becoming a chef.
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, Ahmed came to the US as a child after the start of the Somali Civil War. In 1996, her family was resettled in Tukwila, Washington, as part of an early wave of Somali refugees who went on to form a community there. In their new home, Ahmed’s mother made it her mission—even as she worked multiple jobs and took care of her children—to ensure Ahmed and her siblings stayed connected to their Somali identity. Food played a vital role in that mission, and planted the seed that, years later, led to Ahmed becoming a chef and writer—and eventually authoring her debut cookbook, Soomaliya: Food, Memory, and Migration, which is out now.
First, she had to learn the oral traditions of Somali cuisine. When Ahmed was in elementary school, her mother began teaching her how to cook classic Somali dishes. At times, Ahmed had mixed feelings about these lessons, feeling that they were part of a set of gendered expectations. But she came to appreciate the fact that through her mother’s cooking lessons, she was learning much more than the ingredients and techniques needed to make the perfect canjeero (sour fermented pancake) or sambuus (dumplings).
“It’s helpful to know the recipes,” Ahmed tells Vogue. “But it’s almost like her teaching me not just what we eat but how we eat was really teaching me about who we were.”
Ahmed soon discovered her passion and curiosity for food, which her mother nurtured. “I became an avid Food Network stan from a very young age,” she says. She would develop “hyper-fixations” on “classic American foods” like pancakes and chicken burgers, and enjoyed figuring out how to make them. She loved Anthony Bourdain, who merged her interests in food and geopolitics. She prized academic excellence (her work paid off; she was valedictorian), and originally pursued a career in law.
After college, Ahmed worked with Somali refugee students at Seattle public schools. She got married and started law school, but found that she was always taking her law work home with her. Cooking continued to be her passion, but she didn’t think of it as her life’s work. It was hard to shake the expectations inherent in being the eldest daughter in an immigrant family.
“I never thought of food as a serious career because usually, when you are coming from those backgrounds, you feel like you have to have a career that translates to something in terms of maybe redeeming some of your parents’ sacrifices,” Ahmed says. “I think a lot of immigrant and refugee kids can probably relate, and it’s not always easy to transition to a food career. I also had never really seen anyone that looked like me that had the kind of career that I was fantasizing about.”
Then, in 2018, she went on a homecoming trip to Somalia with her mother. “I had an urge to kiss the ground when I got off the plane. It was the first time that I was fully immersed in my own community in that way,” Ahmed says. “When I was there, it was really simple moments where I was like, okay, I really want to turn to food: the first meal that I had in our house in Mogadishu after meeting all of my family, and just really small moments like that.”
It was a constellation of moments that convinced her to reorient her life towards Somali culinary and cultural work. “Everything was incredible. It was that with the combination of being in your homeland, with seeing the beauty and the movement and the energy, and also tasting the freshness of the food, the ingredients, and the slowness and the intentionality around not just eating, but how you eat and who you eat with,” Ahmed says.
That experience eventually led to her launching Milk & Myrrh, her Somali culinary pop-up, which has routinely sold out since its launch in 2019. Around that time, she also had the idea for a cookbook focused on Somali cultural and culinary preservation. She set out to build the writing, cooking, and recipe development skills that she needed for the book, contributing to The New York Times’s cooking section, and writing for publications including Vogue, Eater, The Los Angeles Times, and more. Now, nearly a decade later, all her work has come to fruition.
The book explores the cultural, political, and geographic forces that have shaped Somali cuisine. Ahmed translates an oral cooking tradition into writing, building a vital new addition to the archive of Somali culinary history.
Researching, writing, and developing the recipes in the book wasn’t an easy feat. “If you’re coming from an oral cooking culture, you’re never just a recipe developer, you’re never just a chef, you’re never just a writer,” Ahmed says. “For a lot of this, I felt like a detective, a historian.”
In addition to recipes, Soomaaliya features profiles of people throughout the Somali food world, including chefs, business people, restaurateurs, herders, and agricultural workers.
