Hadieh Shafie
22500 Pages, 2011 (Jameel Prize 2011)
Courtesy of the artist

Algerian-born Koraïchi won the 2011 Jameel Prize for a selection of embroidered cloth banners from Les Maîtres Invisibles. The judges felt that the series perfectly matched the aims of the Jameel Prize through the quality of its design and its reliance on traditional crafts. They particularly admired how he has made his great spiritual and intellectual lineage accessible to all through the graphic language he has created out of his artistic heritage. The exhibition that resulted from the 2011 prize is set to wrap up its two-year tour of Europe and the US at the San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas. The finalists were equally culturally diverse, coming from Iran, Pakistan, Italy, Iraq, Egypt and the US.

The work aims to show that the world of Islam, in contrast to contemporary perceptions of crisis and violence, has another side entirely, evident in the tolerant and sophisticated writings of great Muslim thinkers and poets such as Rumi and Ibn Arabi. These masters, whose fame has spread to the West, left an imprint on successive generations; their message is just as relevant today as when first recorded. One of the most well-known of the 14 Sufi masters featured in Les Maîtres Invisibles—with whom Koraïchi is connected by a similar mystical vision of love—is the 13th century poet, traveler and founder of the order of whirling dervishes, Jalaluddin Rumi. In another series, Koraïchi takes the movements of the circling dancers and solidifies them into fluid steel sculptures expressing moving meditation.

Rachid Koraïchi
Les Maîtres Invisibles, 2008 (Jameel Prize 2011)
Courtesy of the October Gallery

Koraïchi’s name is a transliteration of the Arabic Quraishi, indicating his descent from one of the oldest Sufi intellectual families in North Africa, whose roots can be traced back to the 8th century. Sufism’s deeply humane character respects intellectual curiosity, toleration of diversity, and freedom of expression. For generations, Koraïchi’s family have practiced the contemplative study of the Qur’an, and while honoring this legacy, as an artist Koraïchi does not feel limited by it. In fact, he reinvents and invigorates Islamic tradition.

As a small boy, Koraïchi was fascinated by the Arabic calligraphy in the old books in his home, whose illuminated pages had flourishes of Arabesques—books that were all the more tantalizing because they were kept away from children. At the age of three, before his regular school day began, he attended a zawia, a traditional school for Qur’anic study. His formal art education began at the École des Beaux-Arts in Algeria; he moved to Paris in 1971. There, he studied at several institutions, including the École des Arts Décoratifs. Having lived in Paris and interacted with a cosmopolitan art world, his approach is modern and international; he uses an arresting array of mediums. These include installations and performance art, along with various metals, ceramics, textiles, carpets, murals, painting and print-work such as etchings and lithographs.

Algerian poet Jamel Eddine Bencheikh has described Koraïchi’s work as “writing passion”—a personal alphabet which is simultaneously aesthetic and ideological, in which letters become symbols and signs. Glyphs and ciphers are drawn from ancient cultures, some imaginary, others real. He uses the shapes of Chinese and Japanese ideograms, for example, or Berber and Tuareg Tifinagh characters and magical squares. In effect, he has developed a language all his own, a script of graphic, political, intellectual and spiritual power. Media, like gold thread embroidery on silk and black steel sculptures, embody the word and become his own sacred calligraphy.

Koraïchi’s elaborate installation, The Path of Roses, was included in two Venice Biennales and was shown in Ankara and Morocco, at London’s October Gallery and at the British Museum; part of the series was acquired by the Museum. It consisted of several different elements, including embroidered silk textiles, steel sculptures and ceramic ablution bowls in which floated roses, inscribed with texts by Rumi. The Path of Roses was concerned with the Islamic concept of Safar (travel and transcendence) and traced the journey of Rumi from present-day Afghanistan Turkey, where he founded the Dervish order and met another Sufi mystic, Ibn El Arabi. For both Rumi and Koraïchi, the aesthetic and the metaphysical cannot be separated—after all, great art is always about transformation.

THE JAMEEL PRIZE is awarded every two years for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition, encouraging the exploration of long-established practices of Islamic art, craft and design within a modern framework. The resulting exhibition, which is about to tour the US, demonstrates that artists can and do use these Islamic traditions in ways that are vividly relevant to today’s world. The prize also promotes wider debate about the role of Islamic culture in a time of significant change in the region.

