Arabian Records (1st post : Eid Al Fitr – 01st Shawwal 1439 (AH) / 15th June 2018 ) / (BETA testing – Research – starting April 2020 till date, on-going)

Chance meeting at Formula One race in Jeddah inspires Belgian storyteller Cindy Van Pollaert to launch ‘Min Al Qalb,’ a project documenting the lives, ambitions, and personal journeys of women across Saudi Arabia and the wider region.

When Belgian happiness manager Cindy Van Pollaert arrived in Saudi Arabia for the first time in 2021, she expected to encounter the country as it was portrayed in much of the Western media.

Instead, a visit to the Formula One race in Jeddah challenged her assumptions and ultimately inspired a storytelling project dedicated to amplifying the voices of women across the Kingdom and the wider Gulf region.

Van Pollaert was struck by the atmosphere among the crowd at the event: women and men gathered together freely, a vibrant public space and a sense of confidence among young Saudi women that contrasted sharply with the image of the country she had previously encountered abroad.

The experience became even more significant when she met Saudi hiker and archer Nouf Almulaik, a chance encounter that would shape the direction of her work.

Almulaik “opened my eyes,” Van Pollaert said, to the determination and fearlessness of Saudi women: “They’re climbing the mountains. They’re doing the Himalayas…These are such ambitious, intelligent women and they’re going to the next level in whatever they do.

“And then I was thinking, ‘OK, I need to find a way to connect with more local women in the Middle East in general.’”

What began as a friendship quickly evolved into a broader mission. Van Pollaert became increasingly determined to challenge misconceptions about women in the Middle East and share stories that reflected the realities she had witnessed.

“I want other people to think differently about the women here in the region,” she told Arab News.

That desire eventually led to the creation of “Min Al Qalb,” meaning “from the heart,” an art and storytelling platform dedicated to celebrating the resilience, individuality and achievements of women across the Middle East and Gulf region.

The project has now come full circle, returning to Saudi Arabia where the idea first took shape through a personal connection that transformed Van Pollaert’s understanding of the region and its people.

Min Al Qalb has so far featured more than 40 inspirational women from 10 countries, including Nada Alrasheed, Saudi Arabia’s first full-time female freediver and a World Championship record holder; Rayyanah Barnawi, the Kingdom’s first female astronaut; and Princess Sarah bint Bandar, executive director of the International Dates Council.

Yet Van Pollaert insists the project is not driven by strategic outreach or large-scale campaigns: “It grows very organically. It’s always one woman who leads me to another.”

The strength of the platform lies in this personal nature, Van Pollaert believes. Many of the stories begin not with formal interviews or carefully arranged meetings, but everyday interactions, conversations and friendships that gradually develop into something deeper.

“I could easily send an email to 1,000 amazing women — you can easily find them — and make a mass production of it,” she said. “But then it would lose its authenticity … I am a person (who) lives from the heart; I don’t know any other way.

“I use my voice to spread positivity because this is how I am in life as well.”

The women featured on the platform are not simply accomplished professionals or record-breakers; they are people with whom Van Pollaert has shared meals, prepared traditional qahwa (coffee) and built genuine friendships.

“These people automatically become like a kind of family,” she said.

For that reason, she added, the initiative was not designed simply to spotlight achievement. Instead, it seeks to capture something more universal: the humanity behind success and the connections that transcend geography and culture.

“The most powerful stories are often not the biggest headlines; they are the human stories behind the achievements,” Van Pollaert said.

“Min Al Qalb does not try to explain Saudi women through one narrative, it creates space for individual stories: what drives them, what they protect, what they build, and what they want the world to understand.”

Another factor that shaped the project was her frustration with the gap between her own experiences and prevailing perceptions in Europe. Whenever she returned to Belgium and shared stories about the women she had met in Saudi Arabia and the wider region, she often found little interest among audiences accustomed to a different narrative.

A major reason for this, she believes, was that in the “Western media, they will only talk about the negative things.”

Reflecting on her own assumptions before visiting Saudi Arabia, she said: “The misconception I had was the one that Western media gave me that women were not allowed to do almost anything.”

Her first visit to Jeddah quickly challenged that perception. Unable to find European publications interested in publishing her experiences, Van Pollaert eventually decided to tell those stories herself.

