Many so-called voices for women’s rights in the western world confine their support of Iranian women to assert the right to remove their headscarves, in defiance of the tyranny of the fascistic Ayatollahs. So far so good, but this obviously suits western lifestyles…because women without headscarves ‘look like us’. Women also have the right to …
Playing around mischievously in a recording studio, July 2005
Rest in Peace, Love and Power, my dear friend, fellow musician and Middle Easterner. The great Armenian Greek Turkish composer and guitarist, Gilbert Biberian, left us a few days ago to be with the One. The photo below was taken during my interview with Gilbert for my BBC Radio 4 documentary “Distant Chords”. This particular episode was called “My Book, My Mountain, My Self” [The Bible, Mount Ararat, cultural identity], about …
The demonstration in Tahrir Square on Tuesday 25th January which provided the spark for the current nationwide uprising saw a few thousand demonstrators confronting a police force well-armed for riot control. Many demonstrators were intent on peaceful protest, but there were also some willing to engage the police in a fight. The police, in turn, …
From 2011…….A WEEK IN CAIRO & THE BATTLE OF QASR EL-NIL BRIDGE Read More »
I was very much saddened to learn from my DJ friend Jamie Renton that Nick Skelton (DJ Skunk as he was known) died earlier this month. He was both a friend and a supporter of independent music over the past two decades, through his work, first at 209 Radio and later at Cambridge 105 Radio. …
Dear Friends & Fans You may have noticed that I have taken a brief break from promoting my new EP. This is because I have been totally distracted, indeed devastated, by recent developments in Palestine and Syria. Palestinians, Muslim & Christian alike, are being denied access to their respective places of worship, especially to al-Aqsa …
“قالَ المُغَنِّي: طائِرُ السَّحَر” تُصدِر المُوسيقيَّة والمُغنيَّة والإذاعيَّة الفلسطينيَّة ريم الكيلاني ألبُومَها القصير المُقبِل “قالَ المُغَنِّي: طائِرُ السَّحَر” يوم 21 مارس 2022. هذا الإصدار هو إهداءٌ إلى روح المُوسيقار والمُغَنِّي الإيرانيّ المُعارض، محمد-رضا شَجَريان، الذي وافَته المَنِيَّة عام 2020: الأغنية الأولى: “قالَ المُغَنِّي” من شعر محمود درويش، وألحان ريم الكيلاني الأغنية الثانية: “مرغ سحر [طائِرُ …
Palestinian singer, musician and broadcaster Reem Kelani released digitally two new tracks in an EP entitled “The Singer Said: Bird of Dawn” on 21st March 2022. The EP is a tribute to Iranian singer, calligrapher and political activist Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, one of the world’s greatest vocalists, who died in 2020: – The Singer Said (Qāla …
I hate to bring this to you, but although there are Orthodox Jewish Israelis who dress modestly, it is still easier for an average white Brit to relate to a bikini-wearing Israeli, than to a more modestly dressed Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian woman. The notion of a Judeo-Christian narrative which has taken root in recent …
“My father informed us that the British Mandate government has decided to move all the Arab employees of the Department of Land & Surveying into Ramleh, where there is a residence camp that was specially built for British employees who had left Palestine. I was later to understand that this had been part of a …