The images in Arab Photography Now offer a glimpse of the modern Middle East, fragments of the themes that preoccupy the artists of the Arab world and, by extension, their societies. The images span a range of countries, but gather their influences from even further afield. They reach across space and time, drawing on experiences from history and the modern. Yet what is fascinating in these works is how often the same themes come up and, in particular, war.
Wars to dominate, reshape and remake the Middle East have scarred the landscape of the region and their effects are documented by these artists.
Here are the impersonal watchtowers of Israel, guarding an occupation without end, by Taysir Batniji, stark symbols of a relentless encroachment that have seen even the artist himself exiled. Here are Jananne Al Ani's images of the Iraqi desert from the air, into which have been carved defensive positions. Here also are abandoned military vehicles that scar modern Lebanon, photographed by Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas.
Perhaps the most shocking works in the book come from Farah Nosh, who, noticing how rarely the media focused on those Iraqis who were bearing the brunt of the effects of the 2003 invasion, set about trying to document these victims.
In her photographs, the true horror of the invasion becomes apparent - men and women, young and old, with lost limbs and awful injuries. Nosh often juxtaposes these adults with young children, a representation of how the invasion will be felt across the generations. In one haunting photograph, a young girl stands next to her father, his right arm and right leg both amputated. She grips his prosthetic leg tightly.
Jehad Nga tackles the young American men who make up this military. He shows them in private moments, frightened and pensive, in a world far from home. There is a curious symmetry between these images and Nermine Hamman's photographs of the young soldiers of Egypt, guarding the protesters who ousted Hosni Mubarak at the start of last year. Here, too, are young men, far from home, in a world they can scarcely imagine. Like the American soldiers in Iraq, they come from small towns, scarcely able to comprehend the history they are creating.
Reclaiming the narrative is also important to many of these artists. The intense focus on the Arab world by the west over the past two centuries, the intense fascination European neighbours have for these civilisations, has resulted in a flood, not only of images, but also a framework of ideas. For Arab artists, dismantling this framework, overlaying it with their own reality, has always been an important task.
In the past, western conceptions of the Arab world in Orientalist paintings reflected the twin poles of power and sexuality. Here, in modern photographs, these fantasy objects still exist - see how Majida Khattari takes the imagery of Orientalist paintings and recasts them with modern models and symbols.
It is in these symbols that the continuation of essentialising the Middle East through fragments can be seen: in the past, odalisques represented the western conception of Muslim women; today that symbol is the veil.
One of the best practitioners of this subversion is Lalla Essaydi: her extraordinary re-imagining of the harem highlights how far previous portrayals of the east were to do with the sexual fantasies of western artists, how little to do with the real lives of women.
A third theme is fantasy, the making and unmaking of dreams. Nabil Boutros' photographs of Egypt explore the fantasy of modernity, how Egypt is searching for modernity in buildings and public spaces. Kader Attia looks at the burden of dreams on the dispossessed of the Arab world, documenting the young Algerians dreaming of a life in Europe.
Probably the best fantastical works in the collection come from Lara Baladi, enormous collages full of fairytale characters, places where dreams meet reality, so that it is often unclear if the figures depicted are representations or fantasy. Her figures appear from the sea and from the sand, forcing the viewer to question whether they are from these places or merely passing through. The Middle East has long been a place where the two blur: the tragedy of the region is that often the fantastical appearance of figures on the horizon, figures from another world, is not merely dreamlike, but nightmarish.
Faisal Al Yafai is a columnist for The National.
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If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
SPECS
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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
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Results:
6.30pm: Handicap (Turf) | US$175,000 2,410m | Winner: Bin Battuta, Christophe Soumillon (jockey), Saeed bin Suroor (trainer)
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (Dirt) | $100,000 | 1,400m | Winner: Al Hayette, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed
7.40pm: Handicap (T) | $145,000 | 1,000m | Winner: Faatinah, Jim Crowley, David Hayes
8.15pm: Dubawi Stakes Group 3 (D) | $200,000 | 1,200m | Winner: Raven’s Corner, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
8.50pm: Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (T) | $200,000 | 1,800m | Winner: Dream Castle, Christophe Soumillon, Saeed bin Suroor
9.25pm: Handicap (T) | $175,000 | 1,400m | Winner: Another Batt, Connor Beasley, George Scott
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Day 4, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Lahiru Gamage appeared to have been hard done by when he had his dismissal of Sami Aslam chalked off for a no-ball. Replays suggested he had not overstepped. No matter. Two balls later, the exact same combination – Gamage the bowler and Kusal Mendis at second slip – combined again to send Aslam back.
Stat of the day Haris Sohail took three wickets for one run in the only over he bowled, to end the Sri Lanka second innings in a hurry. That was as many as he had managed in total in his 10-year, 58-match first-class career to date. It was also the first time a bowler had taken three wickets having bowled just one over in an innings in Tests.
The verdict Just 119 more and with five wickets remaining seems like a perfectly attainable target for Pakistan. Factor in the fact the pitch is worn, is turning prodigiously, and that Sri Lanka’s seam bowlers have also been finding the strip to their liking, it is apparent the task is still a tough one. Still, though, thanks to Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed, it is possible.
Porsche Macan T: The Specs
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Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km
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The Lost Letters of William Woolf
Helen Cullen, Graydon House
SPECS
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The specs
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Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
MATCH INFO
Crawley Town 3 (Tsaroulla 50', Nadesan 53', Tunnicliffe 70')
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Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
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Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
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