Essays and Features

Honesty is Honored in Selection of Judge Tarek Bittar as Lebanon’s Person of the Year

By Elie Chalala

Swallowed by crisis after crisis, Lebanon has struggled to stand beneath an economic meltdown, the Beirut Port explosion in 2020, and the worsening pandemic under a government that has failed to serve its people. With mounting fears that the country will continue to sink into despair, the people of Lebanon are in dire need of hope. Hope, as it turns out, comes in the form of one judge’s determined pursuit of the perpetrators of the August port explosion. In December, the Arabic online journal Daraj, along with other columnists, named judge Tarek Bittar the “Person of the Year” to wide public approval, marking the first time Lebanon has selected an individual for the achievement.

Essays and Features

Sabah Fakhri: Loss of the Last Giant

By Sami Asmar

On 2 November 2021, the world lost a legendary singer at the age of 88 years. A Syrian who sang specifically the repertoire of his hometown of Aleppo and became popular worldwide in a rare occurrence due to his exceptional talent, charisma, perseverance, and specialization in a genre suiting his tenor voice and cultural background.

Born Sabahudine (or Sabah al-Din) Abu Qaws in 1933, when he committed to a career in the arts as a teenager, his family and teachers felt Abu Qaws did not have a musical ring to it. In honor of Fakhri al-Barudi, a Syrian national figure who also founded the conservatory of Damascus and was one of his earliest sponsors, he adopted the stage name Sabah Fakhri.

Essays and Features

Poet, Publisher, Painter, and Patron of the Arts: Remembering the Extraordinary Etel Adnan (1925-2021)

By

Elie Chalala

Lebanese-American writer Etel Adnan, beloved by many for her ‘meditative’ voice and colorful language in writing, passed away on November 14 in Paris at 96, leaving behind an evocative legacy of poetry, novels, and art that vividly depicted war, history, and nature.

Arab Publishing Industry Drowning in Tsunami of Economic, Social Crises

By Naomi Pham with Elie Chalala

There is an old saying: Cairo writes, Beirut prints, and Baghdad reads. Books have played essential roles in the Arab world’s intellectual scene, and bookshops in Syria and Lebanon flourished in the 1960s and 70s. However, readers’ relationships with books have changed in modern times; scholars and intellectuals no longer flock to bookstores as they did in the past. Instead, book publishing worldwide — particularly their physical print and sale — appear to be a dying trade in the digital age.

Essays and Features

Fadwa Tuqan: A Romantic Feminist Poet and Reluctant Political Witness

Emaleah Shackleton

Fadwa Hafez Tuqan is perhaps the most famous and well-loved woman poet in Palestine. Fadwa would have loved to have kept writing poetry about personal and social subjects, but the political earthquakes of 1948 and 1967 turned her away from this course toward politics. Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine’s most eminent poet, considers the “1967 earthquake” to have made her stray away from her poetic bounds.

Egyptian Belly Dance Losing Touch with Roots as Cultural Phenomenon

By

Naomi Pham

Belly dance in Egypt has undergone major cultural and social transformations since the mid-20th century. Dancers often perform at live gatherings and across social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. However, belly dancing as an art form has become redefined in today’s age. It has increasingly been the target of criticism, the latest being a claim by Abdel Halim in Al Araby that the dance has deteriorated further under neoliberalism.

Rethinking Who is an Arab American: Arab American Studies in the New Millennium

Gary C. David

Arab Americans and studies focusing on them have received increasing attention and interest over the past three years, a predictable outcome of the September 11th attacks and the “War on Terror.” As a result, the field of Arab American studies has shifted from the periphery of social science research and is now a more central interest. This increased interest also provides a timely opportunity to critically examine the state of research on Arab Americans and the work that has formed the foundation of this field. Undoubtedly, important contributions of substantial worth form the foundation of contemporary Arab-American studies. However, as in any field of scholarly endeavor, we need to critically reexamine this work and determine how it pertains to the Arab-American experience today.

Founded in Egypt by Lebanese Immigrants, Legendary Al Ahram Newspaper Marks 145th Anniversary

By Elie Chalala and Naomi Pham

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Lebanese and Syrian immigrants took the Arab journalistic world by storm, leaving numerous literary and cultural achievements in their wake. These immigrants established newspapers and professional literary publications of renown. Overseas, some two dozen Arabic-language newspapers sprung in the United States alone, headed by writers like Ilya Abu Maadi, Mikhail Naimy, and Amin Rihani. In the Arab world, two Lebanese Christian brothers landed on the shores of Egypt and established one of the most prominent household publications in Egypt — Al Ahram Newspaper.

Essays and Features

Beauty Before Age Remains Dominant Casting Trend in Arab Film

By

Naomi Pham

The presence of women on the Arab silver screen has historically suffered under patriarchy. Though the “male gaze” is not exclusive to Arab cinema and television, the marginalization of women on the screen has increasingly affected Arab discourse. Hiyam Bannout’s article “Masculinity Dominates Arab Drama and Marginalizes Women” in Independent Arabia explores the lack of veteran and older actresses occupying major roles in film. Arab actresses are “dramatically marginalized” once they turn 40, brushed aside in favor of young actresses at the expense of limited talent and experience, according to Bannout.

Despite Spending by Local Arab Media, Foreign-Owned Media Platforms Continue to Win Struggle for Trust of Audience

By Elie Chalala

The rise in popularity of Arabic-speaking foreign-owned media outlets over the years has generated the misconception that money and technology can buy credibility. These foreign-owned news platforms, which early on boasted prime influence, have receded alongside the idea of neutrality in reporting, according to a recent article in the London-based Al Arab newspaper. Despite this decline, however, they still maintain a sizable viewership when compared to local Arab media outlets like MTV, LBCI, Al Jadeed, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.

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