On Syrian Kurdish writers
13 November 2023
Why do some Kurdish writers write in Arabic? Is this Kurdish or Arabic literature in this case? Or Arabic literature with a Kurdish spirit? Why did some Kurdish writers decide...
SAOT Festival, beyond and in between
18 August 2023
A space for music and discussion, SAOT Festival in Berlin is the sound and voice of Palestinians and people from SWANA countries gathering for intersectionality and social change. An interview...
The French version of me
14 April 2022
I walk through the city with a surprising sense of belonging, and I see copies of my novel in the storefronts. My eyes catch the title, the “New Release,” my...
‘Let us say tonight that sadness has no place’
01 April 2022
I know that Qamishli was my beginning—the first images I saw, the first things I experienced in life, my first football skills and personal relationships. And what the world wanted...
Book preview: Ottoman Syrians at home in the American Midwest
05 October 2021
Thousands of miles from home, families from present-day Syria and Lebanon rebuilt their lives from scratch in far-flung places across Iowa, the Dakotas and elsewhere in the Midwestern United States....
Syria’s Circassian minority divided, scattered by years of war
27 September 2021
Circassians first arrived in Syria in the 1800s, escaping Russian invaders in their homeland in the Caucasus Mountains. Since then, many have considered themselves “guests” in Syria, adhering to a...
Taking sides in the great war of mujaddara
20 September 2021
Like all the world’s religions, the religion of mujaddara is divided against itself. There is a fanatical majority that loves eating the dish with bulgur, and a minority of rice-lovers...
