31 July 2025 – Borges said that heaven will be a library. This is how I felt in Hodges and Figgis Bookshop after visiting the old Trinity college Library in Dublin. The new books and the old manuscripts and the serious ess of it all compared to the AI hype and post-truth internet flood. 22 June 2025 — Two […]
Published on 11 April 2025 Ursula Lindsey, co-author of Bulaq Books podcast, introduced this episode on 8 May 2025: “We had the great pleasure to do an episode of @bulaqbooks with old friend (and accomplished writer) Khaled Mansour. Khaled walked us through his recent exploration of Arab women’s autobiograpichal writing, a journey that began with his […]
Published 5 April 2025 in the EU Observer and co-authored with Petra Stienen “In the trash-strewn zigzagging streets of Al Husseiniya, a slum less than 15km south of Damascus, Ahmad Bakr walks with his Oud strung on his shoulder on his way to a small apartment where he runs a music school. Al Husseiniya is […]
Watch it here Wearing my social media hat and pontificating about AI and the need for global regulations at the #WebSummitQatar
Time for the UN to Check Out of the Four Seasons As Geir Pedersen, the UN envoy to Syria, left the abandoned Sednaya prison near Damascus, a woman spat in his direction and threw her shoes at his car — a gesture of deep disrespect and disdain in the Middle East. Prior to the collapse of the Assad […]
29 September 2023 — Some of my friends whose opinions I very much respect admiringly shared an analytical piece by Cheryl Benard on Afghan women after the failure of the American Neo-imperial project and their ignominious withdrawal this month. Here is the piece: https://unherd.com/2021/09/the-truth-about-afghan-women/… I found the main points of attractions in the piece either […]
First published in MadaMasr on 13 October 2020 Even as the Saudis and the Emiratis continue to wage war in Yemen, they should step up and at least double the money they have been providing for humanitarian aid in the country. It is a moral duty and an ethical obligation, and although these are clearly […]
This was first published by MadaMasr on 6 September 2020 Less than three days after a massive explosion in Beirut killed nearly 200 people, injured several thousand and devastated the city, the head of the World Food Programme, the largest UN relief agency, flew into the Lebanese capital and drove to the site of carnage. […]
This was first published on MadMasr on 22 August 2020 Seventeen years ago, this week, I survived a terrorist attack that killed 22 people and injured many, including several friends in the United Nations. The attack on the UN offices at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad came a few months after the US invasion of […]
By mid 2020, the pandemic has left most Egyptians, probably including government officials, counting more on divine intervention and what has been destined by fate, rather than government policies and market responses… This article was first run by Daraj on 16 July 2020 in cooperation with Pulitzer Center. By early July, over 3500 Egyptians fell to […]
