Leilah Nadir, Iraqi-Canadian Author of ‘The Orange Trees of Baghdad’

This interview with the author Leilah Nadir took place during her recent visit to London to promote her book ‘The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost Family’ which has just been published in the UK.

Nahla: Since the first publication of ‘The Orange Trees of Baghdad’ in 2007, Syria has been affected by tragedy and it too is a part of your ancestral roots. What do you think about it?

Nadir: Syria was my place in my head up until recently, it was the country that I could always go back to, as my grandfather was Syrian and I’ve been to the town where he was from. I love Syria and visited a couple of times.

At one point, I thought there is no oil in Syria and nobody is going to invade it. But now that is not the case and so there is a big loss there, I feel a great sadness and grief about that. Even Lebanon has changed drastically because of the Syrian refugees held there.

There is a real trauma going on and so it is pretty hard to just go and gallivant around and enjoy it. I feel I have to have a better reason to go that is beyond just a visit. Maybe I can go on a project or volunteer work that would make a difference.

Nahla: How do you feel about the West not intervening in Syria, since you had very strong views about it in terms of Iraq?

Nadir: I don’t’ think we went into Iraq for any kind of humanitarian effort, it wasn’t to get rid of a dictator and it wasn’t to create a better society for Iraqis. So I am not surprised that they don’t want to go into Syria. It is probably to their benefit that there is infighting and the Middle East is once again struck by war and chaos. So I don’t think there is any real comparison.

Iraq was invaded and hopefully soon we can have answers as to why and what their true motivation was. But it was definitely not because they cared about the Iraqi people who were oppressed under Saddam for thirty years. It wasn’t a change of heart in terms of wanting to bring democracy to the region. It is my personal belief.

Nahla: The book starts on a plane journey in March 2003 with your father to visit your paternal aunties in London. How odd that you say it was the first time he ever talked about the subject of Iraq. Were you doing all the asking or did he volunteer?

Nadir: It is kind of bizarre. I think when he left Iraq as a 16 year-old young man it was all about going forwards, coming to the West and completing his education. Then he ended up meeting my English mother and finding a job, marrying and having a family.

All those things just propelled him away from his country of origin and the family house. Then, because of the wars and the sanctions, it was difficult if not impossible to communicate with them and he couldn’t see his parents anymore.

My interpretation is that there was an emotional cut off. He couldn’t even go there himself to think about it. He didn’t really have to and was busy enough and distracted by his new life. Then, when his parents died, he couldn’t’ go. What would that have really felt like? He pushed it down.’

Nahla: How did you begin writing ‘The Orange Trees of Baghdad’?

Nadir: I started scribbling down everything and recording conversations from the start of the war especially with my aunties who were in London. I didn’t know it would become a book at first because I was just writing commentaries in the local Canadian press; and, with one particular article published in the Globe and Mail on the day the war started, I felt it was too late.

Then I had the sense of quickly getting your treasures out of a burning building and the feeling that I have to get out as much as I can before it all goes up in flames. At the time, Saddam was still alive and the family freaked out about it and is the reason I changed all the names in the book except for myself and Farah Nosh.

Initially, I also didn’t feel Iraqi enough or that I had the right to speak for Iraqis because I didn’t know the language and I hadn’t lived there and I’ve never been to visit. Also, my family had not been persecuted by Saddam – like many others had – nor did anyone drop a bomb on the family house. It was my agent who encouraged me to take it further and assured me I had the right to tell the story.

Nahla: Why do you think you felt this urge to dig deep into your father’s roots when he never actively passed down the Arab culture?

Nadir: Someone has just written an academic article about the book and the idea of post-traumatic stress that apparently affects the children of holocaust survivors; and, so by skipping a generation. She describes it as a common thing that the next of kin of a trauma can suffer whereas the people who live it just have to get on, cope and process it.

It was fascinating because I didn’t understand why I was having this reaction that was so emotional. It wasn’t an intellectual one, but a visceral thing, bringing up strong feelings regarding the political situation and how I felt about the US, the Americans and my family. Is it because of my family? My blood? I still don’t know.

Nahla: With the new update, you reunite with Karim’s character and his family. He was your main contact in Baghdad during the war period and its aftermath. How was it to finally see each other?

Nadir: The reunion was amazing. We felt like we know each other as we talked on the phone throughout all those years. He knows me to a lesser extent because I was mostly talking about his life; but, we had a rapport and a relationship, so it was really exciting to see him.

Nahla: Were there lots of tears?

Nadir: No, no tears, but I was more incredulous because throughout what passed and happened, Toronto was the last place I thought they would end up coming to and setting up a new life. They had considered many other places, like Australia, Sweden and the US or they could have stayed stuck in Iraq.

At least now our families will get to interact; and, in a way, this is weirdly positive even if the whole experience wasn’t itself positive. We have gained something at least and there is this sense of Iraqis continuing outside of Iraq.

Nahla: Do you see any psychological damage having been done because they lived through so much?

Nadir: I think that you numb out and there is no room for your emotions as an immigrant making a new life. Karim had to bury five relatives at least and deal with the practicalities in a difficult situation. There is also a great anger there.

He first went to Syria and then managed to get out. Imagine if they had stayed in Syria? Then they would have had to face a whole new war. I think there is a sense of relief that they are alive and setting up anew; and, that must propel them to move forwards beyond the feelings of anger and regret.

As for the daughter Reeta, once in a while she has expressed things when asked to write in school about the war; and, she has come out very strongly and been quite emotional about it. She definitely, as you saw in the book, did not want to leave Iraq at any point.’

Nahla: How did your father respond to the book?

Nadir: He liked it and wanted to help. As a businessman, he wasn’t super rightwing but right of centre in his political views, whereas my sisters and I were very lefty.

Although he felt the West had done him well and that he’d been successful and didn’t have a problem with capitalism, when he saw the propaganda build up to the war, he saw the lies that were being told.

Quite frankly, both sides of the political spectrum were using false arguments to go on this false war. He just couldn’t stand it and things shifted for him politically; and, at that point, he was behind the idea of showing the other side, the Iraqi point of view because it wasn’t’ anywhere to be found.’

Nahla: Are you still in touch with Farah Nosh, the award-winning Iraqi-Canadian photo journalist and best friend who went into Iraq to photograph the war and its immediate aftermath?

Nadir: Farah is now back in Vancouver with her husband and two children that has slowed her down a bit in terms of work. We still do have a dream of going to Iraq together and especially Baghdad. Maybe if something changes this might happen and I would love to do another project with her.

Nahla: With your experience of going back to your roots and meeting with your relatives, do you feel more Iraqi?

Nadir: Yes, definitely I feel like a legitimate Iraqi now and it kind of puts a label on a feeling that I have had probably my whole life that I am not just Canadian or just British. I am different and maybe the way I interpret things about myself are because of my Arab roots that are a part of me.

I have also read plenty more books about Iraq and I know much more about the Arab music and culture, things that I didn’t really grow up with. Yes, my father used to cook Arab food and perhaps that was a silent connection that was going on all the time that I had internalized.

Nahla: You now have two children of your own, a six-year-old boy and a three-year-old daughter. What will you tell them about Iraq?

