What a honeymoon!

We’re back from Iran, and the question ‘how was it?’ is very hard to answer.
It was big. It was beautiful. It was historical and ornamented and elegantly decorated. It was sandy, and rocky. It was crowded and polluted. It was tacky and vegetarian-unfriendly and sweet. Hospitable. Hot. Organized. Amazingly friendly.
It was everything I expected it [...]

Gepost in: English, Iran, Middle East, Personal, Visual
Geen reacties » | 17 mei 2010

When Missing the Middle East…

… all I have to do is go to the Javastraat around the corner. There will always be an old man, walking slowly with his hands on his back, moving the worry-beads around. Makes me feel right at home.

Gepost in: English, Life, Middle East, The Netherlands, Visual
Geen reacties » | 20 april 2010

Feeding opium to the Arabs

Isn’t it incredible that the news from the whole world always fits exactly into a newspaper? (Loesje)

I have written a piece about the Dutch newspaper reporting from the Arab world for Menassat.
You can read the whole article here.

Gepost in: English, Internet, Middle East, Politics / Analysis
Geen reacties » | 4 augustus 2009

Het is allemaal de schuld van de Nederlanders

Israël-liefhebber en Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Maxime Verhagen zal er niet blij mee zijn: niet alleen heeft Israël opheldering gevraagd over de financiële steun aan de mensenrechtenorganisatie Breaking the Silence, maar nou blijkt ook nog eens dat onze zuurverdiende belastingcentjes besteed worden aan opium voor de Arabieren! Nou ja zeg.
Breaking the Silence is een organisatie [...]

Gepost in: English, Injustice, Internet, Middle East, Palestine, Politics / Analysis
1 Reactie » | 28 juli 2009

What I really wanted to say about that

“The absence of Marwa’s story from the mainstream media and the failure to start a debate about the immediate dangers of present European anti-Muslim racism shows the depth of the problem and draws us to expect a gloomy future for Muslims in Europe. Muslims like Neda only get to the news if their story serves [...]

Gepost in: English, Injustice, Internet, Middle East, Other author
1 Reactie » | 8 juli 2009

One woman makes the news, another one doesn’t

So here’s what happened, and we saw it:
A woman in Iran protested the outcome of the elections, and was shot by the Religious Guard. She died on the street. International outrage followed.
So here’s what happened, and we didn’t see it:
An Egyptian woman living in Germany sued a man for using racist and sexist slurs against [...]

Gepost in: English, Injustice, Internet, Middle East, Politics / Analysis
4 Reacties » | 7 juli 2009