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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 Obedient Tears’ of Youssef Abdelki

By Elie Chalala
 
Since the downfall of the Assad regime, Syria’s preeminent painter, Youssef Abdelki, has remained active in both the artistic and political spheres. Maen al-Bayyari honors the artist’s impactful contributions, calling for his recognition from the creative community in his essay, “Youssef Abdelki’s Obedient Tears,”* published in The New Arab. Bayyari’s article is not a biographical profile of Abdelki, but rather an effort to move past the “long night” and recognize the artist’s contributions and sacrifices for Syria’s struggle for freedom, both before and after the 2011 Revolution. He states, "It is natural that no tribute will be held for him in his country during that long night; I believe it is essential to organize a significant celebration for him, as freedom has remained a central theme in many of his works, sculptures, paintings, and graphics." This recommendation genuinely deserves attention.
Essays and Features

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

'Realist' Scholar's Argument Delights the Syrian Regime: 'To Crush ISIS, Make a Deal With Assad"!

By 
Elie Chalala

"It feels surreal to even contemplate the possibility of Western powers crushing ISIS while allying with a regime that has facilitated the deaths of more than 200,000 of its citizens, displaced half of Syria's population, and transformed more than half of the country's infrastructure into a pile of rubble. How could the oppressed and marginalized Sunni communities ever trust in an alliance made with their tormentors?" (From The 'Realist' Scholar's Argument Strikes Delight in Syrian Regime: 'To Crush ISIS, Make a Deal With Assad"!)

Documentary Film Gives Voice to the Erotic Body

By 
By Kim Jensen
 
Joumana Haddad, Lebanese feminist, author, and poet, founded Jasad, the Arabic Journal of Erotic Arts, in order to advocate for the sexual liberation for the Arab World. In her film, “Jasad & The Queen of Contradictions” Amanda Homsi-Ottosson combines interviews with Haddad, Jasad journal contributors, and critics, as well as reactions from the street, and footage taken from the literary salons of Beirut, the Queen of Contradictions herself.
 
Jasad & The Queen of Contradictions
Directed by Amanda Homsi-Ottosson
Women Make Movies, 2011, 40 minutes 
 
“Jasad & The Queen of Contradictions” is a short documentary about “Jasad,” the Arabic journal of erotic arts founded and edited by Joumana Haddad, the Lebanese author, poet, and feminist.

The Only Diner in the Restaurant: A Travel Writer’s Perspective on the Arab Spring

By 
Daniel Hugh-Jones
 
Several excellent articles and books have been written concerning the revolutions of the Arab Spring, most by participants, relatives of the fallen, political analysts or foreign correspondents. Tom Chesshyre makes no claim to any of these perspectives. Instead, he deals with the subject of life during and after revolution with the light touch and charm of a travel writer.
 
A Tourist in the Arab Spring
By Tom Chesshyre
Bradt Travel Guides, Ltd., The Globe Pequot Press Inc., 2013
 
When the first violent images of the Arab Spring flashed across our television screens, most of us watched with interest, wished the demonstrators more or less success in their efforts, depending on our points of view, and then got on with our lives.

The American Mirage: Immigrant or “Un-American?”

By 
Frances Khirallah Noble
 
Carlos ben Carlos Rossman, a Puerto Rican Jew, is in for a surprise. When he lands in New York Harbor in 1950, he realizes that the American melting pot is more fable than fact. In many cases, diversity is likely to make one “Un-American” rather than American. Language, culture, religion, or even something as simple as a green baseball bat, when all of the other kids own plain pine bats, can result in ostracism.
 
In the House UN-American
By Benjamin Hollander
Clockroot Books, 2013
 
“In the House UN-American” is about tribes, how they differ and whether it’s possible to become a member of one you weren’t born into. Carlos ben Carlos Rossman, a Puerto Rican Jew (a double-pronged tribe!) lands in New York Harbor in 1950.

The Uncompromising Voice of Syrian Screenwriter Fouad Hamira

By 
Rebecca Joubin

A Study in Courage: Screenwriter and Activist Fouad Hamira

Cinematic activist, Fouad Hamira, who began his career working for the National Theater, has become one of the leading voices for justice in Syrian television. Despite all attempts to silence him, this man of courage and conviction remains as vocal as ever. Since the current uprising in Syria, he has denounced injustices such as the government’s attempts to reframe the battle for Syrian freedom as a sectarian uprising. 

 
Fouad Hamira, who began as an employee in the National Theater, has gone on to become one of the leading voices in Syrian television drama. He is renowned for his unwillingness to compromise with the forces of societal and political oppression. His controversial “Ghazlan fi Ghabat al-Dhi‘ab” (Gazelles in a Forest of Wolves), which was filled with a poignant critique of corruption and the abusive nature of power, was finally allowed to air in 2006, although he had written the miniseries 15 years earlier.

Wives in Tension

By 
Rebecca Joubin

In this exemplary documentary film, women (both veiled and unveiled, religious and secular) discuss the presence of Islam and secularism in contemporary Turkish ...

Women of Turkey: Between Islam and Secularism
A film by Olga Nakkas
Turkey/Lebanon
WMM, 2006

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