Hilarion Capucci: a reminder of resistance history
Hilarion ibn Bashir Capucci died today (along with a lot of other people, no doubt, probably quite a few in his home city of Aleppo). Capucci caught my attention, though, … Continue reading
New review: On the Bride’s Side
Electronic Intifada, 7th April 2016 Tasnim, a Palestinian with German citizenship who had left Syria only a few months earlier and whose parents and grandparents were still in the Yarmouk … Continue reading
New article: Edinburgh exhibits Nakba memorial plans
Electronic Intifada, 10th October 2013 Omar Mohammad is sensitive to the danger that to create a monument to something is to place it in the past, to declare it to … Continue reading
Why I’m not getting a smartphone (for as long as possible)
One of the few irritations of an absolutely amazing two years on Edinburgh University’s Arab World Studies MSc has been the background pressure to get a smartphone. Or an iPad. … Continue reading
New article: ‘I Exist’ photo exhibition reviewed
Electronic Intifada, 19th June 2013 In a very different set of images, Jerusalem-based photographer Tanya Habjouqa documents the 2009 Arab Bodybuilding Championships in Amman, Jordan: dubbed the “Gaza Martyrs Tournament” … Continue reading
New article: Nihad Sirees interviewed
The Arab Review, 28th May 2013 Sitting in the foyer of a London hotel, Sirees looks tired and a little dazed, but is cheerfully talkative.“The news every day affects me … Continue reading
‘Human rights’: how meaningless can this phrase become?
A really important article – and a bitter expose of the ironies of Western ‘human rights’ work – came out last night from Electronic Intifada. By Lebanese journalist and fixer … Continue reading
UK Border Agency vs art/sanity (AGAIN)… and an intemperate rant against UKIP
Facebook is bad for my blood pressure. Usually because of its commercialised intrusive horribleness (although AdBlock still goes a long way…), but also because of information like this, from yesterday: … Continue reading
New article: Palestinian-Scottish bilingual poetry collection
Electronic Intifada, 1st May 2013 In 2003, Iyad Hayatleh and Tessa Ransford met during a project to introduce Scottish and refugee poets to one another. Hayatleh is a Palestinian “double … Continue reading
Rant warning: on capitalism, the Western media and different types of explosions
It is a commonplace which has, in a few days, spread from the leftist Twittersphere to the liberal media (hell, even Owen Jones is doing articles on it now) to … Continue reading
New article: ‘Poets of Protest’ reviewed
Electronic Intifada, 28th February 2013 “All revolutions begin as poetry. Poetry and protest are inseparable twins,” says Yehia Jaber. He should know. A former fighter whose memories include patrolling the … Continue reading
New article: Syria Speaks
This extended blog post on ArabLit includes reports and impressions on the Syria Speaks event at the South Bank Centre earlier this week from Nadia Ghanem and myself. The event … Continue reading
New article: Nihad Sirees’ The Silence and the Roar reviewed
ArabLit, 31st January 2013 Sirees’ novel depicts one day in the life of a writer in an unnamed city, in a country ruled by a dictator known only as The … Continue reading
Spain and Syria: graffiti
It may be easy to forget in modern Spain, but Franco’s dictatorship and the civil war are really not that far in the past; certainly General Franco was in power … Continue reading
Fadi Azzam's Sarmada reviewed
Better late than never? I wrote this review of Fadi Azzam’s Sarmada about 6 months ago, and then agonised for a while about what to do with it, to the … Continue reading
Sarah Irving 