They already know their grandfather is from Baghdad and they can find it on a map. Part of the motivation when I wrote the book was to create some kind of record for the family; because, I had that sense when the war started in 2003 that things were not going to get better and that probably we would never be able to go back to that family home. In fact, since 2010, it has been sold and there is no longer even that connection.

Nahla: You have mentioned that you would like to improve your Arabic. How is that going?

Nadir: To speak fluent Arabic is a lifelong dream but I haven’t improved much because my son was born one month after the book came out in Canada and my daughter was born three years later. I did take private Arabic classes with a professor to get that process going but unfortunately it just wasn’t possible to keep it up.

Nahla: What are you working on now?

Nadir: I am working on a novel set in Baghdad and London in the 1920s during the British Occupation. It is a historical novel that has some real characters, like Gertrude Bell the archeologist, as well as fictional characters.

Note: This article was first published circa March 2014

Faisal Samra: On Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction (C.D.R.)

The cool, airy and sophisticated space of the Ayyam Gallery, London opened its doors last week for the launch of the Saudi artist Faisal Samra’s first solo UK exhibition on the subject of ‘Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction’ (C.D.R.) that is on show until 29 March, 2014.

Displayed against the walls are provocative looking objects mixed with digital images and performance videos that include: a broken chair, a damaged clay sculpture, a plastic bag with fragments from the same sculpture, long tubes with small colourful pencils inserted in them, two big eyes gazing and across one wall are the portrait images of a woman undergoing a struggle with cancer.

One day ahead of the exhibition, I met with Samra to probe the ‘C.D.R.’ theme. Nervous to interview the artist with three solid decades worth of creative output and acclaimed for his signature blend of the conceptual, visual and contemporary, I can confess that I went away seduced and mesmerised.

Seduced and mesmerised not just by the aesthetics of the artwork, but also by Samra’s measured way of viewing and contemplating the world around him; and, how brave and courageous he is to put these ideas and thoughts into what are truly memorable and iconic shapes, bodies and digital forms.

Nahla: How did the C.D.R. project start and develop?

Samra: The C.D.R. project went through a lot of development and changes until what you see here, where everything is showing for the very first time ever. Although I exhibited before with Edge of Arabia, Edge of Arabia Come Together and at the British Museum with ‘Word Into Art’ (curated by Venetia Porter in 2006), I consider this the first serious show for me in London.

In C.D.R, I wanted to combine different mediums in one project and I started with drawing, followed by sculpture, video and then the digital image. There are also two dimensions. One is the purely artistic one to address the essential act of creation and the other aspect is more of a sociological or geo-political dimension.

The latter is to say that the Middle East has been under a destruction and reconstruction ever since after the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement that divided the region when the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Western Super Powers.

There is also a further human aspect to the work. With all of my projects, they are in the first place conceptual and visual, but on top of that I always play around with emotions and reconstructing a lot of elements that come up, like love, hate and other feelings.

Nahla: ‘Liberating the Idol’ is a display of four items that seem to follow the fate of a clay figure covered with the letter ‘I’, as well as having a small mirror attached to it so that it can look at itself. Then one sees a process of destruction with the fragments of the broken sculpture put in a plastic bag. Can you explain the reasoning behind this?

Samra: ‘Liberating the Idol’ started earlier than the other pieces in 2010 whilst in Paris before all the Middle East uprisings. Using four disciplines, I wanted to address the subject of the dictator and the process by which he is deposed. It is about the character of the tyrant and his narcissism as well as the inevitable end he will face.

No matter how big or powerful he may be at one time, in the end every dictator – that we can look at throughout history and different places – will break his own neck and be put away in a plastic bag. In a way, that is the end for all of us.

The Idol also refers to the subject of the Super Ego in Freudian terms and the dictator archetype in all of us. But unlike in Hinduism and Buddhism that argue for the Ego has to be fully erased, I think we all do need a bit of Ego to carry on but just to be aware that it isn’t inflated.

Nahla: The ‘Zeina’ piece is a series of intimate portraits of your wife during her struggle with cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and after her treatment. What was it like to have her as a subject?

Samra: Zeina’s journey with cancer was exactly at the heart of my project and she wanted to share the experience. It is about disease and how it can come to destroy us, but if we have the sense of fighting back and surviving, we can be reconstructed and transformed.

Resistance is also a vital act of life and the Zeina artwork is both personal and global or universal; because, unfortunately nowadays, breast cancer for women is like the flu. So my aim was to approach this visually and artistically and make the connection of how the physical body itself also has to go through a C.D.R.

Nahla: What about the ‘Green Eye’ and the ‘Blue Eye’?

Samra: The ‘Green Eye’ and the ‘Blue Eye’ basically refer to the split personality and the schizophrenia of the West in its look and approach to the Middle East and the double standards. The West has to have another look at the region. And, it was after the Eyes that ‘The Chair’ came.

Nahla: Chairs represent the seat or seats of power. Does ‘The Chair’ carry a political message?

Samra: The West pre-mediated the destruction and reconstruction of the whole Middle East, with the first fragmentation happening after the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement that created borders and boundaries. Before that, there were none throughout the Ottoman Empire.

Now, we are living in the era of the second destruction; and, we are far from being in the reconstruction. It is still the fragmentation of the fragmentation that we see vey clearly and that started after 9/11.

Again, the pre-meditated project started much before that, but the execution of the project was with 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003; when all of a sudden, we began hearing about a new Middle East. So we’re now witnessing the second fragmentation.

Nahla: Do you envisage a reconstruction to take place in the Middle East?

Samra: We don’t yet know and ironically I call it a Frankenstein. It is scary and what we see is confirming it. In Iraq, for example, the reality today is that the Kurds, Shia and Sunni are divided. So we have to build up the awareness amongst the MENA people, so that we don’t have to fall for anything given to us.

Unfortunately in Iraq, it has now been thirteen years and still they are in a mess. It is up to us and we don’t have to wait. It is up to the people of the Middle East, to create and be aware of this and to hammer the subject all the time, not just a question of mentioning it once in a while.

Nahla; Do you believe in a conspiracy theory?

Samra: No, I don’t’ believe in conspiracy and I don’t blame anybody. I am just going back to the history and studying it and saying my observations about it. But I do believe in projects and especially the projects the West have always had regarding the Middle East, which is in many ways the centre of the world, of civilisations and energies.

The Chair is saying there are premeditated ideas to destruct what is existing of power and reconstruct it again. The West however will only change when we insist for them to change. So we need to start with ourselves from the inside before the exterior will follow.

Now, we have a lot of tools to use and especially with social media. But we have to be careful not to be emotional or be open to manipulation, like what has occurred with the Arab uprisings. Yes, it was nice and romantic but we didn’t know how to carry on and become victim to manipulation by others, which they will use in some way or other.

There are a lot of people who use whatever to turn it to their benefit. Effectively, it is all a business. Everything going on is a business and it is sad to say this, but there is no emotion in the real world. Whatever makes money, gives reasons for people to do it. I do it because I can, simple as that.

Nahla:  What about the ‘Pencils’?

