Qantara.de - Dialog mit der islamischen Welt

Lebanese-British satirist Karl Sharro, with his alter ego Karl reMarks, is a fast-rising star of online comedy. Now he has published his first book, "And Then God Created the Middle East and Said ʹLet There be Breaking Newsʹ". Interview by Susannah TarbushMore

Diali Cissokho left his native Senegal for North Carolina years ago. Raised as a griot, one of the traditional musical story tellers and historians of West Africa, he wanted to continue playing music in his new home. It may have taken a while to find the musicians he was looking for but, writes Richard Marcus, it was worth the waitMore

Lebanese novelist and critic Elias Khoury pays tribute to Alaa Al Aswanyʹs new novel as the only comprehensive literary chronicle of the January 2011 Egyptian revolution, charting the tragic fate of those who were killed, imprisoned and tortured against a background of the diabolical alliance between the Egyptian army and the Muslim BrotherhoodMore

Jeem is a new website for young, Arabic-speaking people, dealing with the topics "love, sexuality and society". The idea was first conceived in 2015, when the team at the Goethe-Institut in Cairo wanted to establish a digital project for youth in the region. This is an excerpt from an article by Afrah Nasser about four Yemeni artists who have been affected by war and displacementMore

In Radwa Ashour's "The Journey", newly translated by Michelle Hartman, the Egyptian novelist chronicles the four years she spent doing a PhD in African-American Literature at the University of Massachusetts in the 1970s. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the bookMore

Released in 2015, Tobias Lindholmʹs "A War" was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language Film. Part frontline thriller, part courtroom drama, the film examines the simple question: what do you do, when there is no right answer? By Hans DembowskiMore

Sadaf Foroughiʹs debut feature film, AVA, examines the complexities of the relationship between a mother and a teenage daughter living in present day Tehran. The movie is both a fascinating character study and an examination of the damage caused by the rules governing women's behaviour in Iranian society. Interview by Richard MarcusMore

2 July 2018 marked the centenary of the birth of Egyptian protest singer Sheikh Imam. Martina Sabra visited the legendary artist several times in the 1990s and has observed that many years after his death, Sheikh Imam's music is still very much alive on the streets of EgyptMore

Tracing his own coming-of-age and the fateful changes that take place in Raqqa between 2011 and 2016, Syrian journalist Marwan Hisham’s memoir – deftly complimented by Molly Crabappleʹs moody illustrations – explores timeless issues: growing up, teenage rebellion and the inevitable moral quandaries. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the bookMore