Although the brief is very specific—“art inspired by Islamic tradition”—the Jameel Prize is truly international, and not restricted to Muslims or those from the Islamic world. Entry is by nomination, and 270 nominations were received for the third edition of the biennial prize whose winner will be announced later this year. This was whittled down to a shortlist of ten artists and designers by a panel of judges at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. (The GBP 25,000 prize sponsored by Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives is certainly worth winning.)

The V&A’s director, Martin Roth, says: “This, the third Jameel Prize, has continued to attract nominations from around the world, and for the first time the shortlist features work from Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and India.” The works on show range from Arabic typography and calligraphy to fashion inspired by the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, and from social design and video installation to delicate and precise miniature drawings.

Nasser Al-Salem
Kul, 2012(Jameel Prize 2013)
© Nasser Al-Salem and Athr Gallery

“It’s a very exciting time for artists working in Islamic art tradition,” said Zaha Hadid, who is the patron of the Jameel Prize and widely regarded as one of the world’s most innovative architects. “There’s a real spirit of innovation and creativity in the air. Their work now goes beyond established painting, sculpture, and calligraphy to explore new media and reflect the diverse cultures and histories of the region. For millennia, the Islamic arts and sciences have bridged the cultural divide between East and West, teaching us that these worlds are not mutually exclusive, but rather layered upon each other and profoundly interlinked.”

The Jameel Prize: Art Inspired by Islamic Tradition runs from May 24 to August 11 at the San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas.
The winner of the Jameel Prize 3 will be announced at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England, on December 10, 2013.

England’s David Beckham celebrates his goal against Azerbaijan in their group six World Cup qualifying soccer match at St. James’ Park in Newcastle in this March 30, 2005 file photo. Source: Reuters/Darren Staples

Manchester, Reuters—England’s best known footballer David Beckham announced his retirement on Thursday after a career laden with trophies and glamour that had a worldwide impact that went way beyond soccer.

The 38-year-old former England captain, who this month helped Paris St Germain to the French league title to add to titles won in England, Spain and the United States, will hang up his boots at the end of this season.

“I’m thankful to PSG for giving me the opportunity to continue but I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level,” the midfielder said in a statement.

“I want to thank all my team mates, the great managers that I had the pleasure of learning from. I also want to thank the fans who have all supported me and given me the strength to succeed.”

Beckham earned 115 caps for England, a record for an outfield player, and won the Champions League, six Premier League titles and two FA Cups with Manchester United.

He also won league titles with Real Madrid in Spain, LA Galaxy in the United States and PSG in France.

The London-born Beckham started his career at Manchester United, the club he supported as a boy, making his first team appearance at the age of 17 in 1992.

His trade-mark free kicks and pin-point crosses established him as a key player, while his good looks made him a pin-up for teenage girls and later his marriage to former Spice Girls band member Victoria Adams established him as an off-field celebrity.

While his commercial appeal kept growing and his friendships with Hollywood A listers grew, his main passion of soccer—and in particular England—held firm.

“To this day, one of my proudest achievements is captaining my country,” Beckham said.

“I knew every time I wore the Three Lions shirt, I was not only following in a long line of great players, I was also representing every fan that cared passionately about their country. I’m honoured to represent England both on and off the pitch.

“If you had told me as a young boy I would have played for and won trophies with my boyhood club Manchester United, proudly captained and played for my country over 100 times and lined up for some of the biggest clubs in the world, I would have told you it was a fantasy. I’m fortunate to have realised those dreams,” said Beckham.

After a decade at Old Trafford, where he won six Premier League titles, he left for a four-year spell at Real Madrid where he won La Liga in his final season.

He then crossed the Atlantic in 2007 to become the biggest name soccer import in the United States, joining LA Galaxy with a mission to raise the profile of the sport in the country.

He won the MLS championship twice with the Galaxy before moving to Paris in January for what turned out to be his last hurrah.
There he demonstrated one of his other sides as his salary was paid to a children’s charity in the French capital.

Away from soccer, underwear modelling and ambassadorial roles, Beckham is known as a family man and thanked those closest to him for what they had done for him.

“I wouldn’t have achieved what I have done today without my family,” he said.

“I’m grateful for my parents’ sacrifice, which made me realise my dreams. I owe everything to Victoria and the kids, who have given me the inspiration and support to play at the highest level for such a long period.”

From the first pages of this book, Michael Axworthy, a former diplomat who headed the British Foreign Office’s Iran Desk for two years, establishes himself as passionate about all things Iranian. His admiration, including for the way Iranians cook rice, provides thematic filigree throughout the book. In a sense, the book could be regarded as a long love letter to Iranians, including some of the least loveable ones among the country’s current rulers.