“I think for me, it’s really important that my pioneers get celebrated because I think not only was there that lack of knowledge of Somali culinary traditions, but I just feel like they did such important work that really does not get the recognition that it deserves. Because what they did is they really worked on the preservation of our cuisine and really moving that through the digital age, especially to serve a growing diaspora,” she says.
For Ahmed, Soomaaliya has always been more than a cookbook. It is a work of cultural preservation, an invitation, and a way of addressing the disruption of the oral tradition of Somali culture caused by decades of forced migration due to the war.
It’s also, crucially, a way of taking long-held tenets of Somali cooking and culture, and putting them into writing. “The historical section is the past; the recipes are kind of like the present; and to me, the interviews are sort of like the future,” Ahmed says.
Below, Ahmed shares a favorite recipe from the book.
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Mallaay Qumbe (Coconut Fish Curry)
Serves 4
Despite Somalia’s long coastline, seafood has not traditionally been a big part of the Somali diet outside of coastal towns. In most of the country, red meat has been king, and both seafood and poultry have been seen as lower-class food, or not “real” food, in comparison to red meat. In the 1970s and 1980s, in a time of severe famine, the government tried to combat the negative view of seafood and boost the fishing sector. They relocated nomads to fishing cooperatives and even made certain days of the week officially “meatfree” days, dedicated to seafood consumption. Despite these efforts, the industry did not take off. A decade later, the Somali Civil War saw the full collapse of this sector. More recently, interest in seafood consumption is growing.
Mallaay qumbe can be found up and down the East African coast, including in the coastal towns of southern Somalia. This version is distinctly Somali, due to the addition of xawaash and creamy coconut milk. Serve mallaay qumbe with rice or soor.
Ingredients
1¼ teaspoons fine sea salt
1 pound (450 g) barramundi or other firm white fish, cut into serving-size pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, diced
2 large Roma tomatoes, finely diced
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 (13½-ounce / 400 ml) can unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup (16 g) cilantro leaves, finely chopped, plus more to serve
4 teaspoons Xawaash
Steamed white rice, for serving
Method
Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon of the salt over the fish; put it aside.
In a pot just large enough to accommodate the fish in one layer, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot but not smoking, add the onion and cook, stirring, for 8 to 10 minutes, until almost translucent. Add the tomatoes, cover, and cook for 7 minutes, occasionally stirring and smashing the tomatoes down as they cook.
Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two, then add the coconut milk, cilantro, xawaash, and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt; stir and cover. Cook for 4 minutes to allow the flavors to come together, then add the fish, making sure the coconut milk covers the fish (if necessary, add a splash of water to cover). Cover and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the fish can be easily flaked with a fork. Serve the curry with rice, topped with additional chopped cilantro.
Xawaash (Somali Spice Mix)
Makes about 2 ½ cups (260 g)
It’s no exaggeration to say that xawaash is at the heart of Somali cuisine. It is Somali history on a plate—a culinary reminder of Somalia’s centuries of global trade, particularly along the Indian Ocean. Xawaash is what makes many Somali dishes taste distinctly Somali. While every household’s xawaash recipe is its own, typically seven core spices—cumin, coriander, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and turmeric—are toasted until their fragrance blooms, then blended into an earthy golden-brown powder. Xawaash stores very well and for a long time in an airtight container, though it’s at its peak shortly after it’s made. If you use it often (and many recipes in this book call for it), you can double or triple the recipe for a big batch.
Ingredients
1 cup (100 g) whole cumin seeds
1 cup (70 g) whole coriander seeds
¼ cup (35 g) black peppercorns
1 small-to-medium piece of cinnamon bark
2 tablespoons green cardamom pods
1½ teaspoons whole cloves
¼ cup (30 g) ground turmeric
Method
Toast the cumin, coriander, peppercorns, cinnamon bark, cardamom pods, and cloves in a medium skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly so the spices don’t burn. The spices are toasted when they have a slightly darker color and become fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
Transfer the toasted spices to a blender or spice grinder and blend until they become a fine powder. Transfer to a bowl and mix in the ground turmeric until it’s fully incorporated and the spice mix is golden brown. Allow to cool completely, then store in an airtight container.
