Culture

Netflix has struck a five-year exclusive partnership with Saudi Arabian animation studio Myrkott to produce Saudi-focused shows and films along with a similar period first-look option on the company’s upcoming projects. The link-up will entail production of new and exclusive seasons of the “Masameer” cartoon series and related upcoming movies, …

Around 100 musicians in Turkey have committed suicide since the country introduced preventive measures against the COVID-19 pandemic in March, according to statistics released by the Turkish Musicians and Performers Union (Muzik-Sen) early this month. There are roughly 1 million registered musicians in Turkey, many of whom work without insurance …

In an exclusive interview with Arab News on Wednesday, the head of Lebanon’s Maronite church, Bechara Al-Rai, called for all of the many political factions in the country — which has just marked its centenary — to support his call to adopt ‘active neutrality,’ describing it as “part of the …

A Saudi children’s hair stylist has become the first woman to break into the profession, which has long been an exclusively male domain. Wafaa Sakr, who appeared in a viral video inside a barber shop in Taif, said she styles children’s hair, but does not cut men’s hair. She said …

The European Union’s chief executive said on Wednesday there was no place in the bloc for so-called “LGBT-free zones”, a pointed criticism of Poland’s nationalist government pushing to curb the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. “LGBTQI-free zones are humanity free zones. And they have no place in …

A campaign waged against Netflix over “Cuties” and the film’s sexualized portrayal of children produced a surge in U.S. subscription cancellations over the weekend, according to research company YipitData. Netflix subscriber churn rates began to rise Sept. 10, the day after the release of “Cuties” on Netflix, when the hashtag …

As fans patiently wait for Season 24, the creators of South Park have put together an all-new hour-long episode about the Coronavirus hypocrisy and other remarkable 2020 incidents. Trey Parker and Matt Stone will mark the start of the show’s news season with ‘The Pandemic Special’. In this special episode …

Dozens of Western countries voiced concern on Tuesday at Saudi Arabia’s continued detention of women activists and called for those behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be brought to justice. At least a dozen prominent women’s rights activists were arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2018 as it lifted …

Today, the business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, ‎food products or automobiles. Tourism has become one of the major players in ‎international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income ‎sources for many developing countries. This growth goes hand in …

Princess Nourah Al-Faisal, Saudi founder of Paris-based fine jewelry label Nuun Jewels, took to social media this week to share an exchange between her team and French newspaper Les Echos, who, according to the designer, refused to run a portrait of her because she was wearing a hijab in the …

The Arab Muslim world struggles with sectarian and ideological conflicts that affect the stability and progress of the region’s states and count loss in human lives and economic devastation among their consequences. Sectarian conflicts are not exclusive to the Muslim world. By Dr. Haytham Mouzahem Both the Christian West and …

Dear Christina “DZA” Marie,   First off all let me thank you on behalf of all the readers of The Levant newspaper in the Middle East and elsewhere. It’s not every day we get to talk to a distinguished author and, better yet, someone who teach authors how to write. …

Arab American organizations have welcomed a federal court ruling that prevents President Donald Trump from excluding undocumented immigrants from 2020 US Census counts. In particular, he wanted to remove them from population counts that will be used next year to reallocate the number of seats each state gets in the …

A trove of Saddam-era files secretly returned to Iraq has pried open the country’s painful past, prompting hopes some may learn the fate of long-lost relatives along with fears of new bloodshed. The 5 million pages of internal Baath Party documents were found in 2003, just months after the US-led …

At the center of Yemen’s capital Sanaa, a city battered by years of war and months of pandemic, a row of young girls in red, white and black white uniforms pummel punching bags and practice self defense. In the corner a mother looks on in pride as a female instructor …

I never change one of your tandoor to Paris’s most beautiful restaurants.  (Mukhammad Yusuf)     The poet did raise our tandoors which are made of ordinary soil to such an extent. The reason for this, bread which the uzbek people consider as sacred and miracle is baked in this …

In his book released today, Michael Cohen, the former fixer for U.S. President Donald Trump, ties for the first time the 2016 presidential endorsement of Trump by American evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr to Cohen’s own role in helping to keep racy “personal” photographs of the Falwells from becoming public. …

In a statement on her website, J.K. Rowling returned the Robert F. Kennedy ‘Ripple of Hope’ Human Rights Award given to her in December 2019. The decision came after president Kerry Kennedy issued a statement earlier this month to say that J.K. Rowling’s recently expressed views “diminishes the identity” of …

Iranian state television aired a video on Saturday in which a champion wrestler facing two death sentences appeared to confess to killing a water company security guard during anti-government protests in 2018. The case of wrestler Navid Afkari has caused an outcry from Iranians and human rights groups. U.S. President …

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Muslim World League (MWL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Friday. The MoU aims to achieve common goals in a number of areas, most notably combating radicalism, extremism and Islamophobia; supporting the values of dialogue and tolerance; and introducing the right …

A drone dropped packets of what looked like cannabis over a main square in Tel Aviv on Thursday after activists seeking to legalize the drug in Israel promised free weed from the air on social media. Police said they arrested two men who operated the quadcopter that flew over Rabin …

After exposing two major sexual assaults in her first two months as an Instagram activist, and spurring Egypt to bring in a law to protect victims’ identities, Nadeen Ashraf has bigger plans. The 22-year-old student wants to turn her #MeToo-style Instagram account Assault Police, which has emboldened hundreds of Egyptian …

