BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer Eaten in the Arab world for centuries, za’atar has a special history as the Queen of Spice. For hundreds of years, Arabs have been mixing together sesame, sumac, salt, and wild oregano and thyme to create za’atar, making it one of the oldest blends in the world. Evidence of za’atar’s age … Continued
BY: Kristina Perry and Clara Ana Ruplinger/Contributing Writers In the U.S. today, Arabic is a language that has been highly stigmatized. Individuals speaking Arabic have found that using the language, or even looking Arab, can make a person seem so threatening that they can be thrown off of planes, harassed, or even attacked. In the climate of … Continued
BY: Clara Ana Ruplinger/Contributing Writer Edward Said, notable academic and scholar of post-colonial criticism, was born on November 1, 1935 in Jerusalem, which was then part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Born to a Lebanese mother and Christian Palestinian father, he became an American after his father gave military service to the U.S. during … Continued
BY:Eugene Smith/Contributing Writer Psychedelic Funk Music of Lebanon in the 60’s and 70’s: Cultural Conversation through Sound Once a tourism advertisement for westerners, this footage offers a grainy window into the joie de vivre of pre-civil war Lebanon. Scantily clad women frequent snow-white beaches and azure Mediterranean waters. Alcohol flows as if pouring from a … Continued
BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer The Community Relations Service of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a list of twenty ways to prevent and respond to hate incidents against Arab Americans in schools. The report also applies to Muslim and Sikh students, who are often targeted for their religious head coverings. The DOJ released … Continued
(photo: Volubilis, Morocco) BY: Habeeb Salloum/Contributing writer Very few people when thinking of Rome and its historical glory will have any inkling that today the Arab world is the greatest depository of Roman remains. From Morocco in the west to the Syrian Desert in the east, the Arab world is literally littered with remains … Continued
Kathy R. Byrnes
Cincinnati.com
Caregiving is associated with a lot of social, emotional, physical and financial responsibilities. As a result, caregivers often neglect their health in taking care of somebody else. Embracing a Mediterranean diet is just one approach to help you stay both physically and mentally strong.
The Mediterranean diet includes lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. In addition, it promotes healthy fats that can be found in fish, nuts, seeds and olive oil. Overall, the Mediterranean diet is low in refined sugar and saturated fat, which is associated with dairy and meat. In particular, the Mediterranean diet does not include a lot of red meat.
The Mediterranean diet includes foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s are fats that your body needs to function. They are found primarily in fish, nuts and seeds. The following list includes recommended foods associated with the Mediterranean diet according to AgingCare.com (2016):
• Arugula Baba Ghanoush Couscous Falafel Feta Cheese
• Hummus Mousakka Paells Pesto Pita Bread
• Falafel Red Wine Salmon Spinach Tahini
• Whole Grains
In addition to function, Omega-3s also have also have major health benefits. The overall health benefits associated with the Mediterranean diet include:
•Decreased frailty. Adults who eat healthier are better able to control join stiffness associated with arthritis, walk better/faster, enhance muscle strength, experience less exhaustion and decrease the risk of failing.
•Reduced risk for developing chronic illnesses. Healthy eating is connected to reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, oral health issues, cancer, arthritis, Mediterranean diet to helping people manage asthma and chronic eye disorders such as macular degeneration, and Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Some studies have connected the Mediterranean diet to helping people manage asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
•Brain protection. Researchers believe that a healthy diet and lifestyle can improve cholesterol and blood sugar levels and overall blood vessel health, which may in turn reduce the risk of brain disorders including Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease. Additional research suggests that a Mediterranean diet may help prevent brain tissue loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Source: www.cincinnati.com
By Leyal Khalife Stepfeed Sharing is something the Arab culture truly values, and we’ve all been programmed to believe that “sharing is caring” since the day we were born. Khalas it’s just something Arabs have truly perfected. Many people don’t understand why we do certain things, but that’s what makes it so special. Here are 7 … Continued
By: Eugene Smith/Contributing Writer The Tragedy On Thursday night, thousands were gathered along the historic Promenade des Anglais in coastal Nice to celebrate Bastille Day, a national holiday symbolic of freedom and French unity. The fireworks had just ended and the festivities were beginning to calm. Other than a rainstorm on the horizon, it was … Continued
Dennis Lynch
Brooklyn Daily
It’s a modest success.
A Bay Ridge woman has turned frustration into inspiration, starting a body-covering clothing line for Muslim women after struggling to find fashionable threads that still leave a little to the imagination. The Egyptian-born, Bensonhurst-raised founder of Urban Modesty said she got the idea because her only other options were donning stuffy traditional garb or cobbling together a hodgepodge of Western clothes.“Finding an outfit for any occasion is always a nightmare — my peers, friends, young women, older women, they all had the same problem,” said Sherihan Moustafa. “You either dress very traditionally, or you try to put something together by layering clothes from five different stores.”