Excerpted with permission from Soomaaliya by Ifrah F. Ahmed, published by Hardie Grant North America, March 2026, RRP $40.00. Hardcover.
Egyptian author and academic Reem Bassiouney launched her latest novel, Kom El-Nour: Abbas Helmy II, at a book-signing ceremony held at the Marriott Hotel in Cairo on 1 April, presenting a historical work that revisits the reign of Egypt’s last Khedive.
The event, organized by Nahdet Misr Publishing House, was attended by Minister of Social Solidarity Maya Morsy, American University in Cairo (AUC) President Ahmad Dallal, Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) Executive Director Amal Imam, jewellery designer Azza Fahmy, as well as several public figures, media representatives, and readers.
Kom El-Nour takes readers into one of the most consequential periods in Egypt’s modern history, focusing on the rule of Khedive Abbas Helmy II, son of Khedive Tawfiq and grandson of Khedive Ismail, who governed Egypt from 1892 to 1914.
The novel presents Abbas Helmy II from a different perspective, portraying him as a ruler who grew up among Egyptians, shared aspirations for the country’s advancement, and sought to resist British occupation through development and reform.
It highlights his efforts to modernize agriculture, support national institutions, and contribute to the formation of an educated elite capable of expressing society’s aspirations and defending its rights.
The book also explores the ongoing struggle between Abbas Helmy II and the British occupation, as well as the political pressures that ultimately led to his removal from power and exile in 1914. He spent the rest of his life in Europe until he died in 1944.
Despite his forced departure, the novel argues that Abbas Helmy II remained present in Egypt’s national memory, even as colonial authorities sought to erase his legacy and marginalise his role in historical narratives.
Through an engaging literary narrative, Kom El-Nour: Abbas Helmy II re-examines history from a fresh angle and invites readers to reconsider the events and figures that helped shape Egypt’s national consciousness. It also raises broader questions about how history is written and understood, particularly as certain patterns continue to echo across time.
Speaking at the launch, Dalia Ibrahim, Chairperson of Nahdet Misr Publishing House, said the novel reflects the role literature can play in revisiting history and reshaping public awareness.
“At Nahdet Misr, we believe literature has a real role in reshaping consciousness, especially when it revisits history from different perspectives,” Ibrahim explained.
“Kom El-Nour: Abbas Helmy II is an example of the kind of work that does not merely recount events, but encourages readers to think and re-examine what is often taken for granted. We are very proud of our partnership with Reem Bassiouney and of continuing to publish works of such depth and impact.”
The novel also reflects the continued partnership between Nahdet Misr Publishing House and Bassiouney, whose literary output now includes 13 works of fiction. The publishing house has become the principal publisher of her novels, beginning with the reissue of her debut novel, The Scent of the Sea, in January and continuing with Kom El-Nour.
According to the publisher, the collaboration aims to bring distinguished literary works to a wider readership in Egypt and abroad.
Shams is part of the Artemis II program that aims to accelerate scientific innovation .
The Saudi Space Agency announced the successful launch and initial communication with the Saudi satellite Shams, which was deployed aboard the Space Launch System as part of the Artemis II mission.
With this achievement, the Kingdom becomes the first Arab nation to participate in a space mission under the historic Artemis program, which aims to accelerate scientific innovation and foster high-impact international partnerships that contribute to shaping the future of space for humanity, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Artemis II represents the second phase of the Artemis program, led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in collaboration with international partners.
The mission aims to return humans to the vicinity of the moon for the first time in more than five decades, paving the way for future missions to Mars. It carries a crew of four astronauts on the first crewed lunar flyby mission aboard the Orion spacecraft, powered by the Space Launch System, the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.
