Arts, Culture & Entertainment – Page 4 – Arabian Records (1st post : Eid Al Fitr – 01st Shawwal 1439 (AH) / 15th June 2018 ) / (BETA testing – Research

ALGERIA : In Algeria, Pope to pay homage to forgotten home of Christian icon St Augustine

Leo XIV’s upcoming visit will honour Saint Augustine’s roots and a small Catholic community that shared the nation’s suffering.

For the first time in Catholic history, a pope will make an official visit to Algeria.

From 13 to 15 April, Pope Leo XIV will begin an African tour in the Maghreb country, which will then take him to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

His trip to Algeria will include two stops: the capital, Algiers, and Annaba, the city of Saint Augustine. The fourth century thinker is a key figure in the pope’s life and in the meaning given to this unprecedented visit.

“I am an Augustinian, a son of Saint Augustine, who once said: ‘With you I am a Christian, and for you I am a bishop’,” Leo said in his first address as Pope to the crowd gathered in St Peter’s Square in Rome in May last year to celebrate his election.

These words sparked enthusiasm in the Algerian media, which emphasised the new Pope’s attachment to the cleric and theologian born in 354 in Thagaste, an Amazigh-Roman city known today as Souk Ahras, in northeastern Algeria.

As bishop of Hippo, the ancient name for the city of Annaba, he profoundly influenced Christian thought.

“Saint Augustine is important to the Pope because he entered the Augustinian Order at a very young age,” Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, Archbishop of Algiers, told Middle East Eye.

“From the age of 13, Leo attended a school in the United States [where he was born] run by the Augustinians,” he added.

After studying mathematics and philosophy in Philadelphia, the man then known as Robert Francis Prevost joined the Augustinian order at the age of 22 and rose through the ranks to become prior general of the order.

It was in this capacity that he made his first visit to Algeria, in 2001, to participate in the first international symposium on Saint Augustine at the University of Annaba.

Cardinal Vesco says he convinced the new Pope to visit Algeria in the early days of his pontificate.

On the agenda for his upcoming visit is a public address at the Martyrs’ Monument, erected on the heights of the capital in memory of those killed during the Algerian war of independence, followed by a meeting with the country’s highest authorities at the conference centre of the Great Mosque.

Augustine ‘was born here’

The Algerian authorities are attaching particular importance to this visit, the preparations for which are being personally overseen by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

Annaba, in particular, has been transformed into a vast construction site, with asphalting, painting and cleaning of the streets along the road leading to the Basilica of Saint Augustine, which is also undergoing maintenance work.

‘Augustine is a figure rooted in North African geography and culture. Yet, this essential dimension has long been obscured’

– Abdenasser Smail, historian

For historian Abdenasser Smail, who recently published Saint-Augustin, un Nord-Africain universel (Saint Augustine, a Universal North African), the Pope is visiting Algeria and Annaba to pay homage to the philosopher of antiquity but also “because Augustine is not just a Christian figure.

A key element of Augustine’s thought was how he radically internalised the relationship with God in the depths of the self, what he calls the “inner trinity”: memory, intelligence and will.

“He is one of the major thinkers in the history of humanity. Europe embraced him. The Vatican drew inspiration from him. But he was born here,” Smail told MEE.

The pope’s visit, he added, is not only religious: “It is about historical memory.”

According to him, the tribute Leo is paying to Saint Augustine is a way of righting a historical wrong that has long obscured the theologian’s true origins.

“Augustine is a figure rooted in North African geography and culture. Yet, this essential dimension has long been obscured, both in Western representations and in contemporary Algerian national narratives,” Smail said.

In a country with an overwhelming Muslim majority, “an Algerian Muslim can be proud of this,” he added.

“Because being proud of one’s history doesn’t mean adopting another faith. It means recognising that this land has produced multiple great figures. To deny this is not to defend Islam. It is to impoverish our own memory,” he said.

An Algerian Church

Beyond the very symbolism of Saint Augustine, Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Algeria is also a tribute to, and support for, the Algerian Church, “a very small Church in a Muslim world”, as Vesco described it.

“This is the church of that people, the Algerians,” added the archbishop of Algiers, who has lived in the country for nearly 20 years and was naturalised as an Algerian citizen in 2023.

