by Asharq Al-Awsat English | May 6, 2017 | Majalla Blogs
The Iraqi man laid the body of his wife, wrapped in a black shroud, gently on the bow of a small wooden boat and held onto it as a second man rowed slowly to pick up the man’s three children standing a few meters away. The two teenage girls and young boy climbed...
by Sara Khorshid | Feb 14, 2015 | Majalla Blogs
Three women huddle around the couple. Two of the women are likely to be their mothers; the third in this decisive meeting is the matchmaker, the middle-woman or the khatba. She is the one who is brokering the marriage. Anyone wandering through Cairo’s cafes or social...
by David Patrikarakos | Jul 12, 2014 | Majalla Blogs
Qassem Suleimani was only a young soldier in the Iran–Iraq War when he led Iranian troops through Iraqi minefields, stealing the odd goat along the way, and earning the respect even of the enemy. Today, Suleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, the special forces unit...
by James Spencer | Jul 11, 2014 | Majalla Blogs
In classical times, Yemen was called Eudaimon Arabia and Arabia Felix (meaning “fortunate”), thanks to the rains which fell on its mountains, almost unique in an otherwise arid Arabian Peninsula. In those days the rains were heavier, so today less groundwater is now...
by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Jul 10, 2014 | Majalla Blogs
On a baking hot Monday afternoon just before the start of Ramadan, a group of teenagers filed into a dilapidated sports hall in Kirkuk. There was no air-conditioning and no watercooler, and the sweat dripped down their faces as they started to dance. But they beamed...
by Nicholas Birch | Jun 24, 2014 | Majalla Blogs
There have been a lot of positive reactions to the news that Turkey’s secular opposition have joined with nationalists to back a pious former Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference as its candidate for the country’s first-ever direct...
