« We show Morocco through our eyes, as members of this society. » « انتماءنا للمغرب وكوننا أاعضاء بفيه نحاول تقديمه برؤيتنا الخاصة » From June 17 to 30, 2021, the Fondation Maison du Maroc, within the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, is exhibiting the fourteen members of the Noorseen collective. The exhibition, entitled Nadra …
Mesmerizing and inspiring divas
How to define a diva ? The diva embodies an ambiguous personality, sometimes venerated and admired for her presence and artistic genius, sometimes criticized for her demanding nature. At the Institut du monde arabe in Paris, the new exhibition Divas. From Umm Kulthum to Dalida exposes the brilliant, scandalous, poetic and sometimes tragic careers of …
« From Arabia comes a wonderful fragrance »: incense and perfumes in Arabia from Antiquity to the present day
An article written by Sterenn Le Maguer-Gillon These words from Herodotus [1] sum up the imaginary world associated with southern Arabia, now Yemen, once called « Happy Arabia« , the land where the incense tree grows. Indeed, frankincense, so prized since Antiquity, is the resin from different species of the genus Boswellia, the most famous of which …
A-WA, « 3 sisters, 1 yemenite soul »
Voices, harmonies, rhythms and colors. A-WA, a group formed by three Israeli sisters of Yemeni origin, Tair, Liron and Tagel Haim, offers an explosion of sounds, influences and hopes. ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WERE THREE SISTERS Tair, Liron and Tagel were born in the small village of Shaharut, in the south of Israel, not …
Feurat Alani’s “The Perfume of Iraq”
An article written by Sarah – The Arabic Novel @thearabicnovel 2016. Feurat Alani is a 36-year-old French journalist. Social networks are in full bloom, when he takes over Twitter to express himself more intimately on a past that lives in him. He decides to cover in a few tweets a particular period, that of his …
Alamut, fortress of the Assassins in Iran
For more than 150 years, from the 11th to the 13th century, a politico-religious group settled in the north of Iran, in a network of impregnable fortresses, fought against the foreign hold of the Turks established throughout the region. Called Assassins, Ismailis, Nizarites, heretics or hashishins, these dissidents of Shi’ism managed, despite their small numbers, …
The Taste of Cherry, a film by Abbas Kiarostami – Palme d’or 1997
SYNOPSIS OF THE MOVIE THE TASTE OF CHERRY On the afternoon of a holiday, Mr Badi, a man in his fifties, gets out with his Range Rover and drives through the suburbs of Tehran, located on the mountainous heights of the city. The man is desperately looking for someone who would be willing to perform …
Interview : Thomas Attar Bellier, founder of Al Qasar
In June 2020, the music band Al Qasar releases its first EP Miraj. Recorded between Paris and Los Angeles, mixed in Nashville and carried by a collaboration with Egyptian musicians in Cairo, this first opus fuses genres, from psychedelia to garage rock and from oud to electric guitar. At the origin of this musical trance, …
Googoosh, Iran timeless icon
« Icon of Iranian culture », « Queen of Persian pop », « Timeless Diva » or even « Daughter of Iran », Googoosh gathers all the superlatives as she is the embodiment of Iranian cultural heritage. As a singer, actress and role model for youth at her peak in the 60s and 70s, Googoosh has been going through the ages, enjoying immense …
Caramel, a film by Nadine Labaki, 2007
SYNOPSIS OF THE MOVIE CARAMEL Layale, a Lebanese Christian, runs the beauty salon « Si Belles« , located in a working-class district of Beirut, where five women work side by side. Through painful depilations, nail polish application and brushing, these women converse, joke and confide in each other : Layale lives an extramarital love story with Rabih, …