The Catholic Church in Algeria is one of the smallest in the world: barely 4,200 faithful spread across four dioceses – Algiers, Oran, Constantine and Laghouat – out of a population of 46 million.

It has about 60 priests and 100 nuns and monks, primarily from Europe, Africa and Latin America. Its most striking characteristic is its composition: the faithful are overwhelmingly foreign and of sub-Saharan origin, a reality now visible in every parish.

Native Algerian Catholics number only a few hundred; no official figures are available. The number of faithful plummeted dramatically with Algeria’s independence in 1962 and the mass exodus of Europeans from the country.

“Of course, the Church returned to Algeria with [French] colonisation, because it had practically disappeared [after the Arab-Islamic conquest of North Africa in the 7th century],” Vesco said.

However, this Church has become Algerian, he explained, emphasising the essential role of the archbishop of Algiers from 1954 to 1988, Leon-Etienne Duval, in the process.

As early as 1955, a year after the start of the War of Independence that pitted Algerians against the French occupiers, Duval denounced the socio-economic injustices of the colonial system and the torture and massacres of Algerians committed by the French army, while supporting their self-determination.

Naturalised Algerian in 1964 and promoted to cardinal, Duval succeeded in transforming the church in Algeria from a colonial institution into a church officially recognised and supported by a newly independent state where Islam was proclaimed the state religion.

“Our church remains marked by Cardinal Duval’s appeal in 1962 to priests to stay in Algeria [at the end of the war],” Cardinal Vesco said.

‘It is a church that truly serves Algerian society’

– Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, archbishop of Algiers

“This is how we kept schools, dispensaries, etc open from independence onward, because it is a church that truly serves Algerian society.”

The position defended by Duval, inherited from decades of struggle by liberal Catholics in Algeria, was supported by the Vatican and contributed to the Catholic Church’s dialogue with the Muslim world.

“By bringing the problems of the ‘Third World’ to the forefront, the Algerian experience also contributed to a profound shift in the Church’s theological and political stance toward Islam,” writes researcher Uriel Gadessaud in the journal Outre-Mers.

“It was during the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) that the Holy See underwent a true aggiornamento, under the influence of the Algerian War,” he added, referring to the Vatican’s new opening to the world and other religions.

In addition to aspirations for independence, members of the Catholic Church in Algeria shared with local Muslims the sufferings of the “black decade”, the civil war that ravaged the country between 1992 and 2002.

Triggered by the army’s halt to the electoral process in January 1992 after the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won the first round of parliamentary elections, the conflict between armed Islamist groups and security forces killed an estimated 200,000 people.

Among them were 19 Christian religious figures killed between 1994 and 1996, including the Bishop of Oran, Pierre Claverie, and the seven monks of Tibhirine, whose abduction and murder in 1996 remain shrouded in mystery.

Declared martyrs by former Pope Francis, they were beatified in December 2018 in Oran – the first beatification ceremony held in a Muslim country. During his upcoming visit to Algiers, Pope Leo is scheduled to pray in the chapel of these 19 “martyrs of Algeria”.

Calls to address human rights

Today, the small Catholic community lives in harmony with a predominantly Muslim Algerian society, and the faith is officially protected and recognised by the authorities, even if non-Muslim religious practices remain confined to specific spaces.

“I live my faith discreetly, as required by the fact that I live in a Muslim society, but I have never received a single derogatory remark,” Simon, an Ivorian student who has been living in Algiers for three years, told MEE.

Every Sunday, he attends mass at the Diocesan Centre in Hydra, an upscale neighbourhood of the capital.

‘I live my faith discreetly, as required by the fact that I live in a Muslim society, but I have never received a single derogatory remark’

– Simon, Ivorian student in Algiers

“Beyond prayer and communion, we meet to organise charitable activities, classes for disadvantaged Algerian children and book clubs,” added Simon, who said he is “proud and happy about the Pope’s visit”.

“It’s a gift, a grace, for our little flock here in Algeria.”

However, the Christian presence in Algeria also has a dark side: the restrictions targeting Protestant worship and its evangelical branch, although freedom of worship is enshrined in the constitution.

