Features, book reviews & personal essays

A book-length work is currently in progress, generously supported by the Arts Council England. Excerpts of this were longlisted for both the 2025 Wasafiri Queen Mary Prize for Life Writing and the Rebecca Swift Foundation forthcoming anthology, Woman Unmapped.

Speaking in Mother Tongues (New York Times)
I was determined to teach my son my native Arabic. But raising a truly bilingual child takes a village, I learned.

Gazan Poets Write to Survive (New Lines Magazine)
An outpouring of Palestinian literature shows the importance of language in times of crisis, and is building a body of work that both documents and defies destruction.

The Art of Letting Go: On the Path to Wilful Abandonment (The Markaz Review)
Should we forget our failed attempts to capture fleeting moments to better serve our souls and poetry?

The Invisible Walls, A Meditation on Work and Being (The Markaz Review)
An Arab translator and writer reflects on her work experiences at home and abroad, and on the meaning of everything in a time when much confusion reigns.

How a movie star and my mother made me a feminist (Middle East Eye)
Egyptian film actress Magda al-Sabahy left a legacy of strong female roles that still resonate today.

Return to Kuwait (Al Jazeera English)
Twenty years after Iraq’s invasion, former classmates dispersed by the war reunite.

Teaching Arabic to kids: How families are putting the fun back into reading (Middle East Eye)
With taught classical Arabic not spoken in informal conversation, language learning can be a challenge, not least for young children.

Your Wish is My Command: Deena Mohamed’s fantasy tale of desperate desire (Middle East Eye)
Set in an alternate reality of modern-day Egypt, the author’s debut graphic novel is set in a world where even the most unconceivable wishes may be granted.

‘I sort of broke English’(Middle East Eye)
Zeina Hashem Beck on protests in Lebanon and living on the edge of language and home.

Cambridge’s burgeoning Muslim community to benefit from eco-mosque
(Environment Journal)
A new ‘eco’ mosque in Cambridge hosted its first morning prayers — it’s a unique building with world-class environmental credentials and hopes to better serve the city’s burgeoning Muslim community.

The Art of War
Q&A with Syrian storytellers Nadine & Soudade Kaadan.
(Trix magazine, issue 1)

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