Min Al Qalb reaches audiences primarily through Instagram. Each post combines an illustration with a photograph and a quote from the featured woman, while the accompanying caption tells her story. This artistic approach to storytelling has had an unexpected effect on how audiences engage with the content.

“When I start with the illustration, the first thing people always say is, ‘That’s cute!’ Always,” Van Pollaert said.

“So, psychologically, there is already serotonin, positivity. It’s physiological, biological or whatever you want to refer to it. It was never my intention. It just happened and I noticed that this was something that people were open (to), and they perceived it in a very positive way.”

In other words, for international audiences unfamiliar with the women featured in the project, the illustrations create an emotional entry point before they encounter the story itself.

“I think art has a way of breaking down narratives and misconceptions because of the feeling that comes up with the people who look at it,” she added.

“It’s a big difference if I show, for example in Belgium, a picture of a woman that I got to know and that I got to meet and became friends with, or if I show first the illustrations.”

More than four years after their first meeting, Van Pollaert and Almulaik still make time to meet for coffee whenever they find themselves in Riyadh at the same time, a reflection of the type of enduring friendships that have become central to the project.

Those moments of connection, whether around a coffee table or through a social media post viewed thousands of miles away, remain at the very heart of Min Al Qalb.

“What I do believe is with each story that I share, with each person that I show, with each experience that I talk about, that somewhere, someone out there changes his or her mind,” Van Pollaert said.

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)

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Van Pollaert at the studio of Saudi muralist Noura bin Saidan, along with the Belgian ambassador to KSA. (Supplied by Cindy Van Pollaert)

Min Al Qalb “From the Heart” logo. (Supplied by Cindy Van Pollaert)

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SAUDI ARABIA

Recognized for significant contributions to synthetic biology.

Mo Khalil, the Hok Lam and Kathleen Kam Wong Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology has been awarded the 2026 Kuwait Prize from The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). 

Founded in 1976, KFAS funds and implements research, training, and development programs that address Kuwait’s national priorities in the fields of science, technology, and innovation. The Kuwait Prize is given annually to distinguished Kuwaiti and Arab scientists around the world for significant and outstanding achievements in research.

Khalil, who is Palestinian-Jordanian, was honored for his work in synthetic and systems biology.

Khalil’s work focuses on developing synthetic biology tools to better understand how complex cellular systems work, and to design synthetic ones that enable new and useful biological functions. Khalil joined SEAS from Boston University in 2025, where his lab’s work made fundamental contributions into the biological circuits that control gene regulation and epigenetic memory, and pioneered synthetic circuit technologies for translational medicine, enabling the design of programmable cellular therapies to treat cancer and other diseases. In addition, his lab invented novel continuous evolution technologies, such as the eVOLVER, which are being used to generate biomolecules with new and improved functions to address unmet needs in  biology, medicine, and biotechnology.

Khalil received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he was awarded a Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Graduate Fellowship. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Chemistry.

source/content: seas,harvard.edu (headline edited)

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PALESTINIAN – JORDANIAN

Dr. Lama Alsharif uses short videos and live sessions to provide accessible, evidence-based information on subjects women may hesitate to discuss.

With more than 700,000 followers on TikTok, Saudi obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Lama Alsharif is using social media to tackle gaps in women’s health education and challenge misconceptions that can prevent patients from seeking care.

Alsharif first recognized the scale of the problem during her residency at a government hospital, where she worked in clinics, emergency departments, labor rooms and operating theaters. She repeatedly encountered women who had access to medical care but lacked reliable information about their own bodies.

“I realized that I simply could not give every woman the amount of time and education she deserved within a clinical setting,” she told Arab News.

After moving into private practice, Alsharif began looking for other ways to reach women and turned to social media.

“While many people viewed it primarily as a platform for entertainment, I believed it could also be one of the most powerful tools for public health education,” she said.

A 2026 study led by researchers at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Dammam found that about 60 percent of Saudi respondents relied on at least one social media platform for medical information. The researchers also warned of the risk of misinformation on those platforms.

Alsharif seeks to address that gap through short, evidence-based videos and live question-and-answer sessions.

“What surprised and motivated me was how eager women were to learn when information was presented in a simple, respectful and accessible way,” she said.

Among the most common misconceptions Alsharif encounters are beliefs that menstrual blood is impure, that an episiotomy is necessary during every vaginal delivery and that pain during intercourse is an unavoidable part of being a woman.

