Lights out Libya
Illuminated only by the swerving headlights of passing cars, an ordinarily busy Tripoli street is softened by the darkness. Its shops are either closed or operating with generators or candles. Some residents use their mobile phones to navigate the nearby streets and alleyways; others use candles, while some avoid the light, moving in the shadows.
Continue reading on Mashallah News
Exposing food inequality in Egypt through art
Asunción Molinos Gordo is an artist who has long been interested in issues relating to agriculture, rural work, and food sovereignty, and makes inventive projects that highlight them. Now living in Oman, she was based in Egypt for four years and in that time created two projects—the World Agricultural Museum (WAM) and El Matam el Mish Masry (The Non-Egyptian Restaurant)—both of which provided unique ways of presenting information, and public conversations, about Egypt’s food production and global food poverty.
Continue reading on Egyptian Streets
The hardest thing about leaving Islam is telling my parents
I recently decided to leave Islam.
I was forcing myself to believe in something I didn’t believe in anymore. It was only a matter of time before I made the bold move.
Born in the UK to a conservative Muslim family of Pakistani descent, from a young age, I received the sort of traditional Islamic education doled out to many Muslims originally from the subcontinent but living in the West. As a child, I remember attending my local mosque straight after school every day. I sat in a class with other children my age and practiced reciting the Qur’an in Arabic (without understanding what I was reading) and learned the basic pillars of Islam.
Continue reading on Muftah