That aside, the book is of great interest for two reasons. To start with, it is a detailed, well-researched and informative account of the key events of the past three decades since the mullahs seized power and created their Islamic Republic.

In that context, Axworthy makes ample use of Iranian sources. Thanks to a working knowledge of Persian and his familiarity with political and cultural trends in the country, on many issues he is able to understand the Iranian point of view, a rare virtue among Western narrators of the saga of Iran. As the author of two other books on Iran, including the highly enjoyable Empire of the Mind, Axworthy is able to tackle his subject with sympathy.

Having narrated the main events of the past 34 years, Axworthy also provides a fairly accurate account of the Islamic Republic’s principal structures, the Iranian economy, social undercurrents in the country and aspects of Iranian foreign policy.

However, the second reason why this book is of interest is the light it sheds on how an important segment of the Western intelligentsia sees its own civilization and its relationship with the rest of the world. In other words, this book is, perhaps, more about a certain Western vision of the world than Iran under the Khomeinist regime.

Axworthy rejects the established idea in the West that all humanity aspires or should aspire to the Western model of liberal democracy and free market economics. In that sense, Axworthy is at the antipode to Francis Fukuyama and his prediction of the “end of history” and the triumph of the Western democratic model.

Axworthy writes: “Since the rise of the Iranian revolution, European and Western attitudes to the rest of the world have been forced to change. Previously, we tended still to think in terms of linear development in the Middle East and elsewhere towards a Western economic and social model, a Western idea of modernity, away from the traditional patterns of life of those countries which were perceived as backward and outdated.”

Axworthy hammers in his message by forecasting possible “predominance” for “other models,” including the Chinese and the Indian in a globalized world.
“The Western model is no longer the only option,” he says, echoing a claim frequently made by Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

In a highly revealing analysis, Axworthy compares the Khomeinist revolution with the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. He asserts that the French Revolution ultimately failed because of its radical secularist—not to say atheistic—ideology. What it offered was alien to the mass of French men and women who had remained faithful to their Christian culture and belief system. The Bolshevik Revolution failed for similar reasons. It, too, was out of tune with the Christian culture of the Russian people. The Khomeinist revolution, however, is in sync with the Iranian people’s Islamic traditions, and thus more likely to sustain the regime’s stability.

In that analysis, Axworthy echoes a lecture given by Muhammad Khatami, a former president of the Islamic Republic, at Florence University a decade ago. In it, Khatami argued that the Western model of development had failed because, under the influence of the Enlightenment, it had abandoned religious beliefs. “The Enlightenment led to endless wars and tragedies for humanity,” he said.

Even more intriguing is Axworthy’s assertion that it is easier to pose fundamental moral question in the Islamic Republic than it is in the West.

Axworthy recalls that as “Sartre once wrote that the French were never so free as they were under Nazi occupation, in the sense that moral choice and the seriousness of consequences were never so sharp as they were at the time. That too is true in Iran. In Western countries, for many of us, we have it easy and have become morally lazy, relativistic and cynical. In Iran, the essentials of right and wrong, freedom and repression have been everyday matters of discussion and choice.”

In other words, the estimated 150,000 highly educated Iranians who flee the country each year, creating the biggest “brain drain in history” according to the World Bank, do not know what a good thing they are leaving behind in Iran. (Let us also remember that under Nazi occupation, Sartre continued to live a comfortable life of philosophical meditation while thousands of French men and women took up arms to drive out the occupier.)

Dealing with Iran’s relations with the outside world, Axworthy dismisses claims by US and European governments that the Islamic Republic is a sponsor of international terrorism and a threat to its neighbors and beyond. Iran is badly misunderstood, Axworthy asserts, though it has helped create new proto-democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Iran’s nuclear program, Axworthy notes, is a cause for concern. And, yet, Axworthy assures us that Iran “will never use nuclear weapons against Israel or anyone in a first strike.” Iran, he continues, “wants a nuclear weapon as a deterrent.” How he could be sure of all that is not clear. Western powers, especially the United States, are to blame for poor relations with the Islamic Republic. In some cases, personal considerations by Western decision-makers helped create a negative approach to relations with Iran. For example, President George H. W. Bush rejected rapprochement with Iran because he did not want to “take a risk with foreign policy” before his re-election campaign. President Clinton’s secretary of state, Warren Christopher, was “especially hostile to Iran,” equally for personal reasons.

