12.11.21 — Amro Ali Where couscous ends SocietyUrban change Alexandria Casablanca Alexandria’s connection to the Maghreb is often overlooked. But the cosmopolitan port city developed through centuries of migration and influence from the western side of the Mediterranean, up until the colonial era and the building of self-centered nation states. Read more
Unavailable and unsanitary 10.11.21 — Habib Battah Urban change Beirut

A sign at the entrance of Kamed El Loz refugee camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley promises to solve water issues but residents say they have been abandoned. 

 Read more
The red gold of Tabarka 02.11.21 — Myriam Amri Tunis

In northern Tunisia, seaside Tabarka has played a central role in coral fishing and cross-Mediterranean trade since at least the 15th century. Today, red coral continues to be traded across the sea, despite reef degradation and the informal workings of coral trade networks.

 Read more
Neo-Ottoman cruise 30.10.21 — Kaya Genç Tripoli LB

In 2010, with great fanfare, Turkey inaugurated a ferry route between Mersin and Lebanon’s Tripoli, a first between the two countries. It was hailed as an important milestone in Turkey’s strategy of renewed engagement with former Ottoman territories. The latter failed but the ferry line managed to survive.

Read more

Stories

Series

  • The Mediterranean is more than a water body. Its shores and inhabitants are interlinked by centuries of exchange.

  • What happens to the mind and soul when we move places? In times of global immobility and isolation, what does the word migration mean beyond movement?

  • ماذا يحدث للعقل والروح عندما ننتقل من مكان إلى آخر؟ وفي زمن الجمود والعزلة حول العالم، ما الذي قد تعنيه كلمة الهجرة خارج حدود الحركة والتنقل؟

  • A neighbour, a person living by our side. We may differ in manners and ideas of how things should be done, but we will always stay closely connected.

  • More than a tool for reflecting what is, language is also a means of producing the real. It also has subversive potential – the ability to speak new kinds of selves, communities and solidarities into being, to resurrect mute narratives and resuscitate those that are running out of breath.

Visual Stories

Wounds 19.02.12 — Mashallah Team CultureRights & dissent Damascus

Jaber Alazmeh, born but no longer living in Syria, photographs his own and his country’s painfully inflicted wounds.

 Read more
What used to be 04.10.13 — Hind Mezaina Urban change Dubai

Al Khazzan Park on Safa Road in Dubai disappeared a while ago – but the tall water tower built in the 1980s remains.

 Read more
Cornered energies 11.10.16 — Mashallah Team, Mustafa Saeed CultureSociety Hargeisa

Youth have no space to express themselves in Somalia/Somaliland, says photographer and artist Mustafa Saeed. So he created one, in neon and black and white.

 Read more
A meditation about rust 19.03.21 — Camille Leprince, Obaid Allah Culture Damascus

“Photography is my first immune weapon against amnesia and the tough situation,” says self-taught photographer Obaid Allah from Yarmouk in Syria.

 Read more
Television of the holy month 06.07.16 — Khalid Mezaina CultureSociety Dubai

“What is the real message being promoted during the holy month?” This question got Khalid Mezaina to devote illustrations to the essence of Ramadan.

 Read more
16 Tons: a documentary about Turkish miners 26.08.12 — Clément Girardot Rights & dissent Mashallah region

Üit Kıvanç’s black-and-white pictures from Zonguldak, a Black Sea region where coal mines have been operating for almost two centuries, have been taken between 1983 and 1985.

 Read more

Random contributors

Leeor Ohayon

Leeor Ohayon is of Mizrahi descent, originally from London and currently residing in Berlin. When he’s not busy snapping away, he writes about Mizrahi topics.

Svetlana Eremina

Svetlana Eremina is a documentary photographer from Russia who has worked on documentary projects in Turkey, Vietnam, Thailand and India.

Riyam Kafri AbuLaban

Riyam Kafri AbuLaban is a chemist by training but a writer by passion. She is an assistant professor at Al Quds University, Abu Dis, Palestine, and a writer and mother…

Emily Mourad Hanna

Emily Mourad Hanna is an anthropologist working in the human rights field. She enjoys writing about social, political, and cultural issues from her native Palestine.