Dear Habib…

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Remembering A Self Taught Afghani Photographer – Shah Marai

  Agence France-Presse’s chief photographer Shah Marai, aged 41, was murdered in a  suicide attack, orchestrated by the radical Islamist group the Taliban. this week in Kabul. Marai was one of nine journalists and 25 people, killed in dual bomb blasts in the capital of Afghanistan, his home country. “This year’s bloody Taliban spring offensive … Continue reading →

World Refugee Day 2016

As with last year, June 20th is an international day to push the agenda for displaced families across the world. Currently 2-3 million children are not in education due to war and poverty. Brian Donald, an Europol official, has announced that 10,000 minors who are migrants have disappeared, we actually don’t know what happened to … Continue reading →

London Event – Persian, Arabic, Somali Poetry at the Bowler Hat

London Calling Mon 14 July 2014 6.30pm, £8 at Bowler Hat With Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, Sudan, Caasha Lul Mohamud Yusuf Somalia/ Somaliland, Reza Mohammadi Afghanistan and UK translators of their work; Sarah Maguire, Clare Pollard, Maura Dooley. London Calling showcases the outstanding contemporary poetry of 3 languages widely spoken in London: Arabic, Persian and Somali in … Continue reading →

Ireland’s Norooz Art Exhibition

Well, we don’t often get to hear about art in Ireland, North or South, so we were delighted that Dublin’s grand City Hall recently hosted a large array of art and craft works to mark Norooz, Persian new year. Artists in March’s show were from 5 countries Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan, plus the … Continue reading →

Bibi Sanam Janam – With a Pakistani Tilt

A re-worked old and lovely Farsi folk song from Afghanistan, sung by Zeb and Haniya, a pop group from Pakistan. While the intro requires patience, when the vocals begin the song really takes off. The duo’s songs are mostly in Urdu but also in Pashto, Dari and Turkish.  The band is a project started by … Continue reading →

Dari-Persian Shakespeare: ‘Comedy of Errors’

حالا دست در دست برویم نه پشت به پشت Roy-e-Sabs is a theatrical miracle. In 2005, the group performed Love’s Labour’s Lost in an ancient garden in war-ravaged Kabul, close to where the founder of the Mughal Empire lies buried. The controversial production saw men and women acting together, the women occasionally not wearing headscarves, … Continue reading →