Author Archives: Arab America

A group of people riding bicycles hold a protest rally in the Belgian capital to mark the 67th anniversary of the Nakba Day.

Source: www.presstv.ir

After falling deep into the rabbit hole of Huda Kattan’s Instagram account, I developed a morbid fascination with seeing the popular beauty blogger without any makeup — and not the perfectly unmade face she wears in her daily “no-makeup” Snapchat, the real deal. I wanted to catch her with the kind of pore-out, blemished, wan … Continued

On the road from the airport in Amman to the city’s center — one thing becomes obvious: not only does the city have a lot of graffiti everywhere… but it seems to be celebrated.
And when you look a little closer, you start to realize it’s not just haphazard graffiti. It‘s art — and there’s a message.
I met up with Laila Ajjawi, a budding graffiti star. Her mural is part of the Women On Walls project behind the Ras Al Ain Gallery in Amman, Jordan’s capital. The wall that features the project is the longest graffiti wall in the Middle East and the artwork is all created by female artists.

Source: nypost.com

Living in one of the world’s most oppressed nations is tough. For several decades now, Palestinian land, culture and style have all been under grave threat by Israeli oppression and occupation; But the Palestinians are tough people. Whether it’s by using traditional embroidery and weaving techniques, or simply by making a statement on the catwalk, here are 5 Palestinian fashion brands that are fighting back, with needle and thread.

Source: www.theepochtimes.com

A soon-to-be released documentary film called “Uncommon Ground” will be screened this weekend in Connecticut. It explores the struggle over the future of the last remaining abandoned Palestinian village on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Lifta is the only Arab village abandoned in 1948 that has not been destroyed or re-populated. Plans are currently underway in Israel to build a luxury development there.

The film centers on efforts by some of Lifta’s former Arab residents and some Jewish activists to save the village. –

Oren Rudavsky co-produced and directed the film. As he describes the opening scene, co-producer Menachem Daum — an Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn whose family survived the Holocaust — walks through Lifta with Palestinian activist Yacoub Odeh, leader of the effort to save the abandoned village.

“Yacoub is reminiscing about his growing up there,” said Rudavsky. “Menachem tells him that his uncle might have had something to do with an attack on the coffee shop that led to the abandonment of the village. Menachem says, ‘I always considered my uncle a hero, because he helped create the State of Israel.’ And Yacoub responds with what happened to his family.”

Source: wnpr.org

She acted as a flower girl during the showbiz couple’s lavish Italian wedding last September.

And 13-year-old Mia got another taste of Hollywood when her glamorous auntie Amal Clooney, 37, invited her along to George Clooney’s Tomorrowland movie premiere in Anaheim, California on Saturday.

The teen, whose mother is the lawyer’s sister Tala Alamuddin, looked delighted to be standing alongside the A-list duo as they led the celebrity arrivals eager to watch Disney’s latest live-action movie. 

And the 54-year-old actor couldn’t keep his eyes – or lips – off his stunning better half, as he tenderly kissed her hand on the red carpet. 

Based on a beloved area of the Disney theme parks, the futuristic themes of Tomorrowland were clearly visible in the clothing worn by its stars. 

George decided to wear all black to the event, going tieless in a suit made of slightly shiny black fabric, along with a dress shirt and shoes. 

Amal, meanwhile, added some variety to her look, wearing a striking mini-dress with an X-shaped black bodice and a mini-skirt that fell to mid-thigh in pink layers. 

Her loose hair and dangling earrings added a splash of glamour to the fun outfit.

The lawyer – who has recently been lecturing at Columbia University while George films a new movie in New York City – finished off her look with silver-toed pumps.

Meanwhile, Mia looked cute in a white, sleeveless dress patterned with yellow and grey flowers. 

While George and Amal may have been the biggest stars on the carpet, several other actors from the movie – plus additional celebrity guests – attended as well.

Britt Robertson, George’s 25-year-old co-lead in Tomorrowland, went with a daring look for her almost abstract dress.