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday Lebanese political leaders had agreed to form a government of experts in the next two weeks and that he expected the government to start delivering on a roadmap of reforms within six to eight weeks. “There is no blank cheque,” Macron told a …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   CONTINUED from yesterday…   A Parting of Genders, a Meeting of Minds? When I began to dream up this article some time ago I’d stumbled onto a fan of MD’s on Twitter, a fellow Arab, Nayli Yasmeen (@nayli_yasmeen), and we got to talking about …

French President Emmanuel Macron began his trip to Beirut on Monday by visiting Fairouz, one of the Arab world’s most famous singers whose haunting voice has been Lebanon’s soundtrack from its glamorous heyday through its conflicts and latest trauma. Anger at Lebanon’s political elite over an economic meltdown and this …

 By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   CONTINUED from yesterday…   Everybody’s ‘Bestest’ Big Sister Now Christian Papierniak’s little masterpiece Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town (2017), which he also wrote. I could write a whole book about the movie and still not get completely to the bottom of it. I …

Egyptian public prosecutors have ordered the detention of a second man suspected of being involved in an alleged gang rape at a luxury hotel in Cairo in 2014 pending investigations, they said in a statement on Sunday. Police arrested the man on Aug 28, days after a first suspect was …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD       “I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.” — Rebecca West   “The more identities …

Iranian musician Mehdi Rajabian is awaiting trial for working with female dancers and singers after being arrested earlier this month, in the country’s latest move to stop women artists performing. Rajabian, 30, said he was arrested following media reports that his latest project will include women singing and the publication …

Egyptian public prosecutors ordered the detention of a man suspected of being involved in an alleged gang rape at a luxury Cairo hotel in 2014 for four days pending investigation, they said in a statement on Thursday. The man, who is also a suspect in other similar cases, was arrested …

Seven suspects in an alleged gang rape at a luxury Cairo hotel in 2014 that is at the centre of an online campaign against sexual assault in Egypt have fled the country, the public prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday. The men left Egypt between July 27 and July 29 after …

A New Zealand judge sentenced white supremacist Brenton Tarrant to life in prison without parole on Thursday for killing 51 Muslim worshippers in the country’s deadliest shooting, saying the sentence was not enough punishment for the “wicked” crimes. It was the first time a court in New Zealand had sentenced …

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reconverted the historic Chora church, one of Istanbul’s most celebrated Byzantine buildings, into a mosque on Friday, a month after opening the famed Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship. The mediaeval Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, built near the ancient city walls of Constantinople, contains …

Egypt’s parliament on Tuesday gave its final approval to a law protecting the identity of victims of sexual harassment and assault, aimed at encouraging women who fear social stigma to report such crimes. The measure was proposed by the government after a rare public debate about sex crimes, which followed …

Gaza rapper Abdel-Rahman Al-Shantti may only be 11 years old but his rhymes on war and hardship in the Palestinian enclave have reached thousands of people, conveying in English what he calls “a message of peace and humanity”. A video of Shantti rapping outside of his school in Gaza City, …

Egyptian lawmakers are pushing for a new law to protect the identity of women coming forward to report sexual abuse and assault as the nation’s MeToo movement picks up speed. An Egyptian parliamentarian committee has approved a draft law that would give survivors of sexual assault and harassment the automatic …

The International Monetary Fund said on Sunday it was willing to redouble efforts to help Lebanon after the devastating blast that hit Beirut, but said all of the country’s institutions needed to show willingness to carry out reforms. In a statement to an emergency donor conference for Lebanon, the IMF’s …

A Saudi teen who picked up ice skating three years ago at a friend’s birthday party is now dreaming of taking part in the Olympic Games. “It all started at my friend’s birthday party three years ago where we ice skated and I fell in love with the sport. I …

Hedy Habra, The Taste of the Earth  (Winston-Salem, NC: Press 53, 2019). By Layla Azmi Goushey   In June 2020, I had the good fortune to attend a virtual poetry reading where Hedy Habra, author of the recently-published poetry collection, The Taste of the Earth, read selections from her work. …

by James M. Dorsey | Jul 30, 2020 Saudi support of religious ultra-conservatism in Indonesia contradicts Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s promotion of an undefined form of moderate Islam intended to project his kingdom as tolerant, innovative, and forward-looking. It also suggests that Saudi Arabia is willing to work with the Muslim Brotherhood …

On Sept. 25, 2005, a football match that few people will remember or even have heard of, took place in Amman, with hosts Jordan comfortably thrashing an overwhelmed Bahrain 9-0. But the result mattered little. This was a football match with a difference for the beaten team; it was the …

A statue in a Tel Aviv square of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoying a “Last Supper” feast added new bite on Wednesday to mounting protests against his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Netanyahu, whose popularity has plunged in opinion polls amid 21.5% unemployment, said his depiction in a mock …

In a rap scene dominated my men, women’s voices are starting to make waves in Morocco. Houda Abouz, a 24-year-old who majors in film studies at a university in the northern city of Tetouan, has long been fascinated by hip-hop, and, encouraged by friends, she picked up a mic and …

Languages play a crucial role in bridging gaps between different cultures. The internet revolution has helped transform the world into a global village in its true sense. Social media and other modes of communication have removed barriers and physical boundaries helping people connect with one another all over the world. …