Samra: The ‘Pencils’ is a metaphor for public opinion and how it can be cut into pieces. It is about the systematic ways of dividing popular opinion and reconstructing it in different countries, times and places. This is a concept I am still working on and will expand into a future project about the globe and the idea of fragmentation.

Nahla: I am curious as to the numbers, measurements and the calculations that appear in a lot of your work?

Samra: The calculations relate to the structure and the mental side of things and how the mind always understands numbers. For C.D.R, I imagined the before and after destruction and knowing that with reconstruction, you always lose something from the size by either shrinking or getting bigger.

When you put numbers, you talk directly to the mind and engage it in a way not possible without the figures. If, for example, you only see the colour red, you might respond with feelings and emotions, but not with the mind. So there is the ‘internal necessity’ of an artwork in the Wassily Kandinsky sense.

Even in painting, the artist cannot finish a piece if he does not put this X or touch somewhere to make the visual balance. But if he takes it off, the whole thing will fall down, but it doesn’t have any other explanation.

Nahla: As an artist, where are you in relation to the C.D.R. cycle?

Samra: The C.D.R. cycle is continuous until the day we die. We are destroyed, but then we will be reconstructed into something else, including the reconstruction of the human body after death. It also applies to the cosmos and the Divine, that have gone through the cycle many times since the beginning of time and it goes on.

I think that to know how to live or be alive, you have to go through these three acts. And thank God for that! Imagine if something has been done or constructed and then it stays like that forever. It will only be monotone.

I have been through a lot of C.D.R. cycles and my pattern is every five years that something major happens. It is an organic process too because from within the womb of each work, there is another work born until it comes to the end.

In my work, I have also approached a number of disciplines. From my school days in Paris, I went through the classical traditional academic art subjects, from drawing, perspective to painting, history of art and civilisations and chose drawing for my graduation project.

Also, I work by themes which is more of a European concept. It doesn’t have to be that way, but I prefer it. I also say that the medium is something dictated by the theme and not the other way round. So I choose the best medium to execute a project, whatever it is.

Nahla: Lastly, what are the challenges of being a Saudi artist and fact that your work was once censored there?

Samra; I’m so involved in my work and carrying on with it that I don’t think about being censored. I just do it and if in any place, not just in Saudi, they censor my work, it just means they are not ready until the time comes. In Saudi, twenty years ago I couldn’t show my work.

Today, there is a big opening in Saudi for creativity especially among the younger generations. Due to the internet, social media and advancing technology, we have all the tools we need and it is happening fast. In fact, it is like a hurricane; but, of course, what is real and what is fake – that is a job of time that will filter it out.

More information on Faisal Samra and the Ayyam Gallery: http://www.ayyamgallery.com/artists/faisal-samra/bio

Image: Faisal Samra Portrait Image ©​SusanneHakuba

Note: This article was first published circa March 2014

Yasmin El Derby, MENA-Films Curator

Bringing Arab Cinematic Greats to London with the MENA Film Hub

All for the love of Arab films and London cinema, cinema, cinema! If in the past three years you have attended an Arab film or an Arab film festival in London, chances are the half-Egyptian half-English Yasmin El Derby was somehow involved in curating it, or working hard behind the scenes to bringing it to London’s Arab diaspora audience and others fascinated by world cinema.

As a freelance film curator, 28-year-old Yasmin El Derby is most passionate about the study, discovery and exploration of the very best of classic and contemporary Arab films coming out of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and to share her treasure findings with others.

Having already co-founded and directed two London MENA Film Festivals in 2011 and 2012, as well as taking part in the film aspects of the Nour and Shubbak Arab Art Festivals, her latest project is the MENA Film Hub.

Launched in October 2013 with the British Moroccan actor Nabil Elouahabi, the MENA Film Hub aims to bring regular monthly screenings of Arab films to Notting Hill’s The Coronet Cinema and always showing on a Saturday lunch-time. They also aim to include post-screening discussions or Q+A’s with the directors where possible.

Having kicked off in October with Amin Matalqa’s ‘Captain Abu Raed’, the Hub’s next screening will be this weekend of the film ‘ASMAA’ directed by the Egyptian Amr Salama. Truly not to be missed, it deals with the highly sensitive issue of a woman living with HIV in contemporary Egypt based on a real extraordinary story.

Below Nahla Ink interviewed Yasmin El Derby to get a deeper insight into the practicalities of her work, as well as discussing the current MENA-films scene and MENA Film Hub.

Nahla): Tell me about the practicalities of your job and what goes on behind the scenes before any film screening?

El Derby: Most people think organising a film screening is simply about choosing a film and a venue, and off you go! But each screening consists of a lot more preparation and things differ depending on whether the screening is part of a festival programme or a one off screening. If part of a festival programme, I will first announce an open call for submissions and divide them into categories depending on genre and length.

Once the films start coming in the really fun part starts. I get to watch every single one from beginning to end and my job is to categorise them again depending on their strength and if the festival has a theme, how well it fits that theme. I draw up a shortlist of films for the festival director to view and then with him or her, we make another shortlist before we inform the filmmakers if their film has been successful.

Then the technical part. I have to get a ‘clean’ version of the films in the highest possible quality that might be via a Blu-ray disc or an online web-transfer (submissions will usually be sent watermarked or in a low quality). I then may need to convert the film files and include logos of the festival and sponsors that all depends on where the film is going to be screened and which equipment will be used. The discs or files are then tested at the venue.

If the screening is part of a monthly series or a one off, the process differs in that there may not be an open call for submissions, but relevant licences and agreements need to be in place. In the instance of a one off, the director or the distribution company involved may ask for a fee which could be anything from £100-£1,000 for one screening.

Relevant agreements and permissions also need to be given and signed for all the films and then the technical side of things happens the same as if for a festival. Once all of this is sorted out, the marketing and promotion take place; but, again, this differs depending on the venue being used. Some venues will assist with advertising but most cinemas will not if the agreement is for a private hire.

Nahla: How do you approach the directors and find films to sample?

El Derby: Generally via my networks through mutual contacts or referrals. Often directors or representatives from distribution companies will contact me, so now I have a sizeable library of films from which to select depending on the event and what suits.

I am basically a film nerd and there’s nothing I like more than watching films, so I keep my eyes and ears open all the time. I also constantly read film reviews for new material and search out old films. I often get films sent to me from people who have heard about an open call for submissions or who have heard that I am a film curator. I do also keep track of what’s happening at film schools and often get to see final year graduation projects that are often great.

Nahla: Do you travel for your job?

El Derby: Two of my biggest loves in life are films and travelling, so if given an opportunity to travel to a film festival I feel like I’m living the dream!

Nahla: How would you describe the current film scene in the MENA region?

El Derby: Exciting, brilliant and forward thinking! There are so many fabulous films coming out of the region and I hope I can continue to bring them to audiences in London.

Nahla: What platforms are available for Arab filmmakers in and outside the MENA region?

El Derby: There are a huge number of film festivals that happen in the Arab world today that are just as big as festivals such as Cannes and the London Film Festival. There has also been a marked increase in interest in films from MENA in the Western world and we have seen quite a few festivals and events pop up.

The Nour Festival, for example, which is sponsored by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, now takes place in London every October-November and is a great showcase for films and art from the Arab world. There is also the bi-annual Shubbak Festival and all the regular film festivals like that of the BFI, that seem to be taking much more of an interest in films from and about the Arab world.

