Alia Yunis

Alia Yunis is a screenwriter, script analyst and filmmaker whose work and writing focus on memory and heritage, gaining recognition internationally, including for her feature documentary The Golden Harvest and novel The Night Counter.

Idriss Jebari

Idriss Jebari is an academic who has published on the intellectual projects of several North African intellectual figures and on the theory and practice of Arab intellectual engagements in public affairs. He is involved in a number of initiatives with the Arab Council for Social Sciences.

Footnotes & References

1. This funny term refers to a marinade or paste of herbs and spices known as “charmoula” that one finds across Moroccan cuisine. See: Lefennec.com
2. Zakia Salime in “Remembering Fatema Mernissi,” Jadaliyya (18.12.2015) and “The Many Lives of Fatema Mernissi: Dreaming and Trespassing,” in Fatema Mernissi for Our Times, ed. M. Moallem and P. Bacchetta. Syracuse University Press, 2025
3. Boutheina Khaldi, Egypt Awakening in the Early 20th Century: Mayy Ziyādah’s Intellectual Circles. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012
4. Antoine Lilti, The World of the Salons. Sociability and Worldliness in Eighteenth-Century Paris. Oxford University Press, 2005; Faith E. Beasley, Salons, History, and the Creation of 17-Century France. Mastery Memory. Routledge, 2006; Anne Pollock, “Feminity and the Salon,” The Palgrave Handbook of German Romantic Philosophy (2020), 119–140
5. Zakya Daoud, Interview “Fatima Mernissi à coeur ouvert,” Lamalif 146 (May/June 1983), 44
6. Janet Abu-Lughod, Rabat: Urban Apartheid in Morocco. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980, 321
7. Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: male-female dynamics in modern Muslim society. London: Al Saqi, 1985, revised edition, 191
8. Fatima Mernissi, “La conversation de salon comme pratique terroriste,” Lamalif 139 (Oct–Nov. 1982), 37.
9. Mernissi, “La conversation de salon comme pratique terroriste” (1982), 38
10. Mernissi, “La conversation de salon comme pratique terroriste” (1982), 38

11. Mernissi, “La conversation de salon comme pratique terroriste” (1982), 39

12. Mernissi, “La conversation de salon comme pratique terroriste” (1982), 39

13. On the genealogy and associations of this term, see: Leila Ahmed, “Western Ethnocentrism and Perceptions of the Harem,” Feminist Studies 8.3 (1982), 521–534

14. Though the author outlines the tensions and different camps within the harem among the women who composed it. The different women who compose the harem deserve a study in its own right, as each one represents a different archetype and personality trait that went on to compose Fatema’s worldview: from the paternal grandmother Lalla Mina’s noticeable presence in the home, her maternal grandmother Yasmina’s depth and philosophy, and her mother who plays the role of a bridge and an everyday guide

15. Fatima Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass. Tales of a Harem Girlhood. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994, 84

16. Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass, 1994, 84

17. Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass, 1994, 88

18. Stuart Schaar, “Last Word: On Fatima Mernissi.” Critical Muslim (2015). CriticalMuslim.io

19. Note: the book was written under the pen-name of Fatna Ait Sabbah

20. Ziba Mir-Hosseini, “Honouring Fatima Mernissi,” Musawah (February 2016). ZibaMirHosseini.com

21. Interview with Laryssa Chomiak, 16 May 2025

22. As related by Laryssa Chomiak, 16 May 2025

23. The interview was completed over the phone a few months later: Maria-Àngels Roque, “Entretien : Mes rencontres avec Fatema Mernissi,” Quaderns de la Mediterrània 20–21, 2014: 92

24. Author’s note: Perhaps Moroccan writer and literary critic Abdelfattah Kilito

25. Roque, “Entretien: Mes rencontres avec Fatema Mernissi,” (2014), 95

26. Raja Rhouni, Secular and Islamic Feminist Critiques in the Work of Fatima Mernissi. Brill, 2010, 196

27. Daoud, Interview “Fatima Mernissi à coeur ouvert,” (1983), 43

28. Eileen Boris, Making the Woman Worker: Precarious Labor and the Fight for Global Standards, 1919–2019 (Oxford University Press, 2019), 138; Fatima Mernissi, “Historical Insights for New Population Strategies: Women in Precolonial Morocco,” UNESCO Paris (1978); Fatima Mernissi, “Développement capitaliste et perceptions des femmes dans la société musulmane: les paysannes du Gharb,” ILO Geneva (May 1981)

