The Nightingale’s Prayer: One of the Best Egyptian Films Ever Made

The Nightingale’s Prayer – or Do’aa el Karawan – is an icon of Egyptian Cinema’s Golden age. Mayra Nassef writes about its strong female characters and its pioneering feminist themes that address gender inequality and cultures of shame.

Daftar Digest

We select the best from the Arab world each month, and put it in your inbox.

Curated Recommendations

Every time a guest joins us on one of our podcast series, they leave us with breadcrumbs to further explore some of the topics that they covered in the episode. Browse through some of the best recommendations for films, books, and music from the Arab world.

Staff Pick: Podcast Episode

Sonja Mejcher-Atassi

We did a deep dive into this episode of our This Is Not a Watermelon podcast with the author of "An Impossible Friendship: Group Portrait, Jerusalem Before and After 1948," professor Sonja Mejcher-Atassi.

Tsawwar

Tsawwar is a visual series enclosed monthly in our Daftar Digest and explores the stories behind a photograph taken in the region or by an Arab photographer.

Quartertones Blog at afikra Quartertones Blog at afikra

Review of Elyanna's Latest Album Woledto

A review of Palestinian singer Elyanna’s most recent album Woledto by Kiko Gomersall. Listen as you read track by track, as Kiko draws connections between Elyanna’s music, the diaspora, ideas of distance, longing, and the music of Fairuz. Image via Elyanna on YouTube .

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QUARTERTONES MIXAPE

“I want to represent some of the music of today that will be the past archive of tomorrow." DJ, producer and composer Jihed Khmiri (aka Pan-J) compiled an all-Tunisian mixtape for us this month.

Write for Daftar Journal

Are you itching to write about an Arab cultural figure? Are you knowledgeable about books, films, or music from and about the Arab world? Want to interview a figure from the media, arts or academia? Is there a famous street, ancient city, culturally loaded landmark or monument you’d like to write about?

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