Blonde hair piled high on her head and bright red colour on her lips, Britt kept things bold with a beige, black, and red dress. 

A red panel holding up the dress over one shoulder, Britt’s frock fell only to mid-thigh.

Black and white heeled sandals finished off the accomplished young actress’ look for the night.

In the film, George stars as Frank Walker, an eccentric inventor, who helps to introduce Britt’s character of Casey Newton to the strange and fantastical world of Tomorrowland. 

Taking some time to pose with Britt was Raffey Cassidy, a young actress who plays the supporting character of Athena in the movie.

The 12-year-old English girl wore a sleeveless silver dress that fell to her knees along with interesting pea-green sandals.

Kathryn Hahn, who plays the character of Ursula in Tomorrowland, may have been the most daring fashionista of the night with her green and white outfit.

A tight-fitting bodice went over her shoulder on one side, while the fabric was pulled into a large bow on the other.

With this, Kathryn made the interesting choice to wear loose, white trousers.

Although not in the movie herself, singer Faith Hill was on-hand and impossible to miss when she arrived to support husband Tim McGraw – who play’s Casey’s father in Tomorrowland.

Faith styled her hair in a blonde bob and had a bright orange, patterned top.

She wore this with orange, black, and white trousers and bright-orange pumps.

Tim, in contrast, kept things as simple as possible with a black jacket, white dress shirt, and grey trousers.

Not in the movie but making a fashion statement was Dancing With The Stars dancer and choreographer, Karina Smirnoff.

She arrived in a snakeskin-patterned mini-dress with an ultra-low-cut bodice and a flared skirt.

Karina may have been somewhat upstaged, however, by actress Ashley Tisdale, who attended with boyfriend Christopher French.

Ashley’s multi-coloured dress was covered in butterflies and flowers across a silver background – a high neck and long sleeves provided contrast for an extremely short skirt.

Much more casual, Christopher wore a suit jacket over a white dress shirt and blue jeans, topping the whole look off with a charcoal, knit ski cap.

Trading in extreme glamour for comfort, Christina Milian was in full mommy mode when she arrived with daughter Violet.

Her outfit was a two-piece dress of navy-blue and white stripes, falling down below her knees.

With Violet well covered in a T-shirt, grey vest, and pink leggings, Christina showed just how casual she was by wearing white trainers.

Still casual, Cindy Crawford’s family arrived in rather spectacular fashion – the supermodel, husband Rande Gerber, and kids Presley and Kaia all wore denim trousers to the premiere.

With black leather coats and matching T-shirts favoured by the rest of her clan, Cindy managed to stand out with a white top and matching jacket.

Source: www.albawaba.com

Armenian women have been voted as the sexiest in the world this week, with Lebanese women also being in the top ten nationalities.

Could Armenian beauty Kim Kardashian or Lebanese singer and model Haifa Wehbe have anything to do with these nationalities being voted?

The results are based on a survey of over 44,000 men and 66,000 women in the U.S. conducted by MissTravel, a travel dating website.

The order of the “sexiest” nationalities for women is:

1. Armenian
2. Barbadian/Bajan
3. American
4. Colombian
5. English
6. Australian
7. Brazilian
8. Filipina
9. Bulgarian
10. Lebanese

For men, the sexiest nationality has been voted as Irish, followed by:

2. Australian
3. Pakistani
4. American
5. English
6. Scottish
7. Italian
8. Nigerian
9. Danish
10. Spanish

“It’s no surprise that diverse, exotic nationalities like Amerian and Bajan topped the women’s list, voted for by men, as superstars like Kim Kardashian and Rihanna have commanded Instagram attention in the tune of millions of followers,” the website said.

MissTravel also credited popularity of Pakistani and British men to famous men, such as British-Pakistani singer Zayn Malik, and Irish actor Jamie Dornan after his role in “Fifty Shades of Grey”.

Zayn Malik (left) and Jamie Dornan (right). (File photo: AP)

Last year, Brazilian women took first place, while Aussie men were the most popular.