29. Fatiha Amellouk, “Rencontre avec Fatima Mernissi,” e-taqafa, March 17, 2015. E-taqafa.com

30. Soundouss Chraibi, “Layla Chaouni: les éditions Le Fennec, le projet d’une vie,” Telquel (15.07.2022). Telquel.ma

31. In 2022, following the passing of Aïcha Ech-Channa, Guessous wrote a post on Facebook about the impact of Miseria on her studies, especially her graduate school application essay as “the kind of new feminist debate/ discourse in Morocco that I was interested in further studying.” See the post by Nadia Guessous (25.09.2022). Facebook.com

32. Dorra Mahfoudh Draoui, “Fatima Mernissi (1940–2015): La lutte pour un féminisme sans tutelle,” Nouvelles Questions Féministes 35, no. 2 (2016): 154–155

33. Rabea Naciri’s remarks on the panel “Présentation de l’ouvrage Fatema Mernissi for Our Times” at the Salon International de l’Edition et du Livre, Rabat (19 April 2025). YouTube.com

34. Quote by Dorra Mahfoudh Draoui herself in “Fatima Mernissi (1940–2015),” Nouvelles Questions Féministes (2016), 155

35. As this was related by activists of the 8 March movement in the Q&A session of the “Présentation de l’ouvrage Fatema Mernissi for Our Times” at the Salon International de l’Edition et du Livre, Rabat (19 April 2025), cited above

36. Mernissi oversaw the collections Visibilité femmes and Visibilité femmes au Maghreb with éditions le Fennec

37. See Mounia Meftah’s presentation “Spotlight: Who is Fatema Mernissi and how is her work still relevant today?” (Geneva, July 19, 2024). afikra.com

38. Idriss Jebari, “The Other Khatibi: Envisaging Arab Intellectuals after the End of Grand Narratives,” Middle East Critique 30, 2 (2021), 149–168

39. “Dialogue after Fatéma Mernissi. Rêves d’un Islam cosmique.” Le Meter d’intellectuel. Dialogue avec quinze penseurs du Maroc. En Toutes Lettres, 2014, 89–105

40. Fadma Aït Mous et Driss Ksikes, “Penser ensemble, tout un cheminement.” Le tissu de nos singularités. Vivre ensemble au Maroc. En Toutes Lettres, 2016, 20–21

41. Aït Mous, Ksikes, “Penser ensemble,” Le tissu de nos singularités (2016), 30

42. Collectif du vivre ensemble, “Lettre posthume à Fatéma Mernissi,” Le tissu de nos singularités (2016), 11

43. Mernissi, “La conversation de salon comme pratique terroriste” (1982), 39

Alia Al-Senussi

Alia Al-Senussi is a cultural strategist, writer, public speaker, academic and patron of the arts in the region. Her work is focused on social change and the role of the arts in creating a shift, and has advanced various models of arts patronage in disparate areas and political systems.

Nour Daher

Nour Daher is research and media curator at afikra and teaches fashion at Creative Space Beirut. As an artist, she works with printmaking, textiles, and poetry to explore how memory and spirituality inhabit the material world, tracing the politics of land and rituals of resistance.

Mahmoud Talaat

Mahmoud Talaat is an Egyptian visual artist whose practice explores identity, roots, memory, and the fabric of the city, blending painting and photography, and intertwining the conceptual, ambiguous, and explicit.

Farida Youssef

Farida Youssef is a curator based in Cairo and a research fellow at the British Museum. Her research sought the inclusion of a local perspective on the Modern Egypt collection. She is interested in the value of spatial theory for artistic inquiries.

Ali Karimi

Ali Karimi is an architect whose work explores public space, ecology, and the extractive landscapes of the region. He is the co-founder of Civil Architecture in Manama and Kuwait City and has co-curated the Kuwait Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Footnotes & References

1. Saudi Vision 2030. Overview. September 22, 2025. www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/overview

Teymur Faris

Teymur Faris is a writer and film director born in Barcelona. He is the son of legendary photographer, artist and intellect, the late Waddah Faris, whose archive Teymur and his brother have been working to digitize.

Khalid Albaih

Khalid Albaih is one of the most prolific political cartoonists in the world, publishing one artwork a day for the last 20 years. A confluence of journalism and art, his work comments on subjects such as immigration, race, power, conflict, and identity.

Brahim "Snoopy" Ahmed

Brahim "Snoopy" Ahmed is a film director and producer born in Beirut and hailing from Khartoum, who is behind In Deep Visions Productions. His documentary work has garnered numerous awards and accolades and he has contributed to award-winning films.

