If random little cartoon shorts have managed to weasel their way into the Oscar lineup , then surely the fashion designers for the Academy Award Ceremony’s A-list guests should be up for consideration as well, don’t you think? Perhaps we’re just biased because we know our region’s designers would snag that figurine year after year, giving the Middle East more props than just a few film nominations a la “The Square”, “Omar”, and “Karama Has No Walls”. Hollywood’s hottest of the hot know the Middle East scorching 'desert' is where ...

From Tunis to Triopoli, Cairo to Damascus, the popular protests that shook the Arab world in 2011 may have now reignited Ukraine’s very own Orange Revolution whose seeds were sewn 10 years ago. Kiev in 2014 is the latest hotspot of revolutionary turmoil to capture news headlines. Last November, as the Ukrainian government sought stronger Russian ties (and rejected a closer EU alliance that was concurrently in play) peaceful student protests flared in the capital city. Stand-offs with authorities veered from calm to angry and quickly morphed into deadly violence ...

There's a fever hitting the region and this time it's not the Arab Spring... If you've experienced any of the following ailments, you may be suffering the distinctly Arab condition (also contagious and untreatable) that's been medically billed 'Very Arab Problems'. It's not even lunchtime and you've probably already felt the urge to shave or pluck away at your fuzzy skin cause a stray upper-lip hair is the last thing you ladies want exposed by the sunny light of day! Or, you've fobbed off five prospective social calendar dates with ...

It might not be the Jamaican bobsled team, but the idea of “Middle Eastern” competitors at the Winter Olympics is sure an athletic oddball, at least in the years when they show up at all! Only one MENA Olympic team appeared in the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City, in the shape of Lebanon’s snow patrol starring Chirine Njeim and Niki Fürstauer. It would be a no-brainer to blame the low MENA quota on the weather here - a dearth of cooler climes and snow-covered slopes in much of ...

Valentine’s Day is upon us, and the Middle East -- where passions run high at the best of times -- a hotbed of news and political drama-- turns up the heat as it goes violently mad for the love-fest. Arabs have been channeling their pent up over-sentimentalism, sensitivities and emotions into this global love affair for the better part of the last month now. Denizens of Arabia are going mushy over all things heart and red, rapidly turning desert planes into strawberry fields, and driven to distraction by tacky gifts ...

Some might be still trying to get their heads around the new place on the map that has come to our sporting attention -- in the form of Olympic host 'Sochi' ...others are interested in the line-up of athletes as the global competition spirit sets in. Athletes from a record-breaking 88 countries are set to compete in Sochi, the first Olympic Games held in the Russian Federation since the 1991 breakup of the USSR. The number of worldwide viewers will also shatter records as the games can be watched on ...

You probably know that Snoop Dogg (Lion if you’re street enough) can rap, and Ellen Burstyn can act, but did you know that they converted to Islam during their mid-years? While musician Cat Stevens and boxer Mohammad Ali could be considered the “poster boys” for famous Muslim converts, many fans may be unfamiliar with other household names--such as rap artist Busta Rhymes and funnyman David Chapelle's--Muslim alter-egos. From Christians to Jews and all stripes in between, many A-list celebrities have made interesting decisions to convert to Islam during early and ...

Jordan is famous in the Middle East for two things - Petra and its stability. Slap-bang in the middle of the region’s danger zone, it’s a miracle that the Hashemite Kingdom has managed to maintain its balance - it has a functioning parliament ( inshallah mentality and kalashinkov wielding MPs aside ), a respected King (for the most part), political participation and a thriving expat community that hasn’t been driven out of the Arab world by conflict. In fact, if you go to certain parts of Amman, you’ll hear more ...

About 24% of the Middle East population uses social networks and perhaps, the largest segment of Arab users are Saudis. In fact, over half of the kingdom’s population is online. It’s no wonder that the Saudis top the list of most active users on YouTube. Not only do Saudis use the site to view media, they also produce their own programs. Due to Saudi’s conservative nature, YouTube has become a forum for the more progressive or taboo views to be released publicly. Policing via YouTube This conservative tendency on culture ...