Nahla: Is there a criterion for the films you select for the MENA Film Hub?

El Derby: There is no specific criterion except that the films be from or about the MENA region or made by a filmmaker of the Arab diaspora. We are now focused on feature films rather than documentaries but we will be expanding in the near future and holding more screenings at more venues to give us the scope to screen other genres.

Nahla:  What have you learnt on this films journey? 

El Derby: As previously mentioned, I am obsessed with film in general but one of the reasons I started to focus on films from the MENA region is due to my own cultural heritage, with my father being Egyptian and my mother English.

Growing up I didn’t see many Egyptian films as I didn’t speak or understand Arabic; but, as I got older, I realised there was this huge part of me that felt missing. Yes, I went to Egypt a lot as a child but never felt as though I completely fit in, mainly due to not being able to communicate with anyone, especially family members.

So I started learning Arabic as an adult and watching films helped, not only in terms of language and habits but I came to feel a strong connection with the region and my roots and heritage. On an intellectual level, I have learnt more about different ways of telling stories through film. For example, often due to censorship in the Middle East, certain issues can only be hinted at in a subtle way rather than being explicitly shown or spoken about between characters. It shows how ultimately the imagination is king and storytelling can survive with any form of censorship.

Nahla: Why London and why The Coronet?

El Derby: London is my home and I love it! And I have been a huge fan and dedicated customer of the Coronet for as long as I can remember and so has Nabil, so it made sense for us to go with this beautiful venue. The Coronet is also very accessible even if you don’t live in West London, it is less than a minute walk from Notting Hill Gate underground station, and the surrounding area is full of shops, cafés and restaurants. So people can make a day of it whenever they come to one of our lunchtime screenings.

Nahla: Tell me about your audience. 

El Derby: Anyone and everyone with an interest in the region or in cinema or just wants to come and see a brilliant film they wouldn’t usually get to see!

NI: What else are you working at the moment?

El Derby: As well as the MENA Film Hub and freelance curating for festivals and events, I am acting as a UK representative to get distribution rights for certain films from the MENA region. I hope to take part in ensuring that films from the Arab world become a normal occurrence in cinema programming in the UK and not that we just see them during special occasions.

Also, currently and along with a brilliant creative and good friend Houda Armanouss, I’m working on a documentary focused on the concept of identity and what it means to different people. Away from the film-curating world for a millisecond, I am also writing a children’s book with my very good friend and owner of the dance-company United Grooves, Tania Diggory, but don’t want to say too much at this stage since we are at the early stages.

Nahla: Tell me more about ASMAA and why you want to show this film?

El Derby: This film is an absolute must see that has been written and directed by the immensely talented Egyptian director Amr Salama in 2011. Based on true events, it focuses on the strength and determination of an HIV positive woman living in contemporary Egypt; and, how she attempts to keep her medical status a secret until an opportunity comes for her to make a television appearance.

ASMAA is not only cinematically beautiful but it boldly raises and talks about such an important issue seldom discussed in the Arab world. It demonstrates not only the skill and beauty of cinema itself but also it will show a UK audience a different viewpoint and perspective from the Arab world.

At the MENA Film Hub, we are not in the game of perpetuating stereotypes and want to show something different to our audience and to always keep pushing the boundaries.

To find out more about the MENA Film Hub: https://www.facebook.com/MenaFilmHub

Note: This article was first published circa November 2013

Omar Reda, MD

The 40-year-old Libyan-American Psychiatrist Omar Reda, MD is a man on a very difficult mission. He faces many hurdles before his dream of a psychologically and emotionally healthy and stable Libya becomes a reality.

Reda, who has dedicated almost all of his professional time to giving mental health support to the Libyans since the beginning of the February 2011 Revolution, is however surprisingly optimistic. Here, for Nahla Ink, he answered questions about his new book ‘Journey of Hope’, which he is currently promoting across five Libyan cities and towns.

Nahla: In the book, you speak of the wounded healer. Has writing the book given you catharsis and closure?

Reda: Catharsis yes. I used writing as my way of coping by way of academic detachment. Closure no, because the country will never be the same especially for the families and loved ones of the deceased. It seems like the Gaddafi mentality and old rules still dictate the country.

Nahla: You mention the need for remembrance and rituals. What would you propose the Libyans do to remember the sacrifices of the Revolution?

Reda: I met with hundreds of families of the martyrs and talked to friends who fought with them in the front lines. Everyone has the same answer, that the best thing to remember the sacrifices of our heroes is to accomplish the mission they started, to build Libya and start with building the human being and raising moral standards.

Nahla: What do you think are the psychological consequences of Gaddafi’s rule?

Reda: Moral corruption, depression and despair, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), addiction, anger, grief, blood and revenge lust. Libyan society remains severely divided. The only way to bridge those differences is through community programs that succeeded in other countries like Bosnia, Rwanda and South Africa for example.

Nahla: Are you collaborating at all with the Libyan Ministry of Health? What is the current position of the Libyan government in relation to Libya’s mental health?

Reda: I tried to collaborate with every Ministry of Health since the Revolution, that is three in total. Unfortunately, projects and initiatives submitted by Libyans seem to end up in the trash.

Nahla: How far have the efforts to provide psychological support come to in Libya today? Are there any current programmes you know about and that you are personally involved with?

Reda: It is a struggle. The most impactful project happening as we speak is the World Health Organisation (WHO) Diplomas. One is for the non-psychiatric MDs to recognize and treat common psychiatric problems in order to fill the gaps and staff shortages, one is for the psychologists, one for nurses and one for social workers. I believe one will start soon also for recreational and vocational specialists. I am the head supervising MD on one of the WHO Diplomas and a Supervision Facilitator on another.

Nahla: You write quite extensively about the children and the need to help them to heal. Who is now looking after the orphans of the revolution?

Reda: The ministry for martyrs and the missing is responsible, but many local NGOs are doing wonderful work with them as well. It seems in Libya that non-official projects have more impact and better received. Maybe they are more sincere and less agenda-oriented than the government’s different parties.

Nahla: You also refer to drugs and addiction. How prevalent is this problem for the youth of Libya? What is the solution?

Reda: Four monsters are haunting Libya right now: moral crisis, the weapons and security issue, traffic and speed accidents and drug addiction. The problem is extremely prevalent and urgently needs to be addressed. Whilst there are many good projects on paper, they are faced with the same obstacles, mainly lack of support. For the youth, we need to keep them busy and support psychosocial, vocational and leisure projects.

Nahla: Can you tell me more about the Libya Al-Shefa Healing Project you mention in the book and how people can get involved?

Reda: Libya Al-Shefa is an initiative that started in June 2011 with the support of local NGOs to address seven projects under one name. These are psycho-education, raising standards of local professionals, support circles for fighters, support circles for families of fighters and the missing, a hotline, an art and play therapy for children, and a reconciliation project.

It has reached some of its goals but it needs the government’s moral and financial support to succeed. People can join Al-Shefa through Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/323504854337123/

Nahla: You say you would like to write a book about every Libyan martyr. Have you started to do this?

