Arts and Culture in the Mideast

Zaha Hadid opens design gallery for the public

Renowned architect Zaha Hadid has just launched her very own design gallery in London. The Zaha Hadid Design Gallery features her unique furniture designs as well as the architectural models she has done in the last three decades.

Sixty-two year old Hadid has won several awards in her career and has made it to the top 100 most influential people lists by Time and Forbes.

The gallery is a comprehensive exhibit of Hadid’s work not only in furniture design and architecture, but also in home furnishings, fashion and jewelry. An archive of all her architectural works include hand-cut perspectives of old projects and 3D-printed studies of her latest projects.

The design gallery is currently open by group appointments.

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Persepolis: Too Graphic to be Taught?

Persepolis, the novel, may ring a bell, as does its subsequent Oscar-nominated animated film and co-winner of the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Marjane Satrapi’s name has recently made headlines as Chicago Public School (CPS) CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett announced that Persepolis, Satrapi’s popular 2000 coming-of-age memoir set during the Iranian Revolution in the 1970s and 80s, has been removed from school curriculum as of March 15, for its “graphic language” and “inappropriate images.” (It will still be taught in grades 11 and 12 and in Advanced Placement classes.)

“Give me a break,” Paris-based Satrapi told DNAinfo Chicago. “The book is ten years old. This is the first time I hear about it traumatizing children. No one has been traumatized until now.” Protests and read-ins were held in response to the decision, originally set to take hold district-wide; over 100 students and teachers in Chicago stood outside Lane Tech College Prep to protest what the Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) calls “Orwellian doublespeak,” “pedagogically unsound and constitutionally suspect.”

Burqavaganza’s Brazen Bollywood Ballyhoo Puts the Fun in Fundamentalism

“If you look at the burqa in a symbolic sense, everywhere people have burqas. Every culture has its own way of hiding true intention. There are communist burqas; there are free-market burqas.” ~ Shahid Nadeem

Hot off the heels of Pakistan’s spirited parliamentary elections- which pitted a charismatic, secular former cricket star against an older, pro-establishment, conservative candidate- the United States theatrical premier of Burqavaganza at San Francisco’s Brava Theater couldn’t have been more aptly timed.

Billed as “a love story in the time of jihad,” Burqavaganza is a searing satire from Pakistan’s Shahid Nadeem, who uses the burqa as a metaphor to challenge Islamic extremism, sexual taboos, police corruption, Western imperialism, and the War on Terror.

Haleh Anvari: Beyond the Cliche

The black chador has irrevocably become what Iranian photographer and writer, Haleh Anvari describes as Iran's visual shorthand, its unregistered trademark. Haleh's quest to deconstruct and liberate the chador from reductionist stereotype occurred as a byproduct of her relationship with the foreign press reporting in Iran and that of the chador itself. Her determination to re-present the chador has resulted in the photographic projects, Chador-nama, Chador-dadar, and Peace Chador, and the performance-work, Power of Cliche.

Having studied politics and philosophy at university in UK, Haleh returned to Iran and worked as a local translator/producer for foreign journalists covering Iran. “I was a product of two cultures and it subsequently gave me license to see both sides of the coin, so to speak,” she remarks.

Cultural Differences Make Provocative Romance: “Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World”

Egyptian-American playwright, Yussef El Guindi explores the complexities of an intercultural romance in the Bay Area premier of Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World, winner of last year’s prestigious Steinberg Award for New Play from the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA).

A romantic comedy is a departure for the multi-award winning Guindi, who is better known for his deeply contemplative political works such as Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes, Language Rooms and When the Birds Flew In, which have been staged by the San Francisco-based theater company Golden Thread Productions.

El Guindi says that he “latches on to whatever my muse or unconscious coughs up” and was inspired to write this play after hearing a late-night conversation between two people who were walking up the stairs to their apartment.

444 Days: A Tangled Web of Love, Betrayal, and Politics

Love, betrayal, espionage: together, the three make for a winning combination, especially when it’s set to the well-known 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis story told from the rare perspective of an Iranian woman. This is the premise of Playwright and Director Torange Yeghiazarian’s new play, 444 DAYS, set to premiere this October at Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco, the only theatre in the United States solely dedicated to producing work by and about Middle Easterners.

Can anything survive decades of secrecy, broken promises, and political intrigue? That’s the question we ask when Laleh, an Iranian revolutionary, and Henry, a diplomatic attaché, meet for the first time in 25 years as Laleh’s daughter lies in a coma. The last time they spoke was when she held him hostage for 444 days at the United States Embassy in Tehran along with 52 other Americans. Through a masterful and unexpected meshing of international espionage and family secrets, Yeghiazarian weaves a narrative that is not only dramatically gripping, but also provocative as it sheds a new light on current United States-Iran relations.

Making Fashion Saucy: UAE’s S*uce Boutique Helps Local Talent Shine

Dubai, a city known for its glamour, soaring skyscrapers and magnificent malls, plays host to over a thousand shopping tourists every month. The Middle East, in general, has a strong presence of international luxury brands such as Chanel, Givenchy, Prada and Louis Vuitton. But, there are also tourists hungry for some local fashion flair. In 2004, this idea turned into a reality with the opening of S*uce Boutique.

Founder Zayan Ghandour, a fashion journalist, along with boutique partners Fatima Ghobash and Dina Salehese, realized there was something missing from the Middle Eastern fashion market; they wanted to bring quirky and edgy local high fashion to the UAE’s saturated (foreign) luxury fashion market. In addition to carrying high fashion contemporary brands such as Alexander Wang and Thakoon, the boutique stocks up and coming local fashion and lifestyle brands, making them accessible to natives and tourists alike.

One of These Things is Actually Like the Others

What Past Great Performances Can Teach Us In Dealing with Present-Day Events

Muslim-Americans. A 1950s American opera best described as “Shakespearean tragedy meets McCarthy-Era Tennessee.” The Boston Marathon. Before you begin to think that I’m having an ADHD attack, let me say this: one of these things is actually like the others.

I don’t think we need to rehash the events leading up to and following the Boston Marathon bombings. The tragedy shook me- not just because of its horrificness, but also because I used to live in Boston, and currently, I’m in the process of possibly moving back. As a city, it energizes me like no other- its culture, its history, and the intellectual stimulation it offers. The first time I ever felt like I had a small place in the span of American history was almost twelve years ago when I walked through Harvard’s Memorial Hall. And, every time I return to Boston, a certain pride overwhelms me. No matter how jaded or cynical I may feel at the time, the city always reminds me that calling myself an “American” is in fact something I can be proud of.