FirstLook: Lavender Flowers Near Maimana

FirstLook: Lavender Flowers Near Maimana

This photograph was made in the spring of 1978 on my 10th visit to Afghanistan. I was 31, and I had two degrees in religious studies. In Afghanistan there was a word for a traveling religious scholar. Christians and Jews had been among these travelers for centuries; I was welcomed almost everywhere.
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A Is For Arab

A Is For Arab

Media scholar Jack Shaheen spent more than 50 years not only studying the us entertainment industry’s depictions of Arabs and Muslims but also collecting them. Now archived at New York University, the Jack G. Shaheen Collection shows graphically why stories, words and pictures matter.

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Morocco’s New Wave

Morocco’s New Wave

“Big, small, technical and dangerous waves ... no limit” is how one globe-surfing pro describes more than 3,000 kilometers of his native Morocco’s Atlantic coast. Surfing indeed may be the country’s fastest-growing sport: Officials estimate that as many as a million surf-seekers from Morocco and abroad now hit the waves each year, and from among them, a few young champions are starting to ride high.
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The Gown That Steals Your Heart

The Gown That Steals Your Heart

Elegantly designed in almost as many patterns as there are regions of the Arabian Peninsula, the amply cut, flowing, colorful and often elaborate women’s thobe—a word that means “garment” in Arabic—is enjoying a fashion revival.
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Tasting Trinidad

Tasting Trinidad

Start with one verdant Caribbean island; add the foodways of three colonial powers to those of slaves and workers from three continents; mix for five centuries; spice periodically with new arrivals, many from the Middle East.
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Returning Treasures to the Kingdom

Returning Treasures to the Kingdom

Time was that a picnic in any of Saudi Arabia’s deserts might turn up an ancient pot or other artifact. Since 2012 more than 100 people have given back thousands of informally gathered artifacts in a uniquely successful, goodwill-based antiquities preservation campaign.
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