Reda: I am working on it and it will be a huge task because we still do not know the exact figures. The deceased on both sides of the conflict are anywhere from 5,500 (the government’s official figure) and 30,000 (the likely number per those in the frontlines).

Nahla: Lastly, what are your hopes for the future of Libya?

Reda: If the government does not take the current major problems we are facing seriously and especially of weapons, drugs and violence, then the situation will only get worse. But if the government changes its attitude and provides support to its citizen and professionals, things will go in the right direction and Libya may even become a role-model in every standard including mental health care.

Note: This article was first published circa October 2013

Merit Ariane Stephanos: The Voice of Jaljala and Hjaz

Sometimes it is about the musical compositions, the harmonies and the lyrics. But then it can also be about the pure distinctive voice of someone, like that of Merit Ariane Stephanos, that once it opens itself to an audience, captures the imagination, the heart and longing of the listener as she performs on stage and takes us on a spiritual journey. 

Pretty and petite, with henna dyed hair that she keeps short and sweet, we meet at Warwick Avenue. Quickly, she falls into tune and says: “My mother, who is from Germany, used to sing to me while breast-feeding, as she believed it would develop my pitch. By the age of eleven months, I knew by heart twenty folk songs.”

I am intrigued to find out how she came to be the voice and face for the Jaljala and the Hjaz musical projects.

Merit studied at a music gymnasium in Germany and followed with a Music Degree at Edinburgh University, where she played the violin, the piano and developed her singing repertoire.

She said: “I was always searching for a music to suit me. The critical year was during my time at Mostar, Bosnia, where I discovered Sevdah, the traditional Bosnian folk music. Though originally, I was there to work with disadvantaged and war-traumatised children at the Pavarotti Music Centre, I found myself immersed in a melting pot of musical genres, from Eastern European harmonies, to Turkish, Greek and even Swiss influences.

“Sevdah gave me the inspiration to experiment by mixing and re-arranging different vocal traditions and create a unique sound with my music collaborators. Having also a Coptic Egyptian father, the Arabic was always there for me to add to the rest and with which to explore.”

Jaljala project – Arab and East European Ensemble

For the Jaljala project, Merit works with the Lebanese song expert, vocalist and Oud player Abdul-Salam Kheir, Balkan music specialist and violinist Meg Hamilton and Syrian percussion virtuoso Haytham Al Souba’i. Together, they cover a musical knowledge and influences from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Merit: “As Jaljala, we draw upon the rhythms and lyrics of some of the greatest Arab legendary figures of the Middle East. From Oum Kalsoum, to Sayyed Darwish, Asmahan and Fayruz, to also dipping into Iraqi and Egyptian folk-song traditions. We strive to offer a rich sound by blending the modes, rhythms and harmonies with a lively and earthy delivery. We also like to create our own new and fresh interpretations.

“Of course, we also want to promote Arabic music and bring it to a Western audience, so we can all celebrate its wealth, depth and all the wonderful things it has to offer. We hope to bring down some of the prejudices and the barriers between us.”

Jaljla’s next performance at the Green Note in Camden Town, London will see them perform a special re-arrangement of La Vie en Rose with Fi Youm Wa Layla.

The Hjaz – Jazz Trio Project

With Hjaz, Merit works with Alcyona Mick, who is a Jazz pianist and Stuart Hall, a multi-instrumentalist. They want to bring and blend Western Jazz with Middle Eastern songs. She says: “This is a more radical project. We take Arabic music to a different level, as we mix and constantly improvise during our performances, with me singing in Arabic or sometimes Sephardic Spanish. We create our own versions of the classical Mwhashshat and write our own compositions inspired by this repertoire.”

For the future, Merit wants to write more music and lyrics. She says: “I would love to collaborate with more musicians and continue having a dialogue with others across all the different influences that I have personally to choose from, including some spiritual, sacred and religious music.”

She will also keep teaching at the Royal College of Music and work with primary and secondary schools, as well as the Helen Bamber Foundation, a charity supporting victims of human rights abuses.

For more information or to purchase cd’s: http://www.meritariane.com/

Note: This article was first published circa October 2010

Halim Al-Karim, Iraqi Artist

Halim Al-Karim: On Work, Women, War, Love and Politics

This interview was taken at the launch of the ‘Witness from Baghdad’ art exhibition held at the Artspace London Gallery in Knightsbridge, London on 16 January 2013. A review of the exhibition and the artworks has also been posted on Nahla Ink.

Nahla: Today’s exhibition comes at the tenth year anniversary of the Iraq War. You left in 1991, would you ever consider going back?

Al-Karim: No, not yet. But Iraq never left me. Always, it is inside of me. And I am not sure if I go back. I cannot imagine to arrive in Baghdad airport and then take a taxi and to ask the driver to take me to a hotel, because I don’t have an address there anymore. And I am not ready to go to face the lost ones.

Nahla: How do you feel about being in London?

Al-Karim: I don’t have any special feeling. I feel it’s like any other city but maybe just for the weather. Even the weather is the same.

Nahla: Looking at the range of work, what is your ultimate goal as an artist?

Al-Karim: I try to make my art for myself first, to control my beast and my monsters that exist inside me; and, through this, I try to let people control their own monster that exists inside of them too. I want to let people control their violence and show their best and to deal with each other in the human way away from violence.

Nahla: Tell me about your technique?

Al-Karim: I don’t think that technique is important for the audience to know about. But I will explain. I use different techniques, but always with a medium or large format manual camera, and I never use digital. I shoot the model sometimes with out-of- focus, I develop the negative and then I paint on the negative itself. Sometimes I also dip them in wax, let them dry and then scan.

For example, in the Schizophrenia series, I colored the negative and with the Lost Memory, I put a kind of white fabric in front of the model before I shoot with out- of-focus. Then you can see the results, the kind of shadow of the portrait.

I also use Lambda print, mounted onto aluminum so there is no air and little colour degradation. That way it is also easy to clean.

Nahla: What about the psychological element of your work?

Al-Karim: I don’t see any difference between me and society or between different societies. They all live in a schizophrenia. They follow their leaders, their governments and they elect them. At the same time, they know that these politicians have their own hidden agendas and their own deceiving policies, but they keep electing them. In this, my subjects are of universal themes.

Nahla: Tell me about the Seclusion series?

Al-Karim: This is an early work. It is called Lost Seclusion of the Soul, to represent the fear of my colleagues when they graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad.

Usually, they would take vacation from the army and every month, they give them seven days to go back to school. I saw the kind of fear and horror covering them. They used to be in the frontline for the war between Iraq and Iran and they told me how the sounds of bombs and bullets have affected them.

It affects them in the way they feel that they are isolated and I try to express this idea of how violence isolates people from each other.

Nahla: I heard a rumour that you have decided to stop making art. Is this true?

Al-Karim: If I ever stop dealing with women, then I will stop dealing with art. As long as I have women in my life, I will continue to make art.

Nahla: Some of your work has a very strong sexual element, can you explain?

Al-Karim: I am not sure on the idea of sexual freedom. I just present sexual pieces to express the idea of mercy, that people through sex look for mercy and how society considers women when they call them prostitutes. In fact, for me, they are not prostitutes, they are just creatures giving mercy to their clients.

