The towering history of the tantour

Part of Lebanon's rich cultural heritage, the tall, conical headdress associated with princesses sparked the curiosity of a global audience when it made a cameo at the Miss Universe pageant

Rosette Fadel

Apathy in Violent Times

[caption id="attachment_55247606" align="alignnone" width="620"] A still from Anima State, Hamad Khan, 2013. [/caption] Hammad Khan is clearly a filmmaker on a mission to deconstruct the very…

Jesse Lawrence

I, the Artist and the Syrian

[caption id="attachment_55247534" align="alignnone" width="620"] Tammam Azzam (Courtesy of the Ayyam Gallery)[/caption] Tammam Azzam doesn’t claim to be a representative of the Syrian people, but…

Tam Hussein

Capturing the Human Story

[caption id="attachment_55247510" align="alignnone" width="650"] Steve McCurryStruggling camels silhouetted against the oil-fire, Al-Ahmadi oil field, Kuwait, 1991© Steve McCurry Courtesy of the…

Amy Assad

The Tunisia that Time Forgot

While the political elite in Tunis are wrangling over the future of the country, there are parts of Tunisia that time has simply forgotten. The current political impasse—and the fact that the state…

Tam Hussein

Poetry Leads the Turkish Republic

[caption id="attachment_55247131" align="alignnone" width="620"] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shows a book from the Turkish Anthropology Institutes during an address to the parliament…

Nicholas Birch

This Dance of Freedom

[caption id="attachment_55246885" align="alignnone" width="614"] Salah El Brogy performing Hurriyeh to calligraphy by Soraya Syed (both artists/ Nour Festival)[/caption] You would not expect a…

Tam Hussein

Art and Punishment

[caption id="attachment_55246819" align="alignnone" width="620"] Soudabeh ArdavanPrison Sketches©Soudabeh Ardavan[/caption] The old "suffering artist" cliché takes on a new meaning when it comes to…

Jesse Lawrence

Learning from Past Mistakes

[inset_left]The 2011 Libyan Uprisings and the Struggle for the Post-Qadhafi Future Edited by Jason Pack Palgrave Macmillan, 2013[/inset_left]Jason Pack has assembled articles by both new and well…

Noel Brehony

The Arabic Slur

[caption id="attachment_55246566" align="alignnone" width="620"] Lebanese Sheikh Hussein Zayat, a calligrapher copies out pages of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, onto sheets of paper. (MAHMOUD…

Malik Al-Abdeh