(من ليالي ألف ليلة)

Stephen Mackay, “Dog”, 2021. Source: artsy.net
Stephen Mackay, “Dog”, 2021. Source: artsy.net
Ernesto Sábato. Source: elperroylarana.gob.ve
Alex Majoli, Wall in the studio of artist Ellsworth Kelly, 2012. Source: magnumphotos.com
Paulo Bruscky, Letters Held by Left Hand, 1995. Source: artsy.net
Josef Koudelka Canons’ Square. Beirut, Lebanon. 1991. Source: magnumphotos.com
Todd Hido, from “Interiors”. Source: tonermagazine.net/
August Sander, Brothers, 1920. Source: spenceralley.blogspot.com
Source: facebook.com/BellyDancerNagwaFouad
Hyosung Pang, time travel, 2020. Source: artsy.net
Hi, may I please speak with <Mr./ Mrs.> <first name> <last name>? Hello, <Mr./Mrs.> <last name>. My name is <dialer first name>. I am a <job role> from <Reliance Total Care/Alliance Partners> and I’m calling with some helpful information about your <Series 1/Gold tier/Series 2/Silver tier> prescription drug coverage. How is your day going?
Before we continue our call, for security purposes, may I please have your date of birth? Thank you. Please note this conversation is being recorded so we can improve our quality and training. I want to begin by saying thank you for being a valued subscriber to our health insurance plan.
Abdullah Hamas, “Construction”, 1998. Source: f7hopesart.wordpress.com
Every year, on the 19th of Ramadan, Aisha would pack some clothes and food and head out to the mountains on the outskirts of the village of Dhuha. She would sit in one particular cave, think about her place in the universe, and attempt to purify her heart. Jealousy was never an emotion she struggled with. Even when Omar, whom she had hoped to marry, proposed to her neighbor, she felt no resentment. As painful as it was, she prayed for their happiness.
What attracted her to Omar was the kindness of his heart. Once, he noticed a bird near the trunk of a tree, and for some reason its mother would not come down from its perch. Maybe it had no way of helping its offspring. Perhaps it was afraid of people. In any case, Omar would come every day, feed it seeds, and help it drink from a saucer of water. He would cup the creature gently in his palms and extend it towards the mother bird, hoping it would fly. But it never did. When it died, he dug a small hole for it by the tree trunk and buried it. She spied him wiping his eyes, and prayed that he would father her children. When that hope evaporated, she accepted it and endured her disappointment.
Nikos Economopoulos, Havana, 2017. Source: magnumphotos.com
A Naguib Mahfouz character arrives in Havana on a Turkish Airlines flight. He had escaped Cairo three months earlier and bounced around until he landed in Istanbul, where he was able to find work as a bellboy in The Seagull’s Nest hotel in the ancient part of the city. It was a three-story house with four rooms per floor. Lacking an elevator, the man – skinny, with a turbulent gaze matched by a discerning tongue – had to carry the luggage up a narrow and badly illuminated stairway, which multiplied the demands on his body. He felt safe at first, far away from where he had presumably committed the crime that had sent him into exile. He tolerated the excessive labor in silence, knowing that such was the lot of an undocumented immigrant.
Youssef Rakha
Egypt’s iconic rapist face/look: actor Hamdi El Wazir in the film “Hilali’s Fist” (1991). Source: YouTube
In the presence of the rope, standing on the platform, and in reply to the traditional question, he told the executioners and men of law that his last request was to be washed, so as not to meet his Lord unclean. They’d dragged him from his cell to the place where he would die, and the shit had run out of him uncontrollably, like water. Piss flowing as though a tap had been spun open. By the time they reached the execution chamber his red trousers were soaked through and stained with diarrhoea. The stench filled the heavy air of the room.
The governor, the judge and the prison doctor met the request with silence. Taking him to bathe meant the time it would take to walk him to the prison bathhouse, then the time it would take to wash, and then there was the return journey, and all that, of course, would constitute a waste of time: of government time, and that of the senior officials who there to ensure that the judgement was properly executed.
Jun’ichirō Tanizaki by Shigeru Tamura. Source: Wikipedia
James de Leon, from “The Invisible Strings”, 2017. Source: thephotographicjournal.com
Amna Elhasssan, Grandmother, 2019. Source: artsy.net
Hiroshige Utagawa, Forest of Suijin Shrine and Masaki on the Sumida River, 1856, 8th month. Source: artsmia.org
“My Name Is Odyssey”. A portrait of Katerina Gougou. Source: inred.gr