“These misconceptions are not harmless,” she said. “They can prevent women from recognizing symptoms that deserve medical attention and can delay diagnosis and treatment for years.”

Alsharif has treated women who endured severe pelvic pain or painful intercourse for more than a decade because they believed their symptoms were normal.

“When they eventually learned that their symptoms could be evaluated and treated, it completely changed their perspective,” she said. “That is why I believe medical education should not simply tell women what is normal, it should also teach them to recognize what is not normal.”

Making clinical information accessible is among the greatest challenges of her work.

“My goal is to take a complex medical concept and translate it into simple, relatable language without compromising its scientific accuracy,” she said. “I never want simplification to become misinformation.”

For Alsharif, the value of her platform is measured less by follower numbers than by whether the information prompts women to seek appropriate care.

“For me, the most meaningful measure of success is the message from a woman who tells me that one of my videos encouraged her to see a doctor, helped her recognize that a symptom was not normal, or gave her the confidence to ask a question she had been too embarrassed to ask before,” she said.

Alsharif also delivers free online lectures through a nonprofit women’s health organization and is developing an application to guide women through puberty, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and menopause.

“My vision is to create a trusted, evidence-based resource that women can access whenever they need it, while always recognizing that digital education should complement — not replace — professional medical care,” she said. “AI can be a useful tool, but it should never replace critical thinking, clinical judgment or evidence-based practice.”

Discussing menstruation, sexual health and pelvic pain can present additional challenges in a conservative society. Alsharif said she approaches these subjects through culturally sensitive communication.

“For me, breaking the stigma does not mean abandoning cultural values,” she said. “It means creating a respectful space where women can access accurate medical information and feel comfortable seeking the care they deserve.”

She also sees women’s health education as having an impact beyond individual patients.

“Women often become the source of health information for their families, friends and children. When one woman learns something important about her health, that knowledge can be passed on to the people around her and to future generations.”

Alsharif is among a growing number of Saudi female physicians taking on public-facing educational roles.

“(We) have a unique opportunity, because we can combine medical expertise with an understanding of our community, culture, and the questions women may sometimes hesitate to ask,” she said. “I believe we will see more Saudi female doctors becoming educators, researchers, entrepreneurs and voices in digital health.”

Ultimately, she hopes her work will help women take a more active role in decisions about their health.

“My goal is not simply to educate women about diseases,” she said. “It is to help create a generation of women who understand their bodies, recognize when something is wrong, seek care without shame, and feel confident that their voices matter.”

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)

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Dr. Lama Alsharif, consultant obstetrician and gynecologist, began looking for other ways to reach women and turned to social media. (Supplied)

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SAUDI ARABIA

The Arab America Foundation announced today the awardees of its 40 Under 40 initiative — Class of 2026. Forty Arab Americans from various fields and disciplines were announced.

The awardees are: Amr Abozaid, Noura Abualeinan, Abed Adawi, Dana Ahmad, Karam Ahmad, Tamer Akel, Zahraa Al Adeeb, Yasmin Al Ameen, Nour Al Ghraowi, Sophia Alawi, Ameer Armaly, Christeen Badie, Aida Bakhos, Mostapha Bojeh, Dana Dargos, Kassem Doghman, Ali Fadlallah, Leith Fakhouri, Carlton French, Hind Habbach, Amine Hachem, Zeinab Hachem, Ken Haddad, Mohammad Hadi, Ahmad Haidar-Ahmad, Ranya Hasan, Mohammad Hirzallah, Marwa Janini, Michael Kahwajy-Hyland, Rammy Korkor, Michel Mansour, Hannah Mesouani, Tarek Sabry Mohamed, Zeyad Musmar, Yara Ourfali, George Qadado, Rammy Salem, Sally Shahin, Omar Shajrah, and Amanne Sharif.

40 Under 40 is a celebration of accomplished young Arab Americans. The program showcases Arab American professionals in a wide range of fields, including education, law, public service, politics, nonprofit work, business, entrepreneurship, engineering, medicine, the arts, entertainment, writing, and media. These young professionals have outstanding achievements both in the workplace and in their communities. 

