Maria Doria Russell, Dreamers of the Day, New York: Random House, 2008. pp253
Are you planning on visiting the Middle East? Will you be staying a few days to take a look at the sites and become acquainted with the local culture? During your short (...)
Fayza Hassan reviews two recently published books on change in Egypt
A complex reality
Egypte, L'Envers du décor (The other side of the coin), Sophie Pommier, Paris: La d�couverte, 2008. pp297
Sophie Pommier has long been an attachée to the French (...)
Fayza Hassan reviews two recently published books on change in Egypt
A case of hit and miss
Inside Egypt: the Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of Revolution, John R Bradley, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. pp230
John Bradley's latest book Inside (...)
Kenyan, Brazilian, Arabica, long or short latte with or without a shot of espresso, cappuccino, plain coffee with milk or fancy herbal teas -- all are available on demand 24/7 at the coffee shops that have sprouted up over the last decade in almost (...)
Kenyan, Brazilian, Arabica, long or short latte with or without a shot of espresso, cappuccino, plain coffee with milk or fancy herbal teas -- all are available on demand 24/7 at the coffee shops that have sprouted up over the last decade in almost (...)
Fayza Hassan provides contextual background for the life of Amy Nimr, early 20th century Egyptian painter
The recent translation into Arabic of Aimé Azar's La Peinture moderne en Egypt e (Modern Painting in Egypt), first published in 1961 by Les (...)
A Season in Mecca, Abdellah Hammoudi, trans. Pascale Ghazaleh, New York: Hill & Wang, 2005. pp293
There is a string of accounts by Muslims and non-Muslims who over the last one thousand years have gone overtly or covertly to Mecca on pilgrimage ( (...)
-- Teta, Mother and Me, Jean Said Makdisi, London: Saqi Books, 2005. pp320;
-- Out of Place, Edward W. Said, New York: Granta Books, 1999. pp320; Zamalek:
-- The Changing Life of a Cairo Elite 1850-1945, Chafika Soliman Hamamsy, Cairo: The American (...)
As a young man growing up in Cairo in the 1950s, Edward Said showed enviable talent in many directions, not least in music, remembers Selim Sednaoui in an interview with Fayza Hassan and Nancy Roberts-Moneir
Edward Said would sometimes say that from (...)
By Gérard de Nerval
MONSIEUR JEAN: Monsieur Jean is a glorious leftover from our army in Egypt. He was one of the 33 Frenchmen who took service with the Mamluks after the withdrawal of the Expedition. For a few years, he had, like the others, a (...)
By Fayza Hassan
The world never ceases to amaze me. I was already quite shocked when Ariel Sharon, quickly parroted by the US president, demanded that Yasser Arafat, held incommunicado and with less than the minimum to survive on, order his freedom (...)
Mary Ghadban:
Screen legends
Far more than a pastime, more than a career: she approaches her passion with a missionary's zeal
Profile by Fayza Hassan
She grew up in the years when cinema captured everyone's imagination. It was not the beginning, of (...)
By Fayza Hassan
Children in the playground have always been aware of the power of words. Contemptuous and cruel nicknames stick to their victims for years, and sometimes forever. The Jews, who in past centuries have so often been at the receiving (...)
By Fayza Hassan
On 25 March, the New York Times published a column by William Safire entitled "4 Secular Questions" (to be asked by the youngest child at Jewish Passover). Safire proceeds to present the hypothetical Jewish child with his own (...)
By Fayza Hassan
My friend Paul loves animals. He always fantasises about having a pet on which to lavish his affection. On the other hand I suspect he is rather attached to his daily routine. I often wondered if that was the reason why he could not (...)
Hossam Abul-Futouh:
Driving force
He's clearly in control, but who's complaining?
Profile by Fayza Hassan
The first time I went to meet Hossam Abul- Futouh, he simply did not show up. There were no messages, no apologies: he had called in the (...)
By Fayza Hassan
My generation was given only one piece of serious advice: find yourself a husband who will provide for you properly, have a couple of healthy kids and then bask in the glory of your success. Many young Egyptian women managed these (...)
By Fayza Hassan
Grownups are seldom aware of the lasting impression their words can leave on children. Many adults, feeling awkward around the young, will rack their brains to say something nice, but instead come out with platitudes and ineptitudes (...)
By Fayza Hassan
As I watched the rain from my bedroom window last week, I made a quick decision. We would not be driving to work and risking an accident on the slippery corniche. To ease the last vestiges of guilt I vaguely felt in indulging myself, (...)
By Fayza Hassan
As many mourn the gory and needless death of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist murdered by petty terrorists, I find it hard not to wonder at the waste: did George W Bush really have no other way of dealing with the challenge (...)
Is heritage the new development industry? Fayza Hassan joins experts, observers and bureaucrats rushing to save historic Cairo -- and finds that salvation has many faces
Not until the earthquake of 1992 ruined many ancient mosques, churches, sabils (...)
By Fayza Hassan
Whenever I observe the attempts of Third World countries to attract the US's attention to their plight, I am reminded of the shenanigans old friends of mine engaged in to get their aunt, a millionaire, to loosen her purse strings. I (...)
By Fayza Hassan
Several of my friends collect antiques. It fulfils their need for beauty. I would have loved to belong to their league but somehow, half way through I lose interest and often stop seeing handsome objects that have come my way at (...)
By Fayza Hassan
Commemorating the events of 1952 seems to be on everyone's mind this year, not only because we are remembering 50 years of their passing, but because it feeds into an acute nostalgia for the good old days, obviously born of impotent (...)
By Fayza Hassan
It is hard to pinpoint the exact time when the realisation that the US government was not averse to lying to the public, nationally and internationally, dawned on the recipients of its neatly packaged information. Maybe it started (...)