Since 2006, a decree “establishing the conditions and rules for the practice of religions other than Islam” requires authorisation for the creation of religious associations, their practices and their use of buildings.

While the Catholic Church in Algeria enjoys the status of an approved association, and its sermons are even broadcast on public radio, this is not the case for the Protestant Church of Algeria, officially recognised since 2011 but whose activities are only authorised within its main headquarters in Algiers.

There are no longer any legally open Protestant places of worship in the country. The authorities closed them because they suspect evangelicals of conducting conversions, which is prohibited by Algerian law. Some pastors are even facing legal action.

Several Christians contacted by MEE declined to express themselves for fear that the authorities would suspect them of being converted evangelicals.

This situation is regularly denounced in the US State Department’s report on religious freedom and by human rights groups.

On Tuesday, three international NGOs urged Pope Leo XIV to raise issues of human rights and religious freedom with the Algerian authorities during his visit to Algeria.

“We ask you to call on the authorities to end discrimination against religious minorities and to respect their right to freedom of religion or belief, including the right to practice their religion freely,” EuroMed Rights, Human Rights Watch and MENA Rights Group said in a letter addressed to the pontiff.

According to the groups, religious minorities “face discriminatory legal and administrative restrictions that limit their ability to practice, organise and express their faith openly”.

In addition to Protestants, they cite Ahmadis, followers of a faith originating in India who consider themselves Muslim but are regarded as heretics by the Sunni majority in Algeria.

The NGOs also urged the Pope to call on Algerian authorities to “release those arbitrarily detained for exercising their human rights”.

“Hundreds of protesters, activists, journalists and human rights defenders have been arbitrarily detained, unjustly prosecuted and sentenced to prison terms for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” they said.

source/content: middleeasteye.net (headline edited)

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ALGERIA

ALGERIAN – FRENCH author Kamel Daoud says Algeria sentenced him to 3 years for award-winning novel

“Houris” (Virgins, in English) focuses of the victims of what Algerians call the “black decade,” when tens of thousands of people were killed as the army fought an Islamist insurgency.

French-Algerian author Kamel Daoud said Wednesday that he has been sentenced to three years in prison in Algeria for his book “Houris,” a recipient of France’s most prestigious literary award.

The writer, who lives in France, announced on X that the verdict was delivered on Tuesday. He said that he was also fined 5 million Algerian dinars ($38,000).

“Houris” (Virgins, in English) focuses of the victims of what Algerians call the “black decade,” when tens of thousands of people were killed as the army fought an Islamist insurgency. The conflict erupted in 1991 after Islamists won a first round of legislative elections, prompting the military-backed government to cancel the second round of voting.

It was awarded the Goncourt Prize, France’s top literary award, in 2024.

Daoud said that he was convicted under what is known as the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, a text adopted by referendum in 2005 that offered widespread pardons to both armed Islamists and security forces.

“The text punishes any public mention of the civil war,” Daoud said. “Ten years of war, nearly 200,000 dead according to estimates, thousands of terrorists granted amnesty … and only one guilty party: a writer.”

In addition to the legal action brought by the court in the Algerian city of Oran, Daoud is the target of two international arrest warrants issued by Algeria in May 2025 and is also under threat of being stripped of his Algerian nationality.

Another French-Algerian writer, Boualem Sansal, has faced similar problems.

The author — whose works have been critical of Islam, colonialism and contemporary Algerian leaders — was convicted of undermining national unity and insulting public institutions and was sentenced to five years in prison under Algeria’s anti-terrorism laws.

He was granted a Humanitarian pardon in Algeria after an appeal by Germany’s president, and returned to France last year after serving a year in prison.

Daoud’s book “Houris” tells the story of Aube, a young girl who miraculously survives a nighttime terrorist attack in her village of Had Chekala in western Algeria, despite having her throat slit. Following the novel’s publication, an Algerian woman, Saâda Arbane, accused Daoud of “stealing” her story and using it as the basis for his book.

Arbane previously had been treated by Aicha Dahdouh, Daoud’s wife, a psychiatrist at Oran University Hospital and a specialist in trauma linked to violence during the civil war.