Jade George

Jade George is the director of media at afikra and founder of The Carton magazine. Born in Beirut and currently living in Athens, her writings and projects for the last 20 years have focused on food culture along the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond.

Rafram Chaddad

Rafram Chaddad is an artist based in Tunis whose photographs, films, and multi-media installations rethink the archive, migration narratives, and what it means to belong. His work reflects on his personal life experiences and comments on broader socio-political issues.

Rabab Chamseddine

Rabab Chamseddine is a Lebanese poet and photographer based between Beirut and Tyre, recipient of the 2025 AFAC’s ADPP grant. Her work explores belonging to the land and the intertwining of loss and love under colonial threat in South Lebanon.

Nadi Abusaada

Nadi Abusaada is a Jerusalem-born architect and historian, currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture and Design at AUB. His work focuses on the material histories and visual cultures of the modern Arab world, and he has edited several books.

Ziad Jamaleddine

Ziad Jamaleddine is co-founder of L.E.FT Architects and teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. His research and practice focus on mosque architecture and have been recognized internationally.

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès

Dr. Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès is the founding director of Khatt Foundation and the author of many books. She specializes in multilingual typographic research and design and has taught and lectured on typography and graphic design internationally.

Footnotes & References

1. Kamal Boullata, There Where You Are Not: Selected Writings (Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2019), 356
2. Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès, “The Spiritual Dimensions of Contemporary Art and Design,” in Scripts and Calligraphy: Paths to the Soul (Milan: Skira, 2023), 47
3. Inner Structures – Outer Rhythms: Contemporary Arab and Persian Graphic Design, curated by Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès, was commissioned by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and first exhibited at MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis, from September 1 to November 6, 2021. It subsequently toured to VCUarts Qatar in Doha (February 8 – April 6, 2024), the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (April 26, 2024 – August 17, 2025), and is scheduled to open at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto (June 21, 2025 – April 19, 2026). Exhibition info: Minneapolis: mcad.edu ; Hamburg: mkg-hamburg.de; Toronto: agakhanmuseum.org
4. The exhibition catalogue is available at www.khattbooks.com
5. “Shifting Scripts,” Khatt Foundation, www.khtt.net.
6. Workshop 67, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (Hamburg University), www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de
7. The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art showcases one of the world’s most significant collections of Islamic art from the Middle East. The Jameel Prize, launched by the V&A in 2009 in partnership with Art Jameel, honors contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. See vam.ac.uk
8. Arab Design Now was presented at M7, Msheireb Downtown Doha, from February 24 to August 5, 2024. See designdoha.org.qa.
9. The 100 Best Arabic Posters initiative was launched by faculty and students of the German University in Cairo and ran for four editions between 2016 and 2022. See 100bestarabicposters.com
10. Amman Design Week archive, 2016 edition: ammandesignweek.com

11. Rana Beiruti, “Curatorial Essay,” in Arab Design Now (Doha: Qatar Museums; Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2024), 17

12. The two companion catalogues for the “Scripts and Calligraphy” exhibitions are: Scripts and Calligraphy: A Timeless Journey (Paris–Beirut: Kaph, 2021) and Scripts and Calligraphy: Paths to the Soul (Milan: Skira, 2023). Contributors include Lotfi Abdeljaouad, Eric Delpont, Nuria Garcia Massip, Issa Makhlouf, and Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès

13. The Islamic Arts Biennale, launched in 2023, is the first of its kind in the region. The second edition is scheduled for 2025. See biennale.org.sa

14. Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès, “Design and the Jameel Prize,” in Jameel Prize 4 (Istanbul: Pera Museum, 2016)

15. Islamic Arts Biennale – 2023 edition: biennale.org.sa

16. Islamic Arts Biennale – 2025 edition: biennale.org.sa

17. Islamic Arts Biennale – 2025 edition: biennale.org.sa

18. Morcos Key design studio: www.morcoskey.com

19. Based on an email exchange with designer Wael Morcos, May 22, 2025

Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi

Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi is an Emirati educator, art collector, scholar, columnist and member of the ruling family of Sharjah. He founded Barjeel Art Foundation, an organization dedicated to art of North Africa and West Asia based in Sharjah.

Beginnings

Every beginning is a return. An echo, a gesture, a question asked in a new voice.

First Edition

Footnotes & References

Footnotes & References

Footnotes & References

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