The mission also carries the Saudi satellite Shams as part of its scientific payload.
The Shams satellite will operate in a highly elliptical orbit, ranging from approximately 500 km to 70,000 km above Earth.
This orbit enables broad coverage for monitoring solar and radiation activity, enhancing space weather research, providing an advanced scientific environment, and supporting critical applications associated with it.
Shams represents a multi-first achievement. It is the first Arab mission launched as part of the Artemis program and the first national mission dedicated to space weather monitoring, underscoring the Kingdom’s progress in advanced space technologies.
The satellite was developed domestically by Saudi talent, supported by initiatives under the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, one of the key enablers of Saudi Vision 2030.
The mission aims to study space weather and monitor the effects of solar and radiation activity on Earth through four main scientific domains: space radiation, solar X-rays, Earth’s magnetic field, and high-energy solar particles.
This scientific mission contributes to enhancing the reliability and sustainability of critical sectors linked to space, such as communications, aviation, and navigation, by providing data that supports operational readiness and strengthens the security of the technical infrastructure relied upon globally in daily life.
Acting CEO of the Saudi Space Agency Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi said: “This milestone reflects the Kingdom’s scientific and technological advancement under Vision 2030 and underscores its active role in developing advanced technologies and shaping the future of space for humanity.”
CEO of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program Jameel bin Ahmed Al-Ghamdi stated that developing the Shams satellite within the Kingdom reflects the impact of the program’s initiatives in localizing advanced technologies and building competitive national industrial capabilities.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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The Saudi Space Agency announced the successful launch and initial communication with the Saudi satellite Shams, which was deployed aboard the Space Launch System as part of the Artemis II mission. (SPA)
A new generation of talent is turning its lens towards intimate storytelling, with Africa’s largest nation as its backdrop.
“Algeria is a visually unspoilt country,” says Mounia Meddour. Meddour is one of the nation’s most prominent contemporary filmmakers. Her debut film, Papicha (2019), set during the 1990s Algerian Black Decade with Algiers as its backdrop, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard, bringing her international recognition. Yet, she is right: very few images of Algeria exist within the cinematic landscape.
There are many reasons for this. The industry has long been at a standstill; visas are difficult to obtain and cultural policy remains lukewarm. Algerian landscapes and intimate stories struggle to travel beyond the country’s borders. For several years now, however, a new generation of filmmakers, cameras in hand, has been working to capture and create a contemporary visual archive of a nation longing for representation.
Algeria nonetheless has a rich cinematic history. In 1975, thirteen years after gaining independence from France, the young state won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for the historical fresco Chronicles of the Years of Fire, directed by Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina — making Algeria the first, and still the only, African and Arab country to achieve this distinction. It is this legacy that leads the film critic Samir Ardjoum to speak of a paradox in Algerian cinema.
“This symbolic prestige has not translated into industrial continuity,” he says. “Algerian cinema suffers from a lack of stable international distribution. Films circulate widely at festivals, but rarely in commercial circuits.”
Ardjoum explains that Algerian cinema originated as a cinema of nation-building. After 1962, the country invested heavily in films recounting the War of Independence and enshrining a heroic national memory, creating a shared narrative and collective imagery. Many films about the thawra (the Revolution, or Algerian War) were commissioned, with Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina among the most prominent figures of this movement.
A more mainstream cinema emerged in the 1970s, but was largely forgotten due to poor archiving. The Black Decade of the 1990s brought the industry to a near halt, as it did many others. Since then, Algerian cinema has remained in a state of lethargy. As the filmmaker Malek Bensmaïl puts it: “It is both fragile and very lively. Yet there is a deep desire to create our own stories and not let others tell them for us.”
The act of image-making inevitably raises questions of funding and audience. “All too often, we oscillate between a foreign gaze that restricts us and a nostalgic form of self-aestheticisation akin to self-Orientalism,” argues Amira Louadah, director of The Ark.