“Kamel Daoud and his wife asked for my permission to use my story, and I refused every time,” she said during several appearances on Algerian television, adding that it constituted “an invasion of her privacy.”

A collective of lawyers was subsequently formed in solidarity to defend Arbane, invoking provisions of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, which prohibits even the mere mention of this painful period in Algeria’s history.

source/content: religionnews.com (headline edited)

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FILE – Algerian-French novelist Kamel Daoud holds his book Houris after being awarded with the Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)

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FRANCE / ALGERIAN

PALESTINE : Award-winning Palestinian author Basem Khandakji on Israeli prison, exile and homeland

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]

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PALESTINIAN

OMAN : Your Guide to Oman’s Stunning UNESCO World Heritage Sites

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.

source/content: cairoscene.com (headline edited)

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OMAN

SOMALI-AMERICAN : Ifrah F. Ahmed’s Debut Cookbook Is an Ode to Somalia’s Culinary Past, Present, and Future

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.

source/content: vogue.com / Anna Grace Lee

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The cover of Soomaaliya.

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AMERICAN / SOMALIAN

ALGERIA : Meet the Algerian Filmmakers Creating New Images of the Country

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.”

source/content: arabianbusiness.com (headline edited)

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ALGERIA

SYRIA : In Syria, Mural Sets New World Record

In Damascus, a mural made of recycled materials has just set a new world record. Syrian artist Moaffak Makhoul and a team of six compatriots began the project in October 2013 in an attempt to revive hope in their war torn home country. The mural spans 720 square meters (7,749.98 square feet) and set the Guinness record for the largest mural of recycled materials upon its completion in January, Art Daily reports.

The mural is located in Al Mazzeh, an upscale neighborhood in Damascus. It is composed of manufactured waste: colorful scraps from cars, bicycles, cooking utensils, pipes, soft drink cans, mirrors, and ceramics. Housewives also lent a hand, bringing personal objects or pieces of domestic waste from war zones.

Syria’s ongoing civil war has killed around 146,000 people, has forced millions to flee, and forced most of those who have stayed indoors. But the mural is bringing people back out onto the street, according to the report. Makhoul told the AFP he felt the need “to give something to [his] country, to make the Syrian people be known for their love of beauty, life and nature.”

source/content: news.artnet.com/ Artnet.com (headline edited0

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Syrian artist Moaffak Makhoul and his team pose in Damascus with Guinness World Records award for the largest recycled material mural, March 31, 2014. The mural, seen behind them, measures 7,750 feet. Photo: Louai Beshara, courtesy Agence France-Presse.

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SYRIA

EGYPT : Al-Ahram Weekly’s editor-in-chief Ezzat Ibrahim wins Mustafa and Ali Amin’s Best Columnist Award

Prominent Egyptian journalist Ezzat Ibrahim, editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Weekly and Ahram Online, has won the Best Columnist Award for 2025 at the Mustafa and Ali Amin Journalism Awards, the awards’ board of trustees announced on Monday.

Renowned journalist Mohamed Salmawy was named Journalist of the Year, while Mohamed El-Shamaa of Al-Akhbar newspaper received the Commitment Award, according to a statement from the awards foundation.

In the investigative journalism category, Amany Awad of Al-Mal newspaper won for her report titled “The Dark Side of the Smart Companion.”

Samar Ibrahim of Al-Shorouk newspaper received the Humanitarian Journalism Award for “Testimonies of Sexual Humiliation Victims by Rapid Support in Sudan.”

The Youth Award went to Ahmed Al-Ameer of Al-Watan newspaper for his piece “The Killer Light: The Journey of White Phosphorus from the Gap to the Bodies of Gaza Strip Residents.”

In visual journalism categories, Khaled Kamel of the Youm7 website won the Photojournalism Award for “A Mother’s Sacrifice for Her Children in the Rain,” while Maroula Magdy of the Al Arabiya Egypt website received the Video Journalism Award for “Mawlawiya Dance for Love and Peace.”

The awards also recognized student journalists. Jana Mohamed Hanfi won first place in the journalism department at Akhbar El-Youm Academy, while Mai Ahmed El-Sayed took first place in the journalism department at Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communication.

