The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has a birthday today, on May 25 – celebrating 70 years of sovereign independence -– and everyone wants in on the party! Jordan's 2016 'Spring' date is a double whammy additionally because an anniversary of national pride coincides with another pertinent peg on the calendar (imminently, June 6th): a hundred years since The Great Arab revolt . Another excuse to indulge in a spot of Arab secular spirit! Google created a commemorative Doodle , Facebook is greeting Jordan users with a toast to the nation's ...

A recent fashion show in a trendy Beirut neighborhood veered off the usual catwalk, with a special awareness-raising twist. Sure, there were beautiful models in creative couture from the best of Lebanon's young designers. An excited audience, pulsating music, and photographers were on hand too. But the stars of this show hailed from the ranks of Lebanon's female domestic workers, just a handful of Lebanon's 250,000+ migrant maids. Local NGO Insan organized the event. It's the fourth annual edition. The human rights organization wants to mop up misogyny aimed at ...

The Sykes Picot agreement laid the foundation for the current shape of the Middle East. A behind the scenes deal sealed while WWI was raging, it carved up the region for the benefit of French and British colonial powers, and disregarded the interests of local populations in what is now known as Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. To quote Sykes verbatim, it ran "from the E in Acre to the last K in Kirkuk", and its vestiges are still visible today, in Syria's border with Jordan and western Iraq. Some ...

Let’s have a quick show of hands! Who wants to learn to communicate in one of the planet’s most challenging languages? Al Bawaba’s Dictionary of Unspoken Arabic will have you ‘speaking’ fluently in a matter of minutes – able to express a wide range of key human expressions - while sidestepping costly classes, hellish homework, and embarrassing pronunciation gaffs. Yalla, get ready to speak Arabic without uttering a word! Manual labor Lots of Mediterranean cultures make use of their hands while chatting, but few have the range of Arabic hand-speaking ...

There is an uncanny overlap of common names that cross the borders of culture and faith, with similar and sometimes identical pronunciations and meanings. Many names now found from Arabic to English harken to tales of the Old Testament, whose characters are revered by Muslims, Jews and Christians alike. (A reminder to all that Arabs come in all those faith flavors!) A rabic’s “foreigness” and supposed “harshness” may startle some Westerners, causing passengers to be booted from planes or for working out math problems. But is it really that alien ...

Londoners have crowned the son of a Muslim immigrant as their new mayor, perhaps the most quintessential of British posts. Some pundits have already pegged Sadiq Khan as the next UK Prime Minister. Should this prophecy be fulfilled, would (potential) President Trump deign to dine with Khan at the White House , or would he stick to his pledge to ban all Muslims from the US of A? Al Bawaba looks at the man behind the headlines to see how ‘Muslim' is this new face of London , and do ...

Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim competes in the High Jump final event at the Diamond League athletics meeting at the Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha on May 6, 2016. KARIM JAAFAR / AFP

Iranian-Saudi a cappela artist Alaa Wardi squeezes a century of Arabic music into a six minute performance that pays homage to the giants of the genre. Teaming with digital music biz Anghami , he combined 42 of the most iconic Arabic-language songs into a music video that is as entertaining as it is educational. Wardi kicks off with “Lamma Bada Yatathenna,” musical poetry that dates back to the Moors, and wraps up with the pop hits of Hussain Al Jassmi and Saad Lamjarred . Come travel through time, and meet ...

Saudi's Al-Ahli club players celebrate after scoring a goal during their AFC Champions League group D football match against Qatar's El-Jaish club at the King Abdullah Spots City in Jeddah on May 3, 2016. Al-Ahli won the match 2-0. STRINGER / AFP

A pair of unfinished skyscrapers loom large on Amman's skyline, arguably the biggest manmade blight in this tiny kingdom. For over five years, construction on Jordan Gate has stalled, allegedly embroiled in stakeholder litigation. Now the architects at Hanna Salameh Design have proposed a radical solution to the enormous eyesore that would transform this developmental disaster into a positive project that contributes to community, generates renewable energy, and enhances regional food security too. Although conceptual, their ideas could be the way of the future.