Nahla: What about women? Do you think Arabic or Iraqi women are different from Western women?

Al-Karim: In general, there is no difference between women. It is just the propaganda that classifies women up until now. Even women in the West are not equal in their rights. For example, after they graduate from school or university and ask for a job, even when they get it, they are given a lesser salary than the man. This still exists in Europe.

Everywhere there is an injustice against women. It is not just Arab women. In fact, Arab women are educated and free but the war propaganda against the Middle East is focusing on this issue that women don’t have their rights. Actually, Arab women have more rights in the Middle East then women in the West.

Nahla: I love the Untitled 10, from the King’s Hareem Series. Can you tell me more about it?

Al-Karim: There are two ideas relating to this piece. The first is that I believe I am a creature or a man with nine hearts and all my life I am trying to find the goddess that can control these nine hearts and to make them tremble and shake at once. Because I believe the second I meet that woman, I will fly to my own paradise.

The second theme is about the situation all over the world affecting society and how people talk to their leaders and governments. It is to say we are full of anger at you and you have to stop your hidden agendas and deceit politics but through beauty. We are resisting this deception and policies through beauty.

Nahla: Tell me also about the Eternal Love images, which are being shown here for the first time.

Al-Karim: I will tell you about the theme behind them. I believe that eternal love exists in our lives. That is why in this series I try to visualize my lost memories through these pieces. Because when you live in hardship, usually your memory becomes full of holes and if you are aware about what is happening around you, then you start to close the holes of your memory and to collect the nice things that happen to you in life.

Note: This article was first published circa January 2013

Ahlam Akram – BASIRA Dream

Imagine a world where all Arab women, regardless of differences in religion or socio-economic position, are united as one and become a powerful force for the good of all womankind; and, a time when all Arab women living in the Middle East are connected to those Arab women who are set up abroad, so that they can stand as one and support each other.

Just think of what they could achieve, what they could learn from one another, what would be their specific concerns and how they might choose to tackle them: for that is the BASIRA dream that belongs to the lovely and feisty Ahlam Akram, a lady of Palestinian origin that I had the pleasure to meet mid-December 2012.

BASIRA, which stand for ‘British Arabs Supporting Integration, Recognition and Awareness’ is Akram’s recent initiative to help make the above vision a reality; starting small with informal discussions to be encouraged by relevant film screenings that would bring together as many Arab and British Arab women as possible in one place.

Akram is well suited for this role. Her background is in the media and for many years writing in Arabic about human rights, female issues and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She has many times challenged Arab stigmas and prejudices with both positive and negative reactions to her personal views and beliefs.

I managed to interview her at a café just off Earl’s Court where she has been living for the past three decades, so she could tell me a bit more about this deep desire to create a change, a movement or even just a small shift to benefit the Arab woman wherever she may be placed.

The Arab Woman

Akram: “I want to challenge the many cultural and religious shackles that continue to restrict Arab women today and offer them personal empowerment. I have worked for decades as a human rights activist, but BASIRA is my biggest hope and the legacy I prefer to leave, if nothing else.

“Most important, as we come together, we need to find strong and credible Arab female voices and leaders in different fields. We must look to the challenges facing us back home and create a change in the image of the Arab woman to the outside world. And we must challenge and break cultural taboos.

“I admit that I have come to conclusions as a woman who has lived in the UK for over 30 years and where I exercise my freedom within a respectful legal framework. That is why I was not happy when the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams suggested that we bring certain Sharia personal laws to the UK. This must be opposed by all women, for why should they go back to a time where they are viewed less valuable than the male?

“I have chosen films as the medium because they can reflect societal norms in a poetic and more provocative fashion than can be done otherwise. They relay many truths.

On Religion

“Of course, the starting point is that all religions have violated women’s rights over the centuries. But what was acceptable 1400 years ago or more is not acceptable today. It is necessary for our wellbeing to progress and advance in this world we find ourselves in.

“My concern is that in the last twenty years, the Arab world has been turning out fatwas that do not refer to our common humanity or collective moral conscience. I believe these fatwas have only undermined religion as really there should be no mediation between us individually and God.

“Some appointed scholars have actually tarnished Islam by doing this and giving it a bad name; in particular regarding women and minorities in the Arab world. For only this week, a religious scholar in Morocco openly preached against the Jews in Morocco. He was doing this in a mosque and effectively, he is preaching hatred in a sacred space.

“I believe that Muslim clerics today have an obligation to take an immediate U-turn to stop creating divisions. As Arabs and Muslims, a radical philosophy will not serve any of us in the 21st Century. Instead, we must aim to build a peaceful environment based on our equality as human beings, to guarantee the right foundation for democracy and citizenship to secure our future generations from all backgrounds and all religions.

The Arab Identity

“The wonderful writer Amin Maalouf argues that human dignity is far more relevant than strict identity. For the Arab, it is urgent that we get rid of our prejudices against others and especially towards women and minorities. We should aim for no borders between us and the rest of the world.

“I had no choice in my religion nor my place of birth but I will never deny or change my roots. Instead, I would rather capitalize on the constructive and positive aspect of my culture. In my house, I celebrate my roots. I practise this when I cook Arabic food and listen to Arabic music.

“But as a citizen of the world, I also enjoy other types of food and I enjoy congratulating others of different faiths and backgrounds. That is what I feel in my heart that my culture has taught me.

“I feel that living in the West where my rights and dignity as a woman are guaranteed and protected, has made me a better person. If I divorce, I will share my husband’s wealth and have custody of my children, or the court will take the decision where it is best for them. My husband also can never manipulate me or decide at what age to marry off my daughter.

BASIRA Vision

“The measure of BASIRA’s success will be the day when all Arab British women go out and demonstrate, to publicly condemn violations against women in the Middle East and to emphasise the universality of our rights as equal. I wish to succeed in changing the unjust and inhumane laws that violate women’s rights.

“There is also a definite intertwining between religion and culture and the Arab woman is in many cases herself unaware of the reality of her predicament. She has to abide by her father or husband’s rule and sadly, she can be invisibly crippled without her being truly aware.

“We must show the gap between universal human laws, versus religious laws and I want us all to soon go out to the streets and stand together to demand our equal rights as women, for fair access to education and protection through a secular system backed by democratic laws.

“For how can we love the man more than we love the woman? I love my husband, son, brother and father and am entitled to the same dignity. Equality between the sexes is truly the only way and democracy itself starts at home.

First Film – Hala2 La Wein

“The first film screening for BASIRA was ‘Hala2 La Wein’ that we managed to show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London December 2012. It is an incredible and thought-provoking film directed and produced by the talented Lebanese Nadine Labaki.

“Set in a simple village, where Arab Muslims and Christians were living in peace but are then swept into a wider-regional war, it is about sectarianism and the power of women to intervene to create strong behavioural shifts towards peace and away from conflict, war and aggression.

“Ultimately, as Arab women, we must dare to tell our stories, to share and talk about the issues dear to our hearts. For we deserve all the respect and so that there is no more of the ‘burning’ deep inside as we go through certain bad experiences.”