“The 2026 class of 40 Under 40 represents the talent, vision, and leadership shaping the future of Arab America. From business and education to technology and the arts, these outstanding young professionals are making meaningful contributions in their communities and beyond. Their achievements reflect the strength, resilience, and promise of the next generation of Arab American leaders,” said Warren David, co-founder of the Arab America Foundation and president of Arab America.

All awardees are 30-40 years old, excel in their respective industries, and actively promote their heritage and culture to empower their communities and make a positive difference. The competition is open annually to all professionals who live and/or work in the United States and are of Arab descent. 

The Arab America Foundation and its board are grateful for the leadership of the initiative’s coordinators, Nabelah Ghareeb and Elias J. Khalil, as well as the prestigious panel of judges.

The 40 Under 40, Class of 2026

Amr Abozaid

Amr Abozaid is an Arab American community leader and advocate focused on strengthening the position of immigrant-owned businesses in New York. As Director of Small Business Services at the Yemeni American Merchants Association (YAMA), he works at the intersection of community needs and institutional systems, ensuring that underserved merchants are not excluded from opportunity, protection, and representation. With a background in political science and media, Abozaid brings both policy awareness and narrative clarity to his work. He has played a visible role in elevating Arab American voices in public spaces, engaging with government stakeholders, and shaping conversations around economic equity, public safety, and immigrant inclusion. His leadership reflects a broader commitment to building long-term structures that empower Arab American communities, moving beyond short-term support toward sustained presence, influence, and access.

Noura Abualeinan

Noura Abualeinan is a Palestinian-Lebanese first-generation American committed to serving and advocating for marginalized communities. Born and raised in the South, she felt deeply isolated and recognized the need for a safe space for individuals in her community to learn and build, which prompted her to create one of the first grassroots Palestinian organizations in South Carolina in 2021. She has organized educational events focused on the Palestinian struggle and local food drives for her communities at home. She has been involved in several Palestinian, Syrian, and Sudanese refugee families’ lives, assisting with food insecurity and clothing needs and facilitating access to medical care. Professionally, she has been committed to working with patients with mental health and substance use concerns, constantly advocating for their needs through raising community awareness around harm reduction and connecting her patients with local resources for transportation, treatment, housing, and food banks.

Abed Adawi

Abed Adawi’s father comes from a Lebanese refugee camp in Palestine, and his mother from Uzbekistan. He makes an impact in his community by providing opportunities for those who want to build a career in marketing. Adawi is the Founder and CEO of AB Marketing Group, a marketing and business development firm dedicated to helping organizations grow through strategic branding, digital marketing, community engagement, and innovative outreach. Under his leadership, AB Marketing Group has worked with businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations to strengthen their visibility, expand their audiences, and achieve measurable results. Adawi is recognized for his entrepreneurial vision, commitment to relationship-building, and passion for supporting business growth and community development.

Dana Ahmad

Dana Ahmad is a Florida-based trial attorney whose reputation is built on results, courtroom advocacy, and an unwavering commitment to her clients. Having worked with some of the nation’s top personal injury law firms, her trial experience speaks for itself- grounded in strategic preparation, persuasive advocacy, and a relentless pursuit of justice leading to multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts. Beyond the courtroom, Dana is a leading voice in advancing Arab American visibility and unity. As co-founder of Yallah Sawwa, a rapidly growing national platform that brings Arab Americans through cultural programming and community- driven events, she has created meaningful spaces that foster connection, identity, and belonging. Her commitment to advocacy began early, when she represented Lebanon in the Miss Arab USA Pageant, and later earned recognition from the Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce for her advocacy and leadership. Through both her legal work and community impact, Dana is redefining representation, bridging cultures, amplifying voices, and creating lasting spaces for Arab Americans to thrive.

Karam Ahmad

Karam Ahmad is the Managing Director of Partnerships and Development at the Colorado Health Institute, where he leads strategic partnerships, business development, and multimillion-dollar growth strategies that strengthen communities and systems across Colorado and nationally. As an Iraqi-American policy leader, Karam is committed to advancing well-being for communities most impacted by systemic inequities. He is the founder of Acclimate Colorado, a model advancing climate and health equity through policy, data, and impact evaluation across sectors. His work has engaged thousands of stakeholders and influenced millions of dollars in policy and investment decisions. He advises state agencies and major local, national, and regional philanthropies, including Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, Colorado Gives Foundation, Milbank Memorial Fund, The Denver Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is a Denver Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree and serves on the Board of Directors of the Denver Downtown Islamic Center, supporting leadership and fundraising for a growing community resource center.

