Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Women walk past a banner depicting the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, on November 17, 2013 in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh during a parade marking the 13th day of Ashura that commemorates the 7th-century killing of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein. (Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP/Getty Images)

Between the Ayatollah and the Marquis

by Amir Taheri | Sep 14, 2015 | Book Reviews

Khomeini, de Sade, and Me By Abnousse Shalmani Grasset, 177 pages Paris, 2014 If we are to believe Abnousse Shalmani, being a woman is hard work even in Western democracies boasting of gender equality and human rights. It is even harder in contemporary Iran where a...

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This undated file picture show’s St. Basils Cathedral, in Red Square, Moscow, Russia. (Getty Images/Yunhao Liang/EyeEm)

The Russian Novel is Back—with an American Accent

by Amir Taheri | Sep 3, 2015 | Book Reviews

[inset_left]The PersianAlexander Ilichevsky610 pagesMoscow, 2015[/inset_left] Ever wondered what happened to those thick Russian novels with dramatis personae large enough to populate the whole of Siberia? Well, decades of revolution, terror, war, and semi-chaos left...

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A Palestinian book seller stands by his stall selling copies of the Qur’an as well as other books, in Rafah, southern Gaza.
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The Troubled Journey of the Palestinian Novel

by Raba'i Al-Madhoun | Dec 6, 2014 | Lifestyle & Culture

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—If you attempt to search for Gazan fiction, you may get lost in a maze of answers, some of which are clear and precise, while others are like the statements issued by Palestinian factions—ambiguous. Gaza has been under siege for seven years and...

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Sunset over Granada, Spain. The city inspired Radwa Ashour’s ‘Granada Trilogy’

Radwa Ashour: Between Imagination and Reality

by Gamal El-Qasas and Sarah Rabea | Dec 3, 2014 | Lifestyle & Culture

Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—Radwa Ashour, one of the Arab world’s most prominent novelists and academics, passed away on Sunday at the age of 68, after a long battle with cancer, leaving behind an imposing body of work encompassing novels, short story collections, academic...

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Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz (L) wrote the highly-acclaimed Cairo Trilogy. (Ulf Andersen/Getty Images)

Arabic fiction faces up to the future

by Al-Mustafa Najjar | Nov 9, 2014 | Lifestyle & Culture

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Well-known Egyptian writer Ahmed Khaled Towfik once wrote: “In fact, people in Egypt are fortunate. They do not need to read horror fiction in order to rehearse death. Horror—particularly its worst kind: fear of tomorrow—is a permanent...