Source: english.alarabiya.net

For this meal I would be with my third wife. I don’t know her yet, but I’m sure she’s coming. I’ve been married twice – I love weddings.

We’d be sitting in a vineyard in the mountains of the Beqaa valley in Lebanon. It would be an autumnal day, the late afternoon sun brilliant against the backdrop of dark skies threatening to rain.

There would be a balcony, and we’d be sitting at a marble table and I’d be dressed in Yohji Yamamoto white linen with white tennis shoes. My brothers would be there too. Jeff would be wearing black linen, and Andrew would have just come back from a fishing trip, having hooked a big fat swordfish, which we would be admiring.

Before the meal, we’d have a big Jerry Lewis film session – The Disorderly Orderly, The Delicate Delinquent, Which Way to the Front and The Geisha Boy, in that order. I’d cry in the last one, when Mr Wooley leaves Japan and the little orphan boy Mitsuo wants to go with him, and he cries at the airport. We always cried as kids … Then we’d listen to Frank Zappa’s Sheik Yerbouti, in full. He’d lift me from the sadness … I saw him live in 1981. What an amazing artist. Completely bonkers.

We’d have sauteed quail with garlic, coriander and pomegranate, served with tabbouleh. This is a version of the tiny fig birds dish that is popular throughout the Middle East. With that we’d have stuffed vine leaves with plenty of creamy mint labneh, my mother’s recipe. She prepares them together with lamb chops in one large pot. As it all cooks, the bubbling juices rise to infuse the vine leaves with flavour.

We’s also have salmon kibbeh nayeh – raw minced salmon with cracked wheat and labneh – served with soft herb salad, wonderfully aromatic with coriander, parsley, mint and preserved artichoke leaves, flatbread straight out of the oven and lots of arak.

I’d have a good cheese board – a Brillat-Savarin, a reblochon, a Délice de Bourgogne … I’m not meant to eat cheese, but as this would be my last meal, I would really go to town. With it, I’d have an Australian pinot noir, something from the Heathcote area or the Yarra valley.

We’d finish with black figs and watermelon, chilled and cut into wedges. I love spitting out the seeds.

Greg’s salmon kibbeh nayeh

2 tbsp fine burhgul (bulgar wheat)
300g best quality salmon (organic Scottish is ideal) finely minced and chilled
2 small shallots, finely chopped
½ tsp ground allspice
1 very small bullet chilli, deseeded, scraped and finely chopped
1 tsp sea salt flakes
Freshly ground white pepper
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

For the soft herb salad
A handful of coriander leaves
A handful of mint leaves
A handful of flat parsley leaves
A handful of preserved artichoke leaves
½ small purple onion, finely sliced
Juice of ½ lemon
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper, to taste

To serve
Warm Arabic bread
Labneh (yoghurt cheese)

1 Soak the burghul in 5 tbsp cold water for 8 minutes. Drain well, then squeeze as dry as you can.

2 Chill a stainless steel (or glass) bowl. Add the chilled salmon, the burghul and all the remaining ingredients. Mix to combine thoroughly then refrigerate until needed.

3 When ready to serve, make the soft herb salad. Combine the herbs, artichoke and onion in a mixing bowl and toss with the lemon juice and 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil. Season to taste.

4 To serve, spoon the chilled salmon mix on to a flat plate. Use a small spatula to spread it out to a rounddisc of even thickness. You can use a sharp knife to mark the surface in the traditional diamond pattern, if you like. Otherwise, mound the salad on top and drizzle on a little more oil. Serve with warm Arabic bread and labneh.

Greg Malouf is an Australian-Lebanese chef based in London. Greg and Lucy Malouf’s New Feast (Hardie Grant) is out now.