Tamer Akel

Tamer is a dedicated Speech-Language Pathologist Assistant (SLPA) and community leader, proudly hailing from Jerusalem, Palestine. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Audiology and Speech Therapy from Birzeit University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology at Nova Southeastern University, where he is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. He works full-time at a private pediatric clinic in Port St. Lucie, Florida. His role involves providing crucial therapy and assessments for children with speech and language delays. Additionally, he draws on his background as a former professional soccer player to coach a competitive youth soccer team. He is deeply committed to giving back to my community and founded a local community group to organize events, foster connections, and host fundraisers. Looking ahead, he intends to leverage my clinical expertise and leadership experience to expand access to therapeutic services, build supportive networks, and continue empowering his community.

Zahraa AlAdeeb

Zahraa AlAdeeb is an Iraqi-American healthcare professional, nonprofit leader, and passionate community advocate based in Northeast Ohio. Born and raised in Kuwait, Zahraa moved to the USA in 2014 and has dedicated her life to service, leadership, and uplifting others. She has worked in nursing since 2008, specializing in gastroenterology. Zahraa holds a Master’s degree in Nursing, is certified as a Gastroenterology Registered Nurse, and is currently completing a post-graduate certification in leadership. Her work reflects a deep commitment to compassionate care, health equity, and the empowerment of underserved communities. Driven by her passion for culture and community, Zahraa founded and serves as executive director of Al Bait Al Iraqi, an initiative dedicated to uplifting Iraqi-Americans, preserving cultural heritage, and bridging generations. Through advocacy, volunteerism, and cultural engagement, she works to elevate Arab voices, highlight Arab contributions in Northeast Ohio, and strengthen the Arab American community’s visibility, unity, and presence.

Yasmin Al Ameen

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source/content: arabamerica.com (headline edited)

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AMERICAN / ARAB

The University of Benghazi, which was closed for the past eleven years due to the Libyan war, officially reopened all its faculties and facilities on September 4, 2026 in a ceremony breaking three Guinness World Records.

The University of Benghazi, which was closed for the past eleven years due to the Libyan war, officially reopened all its faculties and facilities on September 4, 2026 in a ceremony breaking three Guinness World Records.

The inauguration event featured 3D mapping, advanced visual effects and an aerial drone performance that achieved three Guinness World Records – an eagle formation, a quill writing “University of Benghazi” across the sky and the formation of a peace symbol, the university said in a statement.

The University of Benghazi, Libya’s oldest, came to life following a comprehensive reconstruction and rehabilitation project implemented by the Libyan Development and Reconstruction Fund, headed by its Director General, Engineer Belqasim Khalifa Haftar.

Prominent Libyan figures, ambassadors, international delegations and approximately 240 foreign guests attended the opening ceremony led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and Engineer Belqasim Khalifa Haftar.

Engineer Belqasim personally followed the project’s finest details. What began as a personal dream, evolved into one of the Fund’s most prominent educational initiatives. In an exceptional achievement, an integrated university city was rebuilt in just three years, providing a modern academic environment designed to serve current and future generations.

“Mother of Libyan Universities”

Known as the “Mother of Libyan Universities”, the University of Benghazi is among the country’s oldest and largest academic institutions, with nearly 100,000 students.

Over the decades, it has provided free education and graduated generations of scientists, academics, experts and officials who have contributed to building Libya’s institutions.

The reopening of the university marked a historic milestone for higher education in Libya, restoring life to the university’s main campus after more than eleven years of closure due to the extensive destruction it sustained during the Libyan Armed Forces’ war against terrorist groups.

The project covered the Faculties of Engineering, Arts, Law, Science and Languages, alongside the central library, academic and administrative buildings, laboratories, service facilities, student residences, infrastructure and internal roads.

The Libyan Development and Reconstruction Fund has also sent more than 1,000 university students abroad to continue their studies, combining physical reconstruction with investment in human capital.

The achievement forms part of more than 2,300 development projects being implemented across eastern and southern Libya. These include the rehabilitation of universities and educational institutions in Kufra, Al Bayda, Derna, Al Marj, Ajdabiya, Sirte, Brak al-Shati and Murzuq, alongside approximately 250 schools.