For more information on BASIRA: https://basira.org.uk/

Note: This article was first published December 2012

Fireworks The Play, Dalia Taha

‘Fireworks’, the new play by Palestinian writer Dalia Taha currently showing at the Royal Court Theatre, is set in a non-specified Palestinian city under siege and subject to Israeli air strikes, where two young families are the only residents left in a dilapidated building. Staged in a shabby worn-out flat that they both share, it is equipped with bare amenities – including old hard chairs, a cold-tiled floor and an electricity generator that doesn’t always work – and with the unusual addition of a staircase that mysteriously goes down to nowhere.

It is clear that all the other neighbours have gone to safety shelters whereas these two families, for whatever personal reasons, are the only ones who have resisted the urge to abandon their home, even with the known dangers. As the audience, one is thus confronted with this powerful living situation – which would feel more like a prison if one had to live in it – even before the characters come to life and take over with their story.

Starting a couple days before Eid, excited eleven-year-old Lubna is with her father Khalid chatting. She tells him that she’s composed a song in her head about her brother Ali, who was killed six months before. Prompted by her father to explain the difference between being shot and being martyred, she repeats what she has been told.

Lubna says: “When you get shot, you die and get put under the earth and you get eaten by worms. But when you’re martyred, it doesn’t’ hurt and you don’t’ die. All the angels come and fly you up to the sky, and then they give you wings like theirs. And God gives you a house in heaven and when you go into it you find all of your family there because God’s made a copy of them from some angels, so you don’t feel lonely while you’re waiting for them. And then when your family die they come and live with you in your house in heaven even if they haven’t been martyred.”

But this is, of course, just one of the many lies and strange fantasies that this little girl has been offered by her father, in order to help her emotionally digest the loss of her sibling and to give her some reassurance that all is well in their world. When he also denies that there are threatening bombs falling down the skies and says that the tape on the windows is a magic tape that is guaranteed to protect them, we realise just how grim the reality is outside.

Whilst with the other couple, it is more the mother Samar who is telling her son Khalil the lies even as he is showing signs of projecting aggression and violence towards her and a dead pet pigeon. To distract him, she plays Ninja turtles and Superman and makes him believe that they live on a very special planet; but, clearly, the twelve-year-old child is not convinced. And so, in this play, we see how the parents attempt to emotionally protect and shield the children in a dire situation; but, that the greater tragedy is that the adults themselves are struggling to come to terms with their predicament.

In Nahla, for example, we see the madness as she jokes about suicide and goes out onto the streets risking her life for a packet of cigarettes and candles. Whereas in the men, we sense the impotence, weakness, sadness and frustration as they both take desperate measures in the no way out situation. Khalid buys a pistol for an unknown reason and Ahmad, desiring to take revenge against the unnamed oppressor, involves himself with a risky operation that threatens and puts all of their lives in even more danger.

Eid then arrives with a twist but I won’t be telling! Because this most powerful play is a must see for everyone; and, especially, for anyone who wants to experience a creative tackling of the current issue of what is happening – and has been happening for a very long time – to Palestinian families as they are put under physical, emotional and psychological pressure all in one lump of an existential disaster.

But through the adult and child actors with their human faces, voices, cries and screams from a script based on real lives, we also gain the positive eternal and universal insight of the deep caring love of parents for their children and the innocent love of children for their parents. I truly applaud Dalia Taha and the Royal Court for staging this and hope they extend the run, for that is my only concern as tickets are selling out fast!

Directed by Richard Twyman, the cast also could not have been better allocated or better performed, with actors: Saleh Bakri (as Khalid), Nabil Elouahabi (as Ahmad), Shereen Martin (as Samar), Sirine Saba (as Nahla), George Karageorgis and Yusuf Hofri (as Khalil on alternative nights), and Eden Nathanson and Shakira Riddell-Morales (as Lubna on alternative nights). Please also note that this play forms part of the ‘International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project’ with additional support from the British Council and the A M Qattan Foundaiton. It is being accompanied by a series of events, talks and reading, from 12 February-14 March, 2015 at the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS.

For more information: https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/fireworks-alab-nariya/

Note: This article was first published circa February 2015

Ibrahim Shebani – Behind ‘The Libyan’

Start on A Libyan Cultural Revolution

As part of a new, free and exciting expression Art movement in the new post-Revolution Libya, I got in touch with one key player who has been working hard to bring intelligent reading, writing and discussion culture to Libya.

Ibrahim Shebani, creator and Editor-in-Chief of The Libyan Magazine, speaks here about the challenges he faced to make his dream of an autonomous publication come true.

Ibrahim Shebani: “Originally, I was studying Architecture at university but dropped out two years before graduation; when the small advertising agency I had created with my brother and some friends kicked off. We became agents for some international clients including Proctor&Gamble, Nestle and Mango and it gave us some confidence. So for seven years, we did Media, Advertising, Marketing and events.

“But I also wanted to establish a simple lifestyle magazine. For three years, I tried but never got permission from the authorities, as all the media was state owned before the Revolution.

“Then February 16 came and I went to Benghazi to join the protests in the East and in four days the city was liberated. Foreign journalists immediately arrived and I volunteered to translate and fix for Jon Lee Anderson from The New Yorker magazine. I found out so much I didn’t know and got to really enjoy the research for stories, investigating and finding out the truth behind what were at times just rumor.

“I also visited the front lines on some days to translate and realized the need to introduce ourselves as locals to the many interested outsiders. Then in April, some new magazines and newspapers got published in Benghazi; and, although very simple, all of us felt so proud. The fact that I could read a newspaper not written by Gaddafi’s supporters and drink espresso in public brought tears to my eyes!

“In early May, my brother left Tripoli and also came to Benghazi. So I called my friends and presented to them the idea of a magazine. It was to be called ‘The Libyan’ to represent Libya and us to the rest of the world. The media blackout imposed on us by the regime had truly made us underestimate who we really are and what we are capable of achieving. That is why I wanted to put our country on the map and the people under the spot light.”

The first English issue covered some wonderful subjects that prior 2011, would have been an impossible feat in Libya or for Libyans full stop: Diaries of Abu-Salim Massacre, The Libyan Women Freedom Fighters, The Youth of Libya – This is How We Want It, Hip-Hop Culture for Libyans and even Tripoli Gossip Girl column!

Shebani today has the help, support and input of a 40-strong volunteer group that includes bilingual journalist, photographers and designers working from one office in Tripoli and one in Benghazi. The Libyan is now monthly in Arabic and less often in English with 40 pages each issue. Its Arabic print is 4000 and the English 2000 with much wider circulation.

The goal is to target young professionals and graduates with a wide range of interests; and the English version is to help assimilate and include returning foreigners. Shebani is after the vital and very large 18-35 years demographic group and to engage “all other dynamic and evolving Libyan men and women who are concerned about the political and social scene in their country.”

When I asked him about future plans for this wonderful brainchild: “We hope to grow bigger and stronger, reach other cities within Libya and even the world one day. But we will carry on as we began: independent, credible, unbiased and impartial to all political parties and individuals. We want to represent the voice of all Libyans, regardless of their gender, religion or ethnic background.”

The Libyan can be purchased in newsagents in Tripoli and Benghazi.

