A Little Empathy Would Go A Long Way

I attended a Dubai Slam Poetry session few days ago and one of the talented young poets, Syrian Sarah Tamimi, told the story of war through a daughter’s promise to her departed mother: ‘Don’t look back’… What I understood from Sarah’s tearful performance which content evoked my own experience in Lebanon’s physical war zone in […]

Islam through the Lens of Young Syrian Women: between Unity and Diversity

On February 28th, 12pm, students in Dr. Pamela Chrabieh’s “Religions of the World” course at the American University in Dubai had the opportunity to watch the documentary “Turoq” and meet its directors, Sarah Hassan and Leen Al Faysal. Sarah and Leen are former students of Dr. Chrabieh. Sarah is journalist and producer with CNN International […]

The Yellow Underline

Duly named “The Yellow Underline”, the series of photographs that I created is considered to be an absolute embodiment of the archaic debate that revolves around “Islam and Peace”, taking into consideration the controversial argument that stems from the stereotypical mentality that foreigners possess of Muslim women. Seeing that those individuals who have not had […]

الزين اللي فيك: علاش هاد البلبلة؟

يسبق خامس أفلام نبيل عيّوش الروائيّة صيته، وقد حُكم عليه بالرفض حتّى قبل أن يحاول المنتج توزيعه في المغرب أو أيّ دولة عربيّة أخرى. لا يريد المغربيّون الفيلم لأنّه “يخدش الحياء” ويمسّ بصورة المرأة المغربيّة ويروّج للدعارة كما يقولون على صفحات مواقع التواصل الإجتماعيّ، هم أنفسهم الذين يهرعون لتحميل مقاطع الفيلم الجنسيّة كي “يفضحوا” نيّة […]

Stereotypes about Women in the Middle East

I’ve always been fascinated by stereotypes in general, because we often group individuals together and make collective, controversial judgements about them, despite not knowing them.  There can be positive as well as negative stereotypes, and I believe that they are harmful to society because they oversimplify people’s qualities and create an inaccurate image of them, […]

Women: An Inspiration

As a child, I grew up in a world that was part fantasy and part reality. I was very visual, and my mind would often wander as I looked at objects, observed patterns, and listened to conversations. I gained a particular interest in observing people and the way they behave. My mother took me along […]

Breaking Stereotypes

I am Ermida Koduah, a young woman from New York City. This spring I studied in the American University in Dubai. Taking the Women & Gender in the Middle East course this semester has helped me view the Middle East in a more positive way. I see the similarities between here and my own culture, […]

Rape Culture in the UAE

Rates of sexual harassment continue to rise in the Middle East, feasibly linked to culture-enforced lack of sex education, experts say. In an interview with Joan Abdalla, a Counselor and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the American University in Dubai, she has revealed that the absence of awareness could be a contributing factor to how […]

Voicing Silences

The 21-year-old Lebanese-American porn star Mia Khalifa sparked controversy few days ago in Lebanon, after topping the charts of the most popular online adult site PornHub. While many were offended by her work and her tattoo ‘Koullouna lil-watan, lil ‘oula lil ‘alam’ (opening line of the Lebanese national anthem) and even demonized her, others saw […]

Hidden Hurt No More! "Amal": a story of domestic violence and marital rape in Lebanon

‘Amal’ is the story of a young pregnant woman holding the same name, who wants to escape from the violent grips of her abusive insanely possessive husband, but it turns out that her freedom carries a very high price. The term Amal also has a connotation of hope in Arabic, and this is the main […]