“The reopening is therefore far more than the return of an educational institution: it restores one of Libya’s most prominent scientific and historic landmarks to the heart of national life”, Benghazi University said in a statement.

source/content: ummid.com (headline edited)

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LIBYA

Three hundred students from Tunisia’s University of Sfax have set a Guinness World Record by building a complete AI-powered startup in less than three hours, demonstrating how artificial intelligence is compressing timelines that would traditionally take weeks or months.

The achievement took place during a scientific forum titled “Artificial Intelligence at the Heart of Value Creation,” which brought together students from four institutions in Sfax, including the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management and the Higher Institute of Business Administration.

Participants were divided into specialized teams replicating real-world startup structures, covering technology, finance, human resources and marketing. Working under official Guinness World Records guidelines and coordinated by 40 student leaders, the groups collectively produced 42 professional deliverables, building the foundations of a legally structured, fully operational platform within the allotted timeframe.

The broader event spanned approximately five hours, beginning with intensive training sessions on AI tools before transitioning into the high-pressure execution phase. Organizers noted that participants had to quickly absorb new tools and immediately apply them in a real-world simulation — a challenge that underscored how AI is reshaping productivity at scale.

Academic leaders described the milestone as a powerful signal of Tunisia’s potential to compete globally, particularly in fields driven by artificial intelligence and digital innovation. The initiative also reflects a broader shift in university education toward hands-on, outcome-driven experiences that mirror real startup environments.

The University of Sfax, established in 1986, is one of Tunisia’s leading public institutions and plays a central role in research and talent development across business, engineering and the sciences.

source/content: iafrica.com (headline edited)

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TUNISIA

Abdelrahman ElGendy on the Way Language Can Build a Relationship Between Author and Reader.

I wrote my memoir, Huna, in English, which is to say I wrote it inside a contradiction. Huna is a memoir of the Egyptian revolution, six years of political imprisonment in Egypt, and my US exile. It enters English already burdened by the ways such stories are often received in this language: the Arab prison memoir as a torture spectacle for a detached reader on the other side of the world, where suffering can be safely consumed, at worst, as evidence of the Other’s barbarity, and, at best, as a well-intentioned exercise in goodwill empathy with the unfortunate Other “over there.” It’s a genre that often recalls what the Palestinian poet Fady Joudah described to me recently as a “parody of the self,” the self made to perform a recognizable, palatable version of its wound, even in dissent, in order to be legible.

That tension of writing Huna in English sharpened during the past years of genocide in Gaza. English was not only the language used to lubricate the killing, euphemize it, and authorize it; it was right there, stamped onto the missiles and rockets genociding Palestinian kin. It became impossible to write on as though this tension had not permeated my every line.

Western publishing tends to carry this pressure toward legibility: a bit of translation here, another italicization there, a footnote, perhaps, a handrail before the assumed target reader enters the foreign room. I’m not resistant to explanation, per se, on the contrary: it can indeed be craft, care, part of what a writer owes a reader. But in the particular political tension of this story, in this language, moving through this literary marketplace, uncritical explanation can also demand a steep price from one’s dignity. How transparent must a world make itself before the assumed reader deems it worthy of encounter?

This is what the duality of the ‘anbara’s language and content reaches toward: an invitation toward, more than anything, a mode of relation between author and reader.

So, while writing Huna, the question was no longer only why I had chosen English, but what English demanded from the book in return. I have written elsewhere that “when I reach for Arabic, I reach for radical love; when I reach for English, I reach for currency.” Currency as circulation, political reach, the ability to name. Also, the ability to build transnational solidarity across the very borders crushing our bodies. The craft problem, then, was how to write, imperfectly, a dignified work of literature in the currency of English without allowing English to become its sovereign.

I found it helpful to think alongside Édouard Glissant’s concept of the “right to opacity”: that a text need not submit to transparency before intimacy can begin. Why equate the sense of welcome into a text with mastery and conquest of the writer, rather than view opacity as an invitation into another kind of relation?

And so, sometimes I elaborated when elaboration felt like care. Sometimes I let meaning gather through rhythm, gesture, context when the demand for explanation enacted violence. And sometimes I left things untouched, inaccessible to the non-Arabic-speaking reader. But the most critical place where I worked through that tension is the very structure of the book.

