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Lebanon Still Overshadowed by Oblivion As Port Blast Aftermath Enters Fourth Year

Art has played an influential role in making sense of the loss felt after the August 4 explosion. Tom Young’s “Strong Angels” and other paintings show a human dimension of the tragedy and its civilian heroes, who “join forces to lift the city’s grief,” writes Darine Houmani of Diffah Three (The New Arab). “Despite all its devastation, the August 4 explosion brought greater impetus to preserve our heritage and brought about a database of our historical buildings that hadn’t been done before,” states Mona Hallak, an architect, heritage activist, and director of the American University of Beirut’s Neighborhood Initiative, as cited in The New Arab. Several weighed in on the rebuilding efforts, including Lebanese architect Jad Tabet, who proposed “rehabilitation” rather than “reconstruction,” focusing on preserving the city’s existing social fabric and inhabitants alongside the architecture (for further reading on Jad Tabet and architectural heritage, see Al Jadid, Vol. 4, No, 25, Fall 1998; Vol. 5, No. 26, Winter 1999; and Vol. 24, No. 79, 2020). As art historian and gallery owner Andrée Sfeir-Semler says, “You need to nourish people with art and culture because that is what feeds their souls.”

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Our Current Issue

The Legacy of Western Colonialism, Arab Authoritarianism, and Islamic Extremism Taints Image of Secularism

By Elie Chalala
 
Since the fall of the Assad regime, Syrians have been discussing the kind of future government they desire. These discussions have occurred on Facebook and at conferences inside and outside Syria. The 14-year war has intensified these debates, and the identity of the new power in Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, has further influenced them. This formerly extremist Islamic group has recently moderated its positions and become more open to various political perspectives. However, the latest development has raised skepticism: the new government has adopted a temporary declaration of constitutional law as its legal foundation, asserting that Islam should be the source of legislation and the president's faith. This has intensified the heated debates surrounding the new state's stance on Islam.
Essays and Features

SHALL I RETURN?

Syrian Poet Rasha Omran Examines the Dilemma Facing Displaced Syrians
By Elie Chalala
 
“Will the Syrians return?” remains a loaded question as Syria takes its first steps on the long road to recovery after half a century under tyranny. Syrian author and poet Rasha Omran poses that very question in the title of her article, “Will the Syrians Return?” published in Arabic in Diffah 3. Her story resonates with many Syrians who left the country, but rather than focus on why many chose to leave, Omran touches on the delicate issues faced by those considering returning from displacement once conditions allow.
Essays and Features

‘About the Happiness of the Oppressed’:

As the Assad Regime’s Collapse Looms, Riham Essa Reflects on the Complex Emotions Among Syrians
By Elie Chalala
 
In a blog essay published in Al Modon newspaper, Syrian short story writer and author Riham Essa touches the surface of the complex emotions she, and perhaps other Syrians, have felt in the wake of the Assad regime’s fallout as the country contemplates its new beginning. Syria, she writes, “has never been a homeland, especially after 2011."
Essays and Features

In the Face of Syria’s Suffering, Basma al-Khatib Calls for Silence from the Bystanders and Naysayers

By Elie Chalala
 
“The least we can do at this critical historical moment is to respect the suffering of the Syrians (and the suffering of everyone who was tortured by the Syrian Baath regime, regardless of their nationality) and to remain silent for a while. To come to grips with all this suffering, pain, loss of reason, and torture, we perhaps need a long time,” writes Basma Al-Khatib, a Lebanese writer and novelist.  
Essays and Features

Algeria's Curtailing of Freedom of Expression Sparks Outcry from Critics, Intellectuals, and Politicians Following Author Boualem Sansal's Arrest

By Naomi Pham
 
The sudden arrest of award-winning Algerian-French author Boualem Sansal and the ensuing silence regarding his release have produced a global outcry, bringing literary, cultural, and political circles to the writer’s defense. Sansal becomes the second author to agitate Algeria’s political and literary scene in recent months, next to fellow Algerian-French writer Kamel Daoud, whose recent legal tangle over his Prix Goncourt-winning novel “Houris” remains ongoing. Both cases raise apprehensions among critics and writers over Algeria’s course toward further restrictions on freedoms, especially concerning criticisms of the country’s history amid current talks about Morocco’s autonomy proposal for Western Sahara.
 
Essays and Features

‘Traveling Scholar’ Ella Shohat: The Contradictions and Challenges of Being an Arab Jew

As a public intellectual, Ella Shohat has found that her personal history profoundly informs her scholarship. Born in Israel to Iraqi parents who had migrated to that country after 1948, Shohat grew up in an Israeli culture that discriminated against Mizrahi Jews. Living a life of contradictions and tension as an “Arab-Jew” – a person of the Jewish religion whose culture and primary language are Arabic, she has found herself on countless occasions having to explain an identity that seemed like an oxymoron, an impossibility, to academics and others.

Chronicling Syrians’ Personal Stories of Struggle to Reach Safe Refuge

By 
Sarah Rogers

On Friday January 27, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that, for a 90-day period, suspended immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States from Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. It also, for a period of 120 days, suspended the Refugee Resettlement Program, placing an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. “Leaving Syria: Seeking Refuge in Greece” makes clear the plight of Syrian refugees traces back to a much longer and tragic history.


Leaving Syria: Seeking Refuge in Greece
By Bill Dienst, MD and Madi Williamson
Cune Press, 2017

Little Time to Rest: 'Daughters' of Nomads

By 
Pamela Nice

Watching “Daughters of Anatolia,” a film documenting the nomadic lifestyle of goat herders in contemporary Turkey, makes one aware of the value of ethnographic filmography over its drier, academic prose cousin. Describing the migratory path from the Mediterranean Sea to the Taurus Mountains cannot compare with seeing the breath-taking beauty of mountains in bloom as goats scramble over them.

Broadway’s ‘Oslo’ Highlights Human Drama of Famous Peace Accords

By 
Naomi Pham

With two nations at odds for more than half of a century, different major power players brought all types of peace attempts to the table, but to no avail, with two significant exceptions. The Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty of 1979 stands as a lonely, if successful peace attempt, while the 1993 Oslo Accords represent the second, partially successful and incomplete effort. As a result, Palestinians and Israelis formally recognized each other’s existence, and committed themselves to working together to resolve the conflict in a non-violent manner.

Ancient Classic Expresses Modern Tragedy of Syria’s 'Trojan Women'

By 
Naomi Pham

Amidst the ruins of Troy, Queen Hecuba declares, “Lift up your head from the dust! Heave up from the earth the weight of your misery, you whom the Gods have cursed. Some agonies are beyond telling, and some must be told.” One of the acclaimed works of ancient Greek playwright Euripides tells the tale of Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra and the other women of fallen Troy, who, after their husbands die in battle, now face being sold into slavery with their families. Although this war assuredly takes place in the past, director Zoe Lafferty’s reworking of the ancient play reveals a haunting similarity with the wars we wage today.

Syrian, Palestinian and Afghan Stage Artists Cross Oceans to Land in Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin

By 
Al Jadid Staff

Despite being so far from their homes, a group of actors and actresses come together at Germany’s Maxim Gorki Theater to present a story near and dear to their hearts. “Winterreise” (or, “Winter Journey”), performed by the “Exil Ensemble,” tells of 24-year-old Syrian actress Kenda Hmeidan’s journey with her fellow six performers as they take a bus tour through Germany during the brittle cold weeks of January. Each an exile from Syria, Palestine, or Afghanistan, these actors have left their home countries in pursuit of their art, all while struggling with the transition from departure to settlement.

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