For too long, Algeria has been shaped by Western-manufactured representations, beginning with France. “Between 1830 and 1962, during French colonisation, most images of the country — whether in painting, photography or film — were created from a Western perspective,” Louadah notes. In a colonial context, such representations served to criminalise, demean and demonise “Muslim Algerians”, the term used by the colonial administration for indigenous people. Even today, Ardjoum adds, “Algeria is often depicted through the lens of crisis, politics or its colonial past.”
With limited state funding, filmmakers increasingly turn to European backers who, Louadah says, can at times “dictate the stories they want to see from our region”. The result is a striking absence of visual documentation of everyday life. “How did families live? How were social relationships organised? How did people communicate? What did daily routines, household objects or lighting look like? How did people travel, in both rural and urban areas?” she asks.
This new generation hopes to fill that void. “It’s exhilarating to have this rare access to locations and footage,” says Yacine Medkour, co-founder of the Algiers-based production company 2Horloges. “At the same time, it’s a huge responsibility.”
“Our country lacks images produced from its own perspective,” Bensmaïl emphasises. By reclaiming their narratives, this new wave of filmmakers is creating “archives for the future, preserving fragments of memory to pass on to future generations”. Yet this comes with what Louadah calls “a cultural responsibility”. “We need to support a plurality of perspectives rather than a single, black-and-white approach. We should represent all viewpoints and social classes—not just central Algiers. The more diverse, the better. We must break free from monopolies over narrative and representation.” Ardjoum agrees: “It’s not about polishing the country’s image; it’s about expanding the range of representations.”
As part of this shift, many filmmakers are moving away from stories centred solely on the Algerian Revolution. “People are growing tired of heroic narratives,” Ardjoum observes. Bensmaïl, whose forthcoming film The Arab reimagines the unnamed protagonist of Albert Camus’s The Stranger through the testimony of his ageing brother, suggests that “his generation needed to ask questions”. “We are not abandoning the Revolution,” he says. “We are simply no longer treating it as a static icon.” Ardjoum describes this as a shift in political focus — from the grand historical narrative to the personal sphere. “By constantly glorifying the past, it becomes difficult to describe the present.”
Meddour’s Papicha follows Nedjma, a fashion student determined to stage a show during the Black Decade — a period the director herself experienced. Sofia Djama’s The Blessed (Les Bienheureux) centres on a couple, Amal and Samir, celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary as they reflect on their shared past. Louadah’s documentary La Grosse Moula ou Li Michan explores Algeria’s linguistic history from a personal perspective. “There was a need to ground Algeria in the present, to tell stories that allow us to come to terms with our reality,” Meddour says. As Ardjoum notes, “Contemporary Algerian cinema is no longer solely a cinema of national narrative; it has become a cinema of the personal, of trauma, of urban life and of social tensions.”
To portray Algeria fully, however, filmmakers must look beyond the capital. “Our generation has tended to film what we know — often Algiers, which is inherently cinematic in its vitality,” says Djama, who is currently working on her next film, Jeudi moins quart. “But it would be a shame to limit ourselves. We need to look further afield.”
Progress remains constrained by financial and institutional challenges. “Over the past fifteen years, there has been real progress — more young filmmakers, more women, more films in festivals,” Bensmaïl notes. “But it is not yet enough.” Sustained national funding will be essential if this movement is to endure — allowing it to evolve from a fragile ecosystem of resourceful auteurs into a stable creative industry.
“If the films exist, we also need venues in which to show them,” Bensmaïl adds. Filmmakers are calling for a wider network of cinemas, alongside what Ardjoum describes as “an ambitious policy on archiving and international distribution”, supported by legal protections for creative freedom. “We have a wealth of talented individuals eager to write, produce and direct across genres,” Meddour says.
Medkour remains optimistic: “Algeria is the future of image-making.”