Huna is organized in the form of an ‘anbara, an old Egyptian prison call-and-response tradition through which prisoners speak across cells, answering one another through the naddara, the small meshed opening in a cell door. The ‘anbara prison poem begins when a prisoner presses their lips againt a naddara and holler عنبر، كله يسمع, calling at the cell block for ears and tongues, for even the steel that made up the building, to abandon all else and grant the caller undivided attention. Then comes a ten-line poem. Most political prisoners adopt the late Egyptian socialist poet Ahmed Fouad Negm’s ten-line version of the ‘anbara opening, crafted during his eighteen years as a political prisoner himself from the fifties to the eighties.

I’d come to love ‘anbaras, how they carved out space for celebration, mourning: to announce a comrade’s release, ease a father’s sorrow over his distant newlywed daughter, narrate a story, or toast a reduced sentence—a communal holding of sorts.

Huna takes the holler and the ten opening lines of Negm’s ‘anbara as its structural frame. Each becomes an Arabic section header, untranslated, rendered as a lettering artwork by the Lebanese Arabic type designer Kristyan Sarkis.

If the reader does not know Arabic, they would encounter those headers that frame the book only as shape, weight, curves. The text is held together by something they cannot access, and so some may experience these foreign inscriptions as alienating. That discomfort is precisely where I wish for the reading to begin.

And because opacity is not refusal for refusal’s sake, I did not want it to become another parody, with English cleanly standing for empire and Arabic for resistance. However beloved Arabic is to me, I know enough to understand that languages do not fit neatly inside the political allegiances we assign them. Arabic has been the language of our prison poems, yes, but also our jailers; English has been the language of empire and one of the languages through which empire’s subjects have spoken back at it and reached toward one another.

The text is about relation; the text is relation. I do not have to become fully knowable to you in order for us to meet; you do not have to share my language to answer the call.

The ‘anbara makes sure the division is not Arabic insiders on one side and English outsiders on the other. An Arabic reader may understand every word of Negm’s ‘anbara and refuse its call, stand politically with the state that locked us up. Arabic gives them semantic access, but denies them political intimacy. A non-Arabic-speaking reader may understand none of those words and still feel called into what they enact and summon. This is what the duality of the ‘anbara’s language and content reaches toward: an invitation toward, more than anything, a mode of relation between author and reader.

The ‘anbara, then, also intervenes at the level of hierarchy. There is often an assumed dynamic in which a reader enters a text from the marginalized Other to offer empathy to the writer-victim. But in prison, the ‘anbara passes from the lips stuck to one meshed cell door naddara opening to the ears pressed against another. And if Huna itself is now an ‘anbara, a holler sent to my people behind bars, then the reader, too, can only receive such a ‘anbara by approaching the naddara of their own prison cell. The hierarchy is unsettled: the reader-empathizer becomes a prison mate; the writer-victim becomes a theorizer, the one issuing the call. The book’s structure then pushes the reader to confront the fact that nobody reads or listens unpositioned. What is the prison cell you occupy but have been blind to? Are you my accomplice or my jailer? Can you be honest about what cell door, what naddara mesh, you encounter me through?

In Huna, then I tried to take seriously what Sheira El-Malik, close-reading Glissant herself, posits when she says: “there is no distinction between literature and the worlds in which it is produced, or with methods or modes of study of that world; they all are of the world and they produce worlds.” I think of Huna’s craft, then, as a prefigurative literary microcosm for the world I wish to build, the world inside which I wish to make art and be in solidarity. The text is about relation; the text is relation. I do not have to become fully knowable to you in order for us to meet; you do not have to share my language to answer the call.

So, dear reader, hop to your cell door, press your ear to the meshed wire of your own naddara—listen in.

Abdelrahman ElGendy

Abdelrahman ElGendy is an author and translator from Cairo. A winner of the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award, he holds an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Pittsburgh, and his work appears in publications including The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Nation, and Guernica. His poetry and prose translations from Arabic appear in Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, Literary Hub, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. ElGendy’s work has received awards or fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Heinz Foundation, the de Groot Foundation, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the Arab American National Museum. Huna is his debut memoir.

source/content: lithub.com (headline edited)

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Huna: A Memoir of Revolution, Prison, and Becoming by Abdelrahman ElGendy is available from Hogarth, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC

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EGYPT /