Source: www.theguardian.com

It is a point of frustrated pride among most Lebanese that they’ve learnt to adapt to their nation’s particular brand of instability and mismanagement. The sliver of a state, wedged between Syria, Israel, and the still blue waters of the eastern Mediterranean, has weathered the violent upheavals roiling the Middle East, but that doesn’t mean that it has remained unscathed. The war next door has propelled at least 1.2 million Syrian refugees across the border into Lebanon, a country of only four million. Bickering among the nepotistic political class has left the nation officially rudderless. (It has been without a President for almost a year, and recently went just as long without a government.) Politics periodically spill onto the streets, in sporadic explosions of violence. Car bombs are a favored method of settling scores. The thuggery is fed by other deeply lurking tensions, sectarian and socioeconomic, which burst noisily in the open before returning to a subterranean simmer.

This stable instability, and the threat of violence underneath, is the subtext of the Lebanese photographer Lamia Maria Abillama’s “Clashing Realities,” a powerful series of portraits that will be published later this month as part of a book series devoted to the work of Beirut-based female photographers. In the photographs, Lebanese civilian women are shown in their homes, wearing military uniforms—a symbolic representation of the encroachment of political violence into personal space. Some of the portraits are shot in rooms adorned with stained-glass windows or leather-bound libraries, others in humbler homes. But the conformity imposed by the military uniform makes it clear that the members of this sisterhood share an experience that transcends markers of class or religion.

Each of her subjects’ lives has been touched by violence, Abillama told me, although she has chosen not to include captions identifying their names or describing their traumas. Instead, it is their common identity, the burden they wear like a “second skin,” that she wants to call attention to. As the daughter of a storied political family whose life was shaped by Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war, Abillama grew to despise her country’s system of governance. And she knows that the second skin is not easily shed. “Even if you go to Paris or Milan or wherever, ultimately you carry within yourself always the spectre of war,” she told me.

Despite the lack of captions, some of Abillama’s subjects are recognizable faces in Lebanese society. May Chidiac, for instance, was one of the most prominent broadcast journalists in the country before explosives planted in her car claimed her left arm and leg, in 2005. Abillama photographed her standing unaided, her walking stick cast aside, her prosthetic arm immaculately manicured. Staring into the camera, Chidiac seems to dare us to acknowledge that she, like so many Lebanese women, is still here, despite the trauma that she has suffered and the persistent instability of her homeland.

Source: www.newyorker.com

The unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Araqib was in court Wednesday, where the state of Israel argued the southern desert town must pay $500,000 [2 million Shekels] to cover the cost of demolition…

Source: mondoweiss.net

Royal Oak, Mich. – The Michigan Muslim Council (MMCC) will hold its annual Michigan Muslim Capitol Day on Tuesday, May 12, 2015 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the State Capitol in Lansing. This annual event has been hosted by MMCC for the past several years and has allowed Muslims from across the state to meet their representatives and improve understanding about … Continued

Casper Smart, the boyfriend of American superstar Jennifer Lopez, plays Haifa Wehbe’s love interest in her latest music video.

‘Breathing You In’ is the Lebanese singer’s first English song.

Its video was produced by director Tarik Freitekh and was shot in Las Vegas.

It shows a red-haired Wehbe with Smart, who acts as an astronaut fixing a satellite in space.

In it, Wehbe also appears dancing amidst male performers wearing a see-through bodysuit and other revealing outfits.

Though the singer is known for her seductively themed music videos and movies, it didn’t stop her from becoming the object of negative feedback on social media.

In reply to the controversy, Wehbe posted a screenshot, on her Instagram, showing the number of views on her video. She captioned it with the phrase, “Hello success.”

The single got almost six million views on Youtube so far.

She also posted another photo with the quote, “Throw me to the wolves and I’ll return leading the pack.”

Wehbe recently caused another debate when she posted selfies of herself in revealing outfits, this time on the set of her upcoming Ramadan series ‘Mariam’.

The photos sparked social media outrage, with some calling them “too sexy for the holy month.”

Apparently, the show revolves around twins Mariam and Malak, and Wehbe plays both. Mariam lives in Egypt with her father and, after his death, the trauma causes her to lose her ability to speak. That’s when twin number two, Malak, comes from France to save her sister.

Click here to see the music video

Source: m.arabianbusiness.com