Moustafa, a 29-year-old City College economics grad and self-described fashionista, stitched together Urban Modesty in 2013 after she took an entrepreneurial business class. She has no formal fashion training, but designs the pieces herself before sending patterns to China for production, she said. Moustafa hit the market with eight designs, but now offers more than 70 tops, bottoms, dresses, gowns, and cover-ups — in addition to kids’ digs and jewelry. Most pieces sell for $25–$70, but formal gowns can go for up to $230.
The store is a godsend, according to one shopper who picked up some threads at the Arab American Bazaar in Bay Ridge last weekend.
“I saw those long dresses that I do not see in stores, I always felt I should have a piece like that in my closet, but I did not know how to get it,” said Bay Ridgite Abeer Assad.Moustafa relied on word-of-mouth among friends and family in Bay Ridge to spread her brand early on. New Yorkers are still the biggest buyers, but frequent trips to Islamic conventions outside the city have helped spread the word nationally.
She recently made progress in the Great White North during a showcase in Toronto, she said.
“We walked in with six laundry bags full of clothes and walked out with one half-full,” she said.
Moustafa has carved out a niche in a growing industry — Muslims spent roughly $230 billion on clothing worldwide in 2014, and that figure could grow to $327 billion by the end of the decade, according to Dinar Standard’s Global Islamic Economy Report. Not all of that is on modest fashion, but the top brands Dinar Standard highlights in the report make demure duds.
Next, she’s taking on the major retailers, and hoping to expand her reach outside of the Muslim community, she said.
“We have cover-ups that you can throw over jeans or whatever you want, so [non-Muslims] have bought those too,” she said. “It’s cute and trendy and now if you look, Forever 21 sells a maxi dress cover-up as well, that’s who we are competing with.”
Source: www.brooklyndaily.com
by Alex Ritman
Hollywood Reporter
The UAE government has warned its citizens against wearing traditional Arabic robes while visiting the West after an Emirati man was detained at gunpoint in Ohio.
Middle East nationals have been urged to think carefully about their wardrobe choices while traveling abroad, especially in the U.S.
The warning comes from the government of the United Arab Emirates days after an Emirati man was detained at gunpoint in Ohio, the police having been alerted by a suspicious hotel clerk who had spied his flowing white robes and headdress.
Ahmed Al Menhali, 41, had traveled to Cleveland for heart surgery (the Cleveland Clinic is a very popular destination for Middle East medical tourism), but after trying to book a room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in the suburb of Avon, Menhali soon found himself being ordered to lie face down on the ground and being forcefully searched, resulting in his suffering a panic attack and being hospitalized.
“They were brutal with me,” he later told reporters, adding that he had always worn traditional Arabic dress when traveling and had never experienced such a situation before.
While police and town officials apologized for Menhali’s “very regrettable” treatment, the UAE is now advising its citizens against wearing national dress when in public places in the West “to ensure their safety,” adding that women should abide European bans on face veils.
“I’m on the fence about whether you should wear [national dress] or not, but I think in the current climate, looking at what’s happening in the U.S. with Donald Trump and in the U.K. with Brexit, it’s a scary time,” Emirati director Majid Al Ansari tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I think it’s best just to keep your head down and do you thing…don’t bring attention.”
Al Ansari, who works at UAE production house Image Nation Abu Dhabi, proudly wore national dress when his debut feature Zinzana had its regional premiere at the Dubai Film Festival in December. The Tarantino-esque psychological thriller, set entirely in a police station and starring Saleh Bakri (The Time That Remains) and Ali Suliman (Body of Lies, Lone Survivor), was the event’s breakout hit, snapped up by Netflix in its first Middle East acquisition and seeing the hugely promising filmmaker signed to UTA.
Al Ansari is due to fly to LA soon on a trip that is “part work, part holiday,” but he has no intentions of packing his white robes – known in some parts of the Gulf as a kandura – for the visit.
“I never do, I didn’t even when I was studying there, it just brings so much attention,” he says, adding that he was a student in California before Dubai became a known entity in the U.S. “You’d say, ‘I’m from Dubai,’ and they’d say, ‘What state is that in?’ So imagine those guys seeing someone in a kandura.”
While there’s the security and safety issue to consider, Al Ansari hopes to find a positive angle from the national dress warning.
“If you go to a different country, I think the beauty of it all is to immerse yourself in their culture and heritage. So if I go to America, I want to go to a diner, I want to have breakfast at an IHOP,” he says. “And I think the first step for a person who travels with a kandura, the first step for him to get into their culture is to wear jeans.”
Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com
BY: Habeeb Salloum/Contributing Writer It was the sixth time I had travelled to Córdoba, the fabled city of Moorish Spain, yet it was as if I had entered it the first time. My heart throbbed as I walked its streets on my way to La Mezquita – six acres of architectural magic that was once … Continued
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