Nahla’s Post Script:

One true measure of liberty is the right to uninhibited intellectual and creative expression as well as the ability to share and exchange ideas in the public domain without fear of censure or reprisals. It is a cultivated society’s hobby to be able to address political, economic, philosophic and societal issues out in the open and debate without risk of attack or threat to one’s personal safety.

In Libya, the gruesome physical fight against the old dictatorial regime has been won and processes are under way to enshrine people’s legal rights under a new constitution and for free elections. But are the Libyans now ready to also step up and take the chance to shed some of their ultra-conservative traditions and create a cultural revolution in parallel to the political?

For Gaddafi’s Libya banned free expression and the Arts in particular suffered. The security state made it impossible for people to read or write, debate, play theatre or do anything else that seemed to threaten the status quo of what effectively became a dead cultural society unable to breath in fresh ideas. The Libyans unconsciously turned inwards and got used to being silent and uninformed on many subjects.

But already some months post-Revolution, there is hope. New magazines and newspapers are being produced, printed and distributed without political agendas in Tripoli and Benghazi. They are springing up all over the country and most are independent, though some politically funded. One can only wish them the very best in this noble quest.

Note: This article was first published circa February 2012

Karl reMarks: And Then God Created The Middle East And Said: ‘Let There Be Breaking News’

Includes: Insight from the Karl reMarks Creator

Penned by online sensation and the Karl reMarks persona, this little book had me in stitches, thinking, confused, saddened and wondering from where does the self-styled avatar get the genius inspiration. Composed of a collection of quotes and illustrations that originally appeared on Twitter beginning circa 2011, it was the arrival of the Arab Spring that got London-based architect and real name Karl Sharro satirising on the Western media’s coverage of the Middle East and North Africa region.

Exposing worrying gaps in the reportage of an admittedly volatile part of the world, the jokes and poking fun turn upside down many preconceived myths, non-true wisdom and stereotypes of the Arab world. The material reflects and brings to light, with wry and sharp humour, some of the historical complexities that are at play in the MENA region and warning against the over-simplification by pundits and commentators. But even the Arabs are not spared the satire with reMarks’s astute and directed observations.

Referring to Eastern versus Western opinions on extremism, ISIS, war, religion, geography, economics, democracy and much more, the one-liners humble the reader into accepting the preposterousness of easy equations and how fruitless much of the analysis is regarding the region’s political, cultural and social landscapes. Whichever quote or tweet you find, there are nuggets of truth in each of them. My particular favourite is this one: “We’re actually very proud of God in the Middle East. He’s the local guy who went on to acquire international fame’!

Having attended the sold-out book launch in London, below are some selected quotes from the evening, in which Sharro offers insight into his alter ego. With 135,000 followers on Twitter and an active blog – where one can find lengthier political satire – I highly recommend getting a hold of the book and a visit to the website, wherein our collective despair about the Arab world can be assuaged by the reMarks treatment.

On his motivation, Sharro said: “I never had any serious pretentions about the role I am doing. My writing and tweeting was a response to the coverage of the Middle East and about resisting certain stereotypes and narratives. But I was never trying to present a different image of the Middle East. My attitude was that I want to respond and poke fun at those people who are misrepresenting the Middle East. Ultimately my motivation was that I want people to smile and laugh.”

On the use of political satire, Sharro: “I am a part-time political satirist and everyone knows that what I do is in my lunch break. It is about appropriating certain stereotypes and to present a more progressive image. Part of it also is being comfortable enough to talk about things that you might not like about your culture.”

On Twitter and Tweeting, Sharro: “It is a fine balance between reality and satire. There is something about being on Twitter where, especially if you are tweeting a lot and you are always following the events and you are almost like naked in front of your audience. Sometimes things happen that are beyond your comprehension and I think that is when language stops cooperating with you or the medium of satire stops cooperating with you and there is nothing really that can be said.

“You can see a sense of frustration and you can see a sense of futility, but I think that is the great thing about this medium, we have such a close relationship with the events around us. And it is not like going away to shut yourself somewhere to write a book where you can create layers between yourself and the events that are happening. We are learning new ways with this medium and tweets reflect that.”

About the idea that the Middle East is prone to catastrophe, fighting and war, Sharro: “A lot of it is something that is created in the Western imagination and particularly a class of punditry when we talk about the Middle East as if it is always subject for news. But in reality it is not necessarily different to any other part of the world.”

On approaching taboo subjects, Sharro: “I was writing satire and a lot of it was dark and scathing. For example, I wrote about ISIS when they first came and one blog post was done in this style. My rule was to write it and see what people would say. Some might miss the point that I am not actually stereotyping Arabs, but I am using stereotypes and inverting them and trying to say something different. I learnt my instinct was to trust the audience and there will always be one or two people who don’t get it.”

On whether being outside the Arab world gives him more freedom to do what he does, Sharro: “I don’t’ think it is easier for the obvious reasons. Some people think I am more free here to say what I want to say and I don’t’ think that is actually true. I feel that there are more taboos here than in the Middle East and you can say more things over there.

“But what it gave me was a sense of coldness. If you are living the situation in Syria, Lebanon or Iraq, you are living that and it is your reality. Everything you say or do is an existential struggle and it all depends on it. It gave me the luxury of not having to, when I write, that I am not dealing with that reality.

“But that is when I made my decision that I can’t be a political activist or I can’t be lecturing people about what to do in Lebanon, Syria or Iraq, because I am not in that situation. I think it is completely wrong for anyone to consciously decide to go out and live in the West to then take this position that I am going to lecture people. You have removed yourself from that context and you can do what I do which is non-consequential in a way.”

On political correctness and taboos in the West, Sharro: “I think there is an intellectual construct that is definitely, from a liberal sense, quite self-censoring under the pretence that this kind of censorship is for the social good… I worry about this tendency in the West because for me confronting ideas openly is a much healthier way than retreating into mistakes, controlling speech and people practising self-censorship.”

A member of the audience also asked Sharro what he would write as a manifesto for the Middle East. His response was: “I actually wrote these manifestos back in 2011 when I was blogging, but nobody read them. So here I am, a failed political activist turned satirist because that is what worked. Essentially, if I were to hijack this event and promote a political message, it is that I have always been a big believer in autonomy and self-determination. I find them foundational ideas for how we move politics in the Middle East and I think these are important aspects to base our politics on.”

There was, of course, much else that was said at the launch and food for thought. But what I came away with was respect for Sharro’s dynamism – as he successfully juggles being an architect, a political satirist, a cultural commentator, a stand-up comedian, a cartoonist, a public speaker and a contributing author to several publications! – and, the ability of his alter ego to push us into reconsidering the important relationship between reality and how we may be digesting it through different news mediums.

In some ways, reMarks magically takes away a lot of our fears, anxieties and frustrations about the world that we live in – whether we are in the MENA region or living outside it – even if this can only be done through one tweet or one blog post at a time.

You can purchase the book from Al Saqi Bookshop: http://www.alsaqibookshop.com/shopexd.asp?id=47970

You can follow the Karl reMarks website: http://www.karlremarks.com/

You can follow the Karl reMarks Twitter account: https://twitter.com/KarlreMarks

Note: This article was first published circa June 2018