Notes on Lebanese Frenchies and the In Vitro Diaspora

Francophilia has long been a part of Lebanon’s complex sociopolitical fabric. The Frenchies of the country detach themselves from their environment and enjoy a bourgeois French-centric mode of existence. In the wake of ongoing national crises, members of the francophone middle class are becoming increasingly critical of their upbringing and aim to re-appropriate a certain sense of Lebaneseness

Okay, but who’s actually buying these Saddam Hussein watches? And why?

On the strange afterlife of Saddam Hussein watches and what their thriving resale trade says about nostalgia, myth-making, and a region's unresolved relationship with its strongmen

Worlds of Their Own Making

The emerging cohort of designers transforming raw material into a living temperament

Let the Majlis Be a Majlis

The majlis has historically been associated with governance, community, hospitality, and negotiation in the Arab world. In the last few years, it has also become an aesthetic object exhibited at biennials and museums. But what happens when a social form becomes a spectacle? What does it mean when a space deemed private is put on display?

My Favourite Neuroses: Mapping the Ecstasy and Comedown of Romance Across the Arab Love Song

SLOP IS THAT DEEP

Do you sense that you live in a world that literally makes no fucking sense?

Pilates Was Actually Created for Men

So why are so few of them doing it?

Adam Bakri: In the Presence of Absence