The winners were selected after impartial judging committees reviewed entries published during 2025, the foundation said.

Safia Mustafa Amin, chair of the awards’ board of trustees, said a ceremony will be held to honour the legacy of journalists Mustafa Amin and Ali Amin, during which the prizes will be presented to the winners.

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg (headline edited)

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Al-Ahram Weekly Editor-in-chief Ezzat Ibrahim

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EGYPT

ALGERIAN-FRENCH : French-Algerian newcomer Nadia Melliti wins best actress award in Cannes

Melliti, 23, plays a 17-year-old in a coming-of-age tale centred on a teenage Muslim girl in Paris who faces a struggle with her identity and religion.

French artist of Maghrebi descent Nadia Melliti won the best actress award at the Cannes film festival for her first-ever performance in a film, “The Little Sister” by Hafsia Herzi.

Melliti, 23, plays a 17-year-old in a coming-of-age tale centred on a teenage Muslim girl in Paris who faces a struggle with her identity and religion.

She beat Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence in “Die My Love” by Lynne Ramsay, Japanese child revelation Yui Suzuki in “Renoir” by Chie Hayakawa and Elle Fanning in “Sentimental Value” by Joachim Trier.

“It’s a huge honour to be here tonight and to have been able to take part in this very beautiful project,” she said clutching her award on stage.

“I have such a feeling gushing through me right now. I can’t describe it but it’s really incredible,” she said as the director sobbed in the audience.

“Thank you Mum. I know you’re watching and I hope you are very proud and happy,” she said.

Melliti is a French student and amateur football player who was spotted in the street.

Before walking the red carpet for the premiere of Hafsia Herzi’s “The Little Sister”, she was preparing for exams.

In the coming-of-age tale, she plays 17-year-old Fatima, a Muslim girl in Paris struggling with her identity and religion as she explores her sexuality.

“I’ve never done any theatre or cinema,” she said.

But she said she immediately empathised with the character when she read the script, based on a partly autobiographical novel of the same name by French writer Fatima Daas.

“I identified hugely with Fatima, her surroundings and origins. My mother hails from an immigrant background,” she said.

“My roots are Algerian. I also have sisters.”

Melliti said she specifically related to the film’s theme of “emancipation” in the film.

“When I was younger I wanted to play football. I still do today,” said the actor. “I wanted to take up the sport, one people say is masculine and in which men are over-represented.

“And when I took that home, there was this emancipation, even if for Fatima it was different, more linked to her intellect and sexuality,” she added.

Melliti said she could not believe her luck when she was spotted by a casting agent in the street near a large shopping mall in central Paris.

“I was walking in the street and (she) called out to me,” she said.

At first “I thought she was a tourist and I wondered if my English would be up to scratch.”

source/content: thearabweekly.com (headline edited)

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Nadia Melliti, winner of the Best Actress award for her role in the film La petite dernière (The Little Sister), poses during a photocall after the closing ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 24, 2025. REUTERS

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FRENCH / ALGERIAN

SAUDI ARABIA : Makkah museum displays world’s largest Qur’an

The Holy Qur’an Museum at the Hira Cultural District in Makkah is showcasing a monumental handwritten copy of the Holy Qur’an, recognized as the largest Qur’an of its kind in the world.

The manuscript measures 312 cm by 220 cm and comprises 700 pages, earning the museum recognition from Guinness World Records for displaying the world’s largest Qur’an, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The manuscript is a magnified reproduction of a historic Qur’an dating back to the 16th century, the SPA stated.

The original copy measures 45 cm by 30 cm, with the chapters written primarily in Thuluth script, while Surah Al-Fatiha was penned in Naskh, reflecting the refined artistic choices and calligraphic diversity of the era.

The Qur’an is a unique example of Arabic calligraphy, gilding and bookbinding, showcasing Islamic art through intricate decorations, sun-shaped motifs on the opening folio, and elaborately designed frontispiece and title pages that reflect a high level of artistic mastery.

The manuscript was endowed as a waqf in 1883. Its original version is currently preserved at the King Abdulaziz Complex for Endowment Libraries, serving as a lasting testament to Muslims’ enduring reverence for the Qur’an and the richness of Islamic arts across the centuries.

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)