Axworthy has an even more interesting revelation regarding US policy on Iran. He writes: “After the fall of the Soviet Union there was an unemployment problem within the US state system: former Kremlinologists were looking for a job. Some found it in Iran policy; but unfortunately they carried over too much of their previous thinking too uncritically, slotting Iran into the role of the former Soviet Union and labeling the Islamic Republic therefore as totalitarian, expansionist and, of course, doomed; none of which was ever necessarily the case.”

This is exactly the analysis offered by a number of theoreticians in Tehran, including Hassan Abbasi, a lecturer on strategy at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard colleges.

Axworthy echoes the view of US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel that Iran is “a sort of democracy.” To be sure, Iranian democracy is not perfect, Axworthy admits. But the same could be said about British democracy. He writes: “For example, some said Britain was no longer a democracy since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, because large numbers demonstrated against the invasion, and opinion polls suggested a majority were opposed to it.”

Axworthy forgets that in a democracy, such as Britain, decisions are taken in an elected parliament, not by crowds marching in the streets or based on opinion polls. Even then, in Britain people are free to demonstrate against the government, something not allowed in the Islamic Republic. Also, in Britain, anyone could conduct opinion polls, while in the Islamic Republic people could go to prison for doing so.

Axworthy writes: “There are genuine reasons to dislike some of the consequences of the Western model—some of the outcomes of the Western idea of modernity. Drug abuse, family breakdown, the collapse of traditional moral values, the homogenization and stultification of international culture through consumerism…”

However, the fact that Axworthy could freely criticize the Western model without being tortured in prison and/or forced to flee into exile is itself a sign of the superiority of the Western model over the Khomeinist model, which deals with its critics the way all totalitarian regimes do. In the Western model, one is free to choose, but need not choose “drug abuse,” “family breakdown” or “consumerism.”

Reflecting a fashionable trend in the West, Axworthy expresses concern about freedom of choice. He writes of “the problem of liberalism and the ideal of political freedom generally, that affects us all: people may end up choosing things that they really ought not to choose, to the detriment of society.”

This is not new. All totalitarian ideologies use abstractions such as class, the nation, the community of the faithful, or society to set limits on personal freedom and choice. In Iran, the Khomeinist system tries to do that through the so-called velayat-e faqih (Custodianship of the Jurisprudent) under which, in the name of Islam, a mullah has the final word on all issues and is, theoretically at least, able to prevent people from abusing their freedoms in the way Axworthy is worried about.

In the Soviet Union, the Politburo and its strongman performed that function in the name of “the proletariat.” In Nazi Germany, the fuhrer prevented the abuse of personal freedoms in the name of the “Aryan” race. In Italy, Mussolini chose the concept of a mythical “Roman” nation for the same end.

I may be wrong but, unlike Axworthy, I believe there are quite a few Iranians who wish to have the freedoms available in the “corrupt and declining West”. They wish to be able to make their own choices, commit their own sins and pay for those sins. Under Khomeinism, they are forced to pay for the sins of their self-imposed rulers.

In this August 31, 2012 file photo, fighters from the Al-Qaida-linked Islamist group Ansar Dine stand guard in Timbuktu, Mali. (AP Photo, File)

It also discussed the ruins and the ancient mausoleums that these groups had destroyed and noted that during the last 70 years this region has been a growing area of interest for UNESCO, which has added a number of the region’s landmarks to its special program for protecting ‪‬World cultural heritage.‪‬ The director‪-‬general of UNESCO‪, Irina Bokova, accompanied France’s president François Hollande to Mali to reaffirm her organization’s support for plans to preserve these cultural treasures and the legacy of African Islamic civilization as long as there are threats to its existence. ‬
‪‬
In contrast to Nicholis Sarkozy‪’‬s speech at Dakar University in 2007 that promoted the idea that the African man had neither gone down in history nor contributed to international civilization, conclusive evidence exists that proves the exact opposite is true.

Among this evidence are a remarkable collection of manuscripts in the city of Timbuktu, which is located in northern Mali and has been called ‪”‬the city of 333 saints‪,”‬ ‪”‬the jewel of the desert‪,” and “Timbuktu the mysterious.”

Although its existences goes back to the 12th century, it did not gain widespread fame as a center for intellectual and scientific thought until the time of the Songhai Empire at the beginning of the 15th century, during which it experienced a boom of intellectual activity and a widespread trade in the copy and sale of books—specifically during the rule of Mohamed Askia (1493–1528), who was a great patron of scholars.

A manuscript from Mali with weather damage and age-related discoloration. (Asharq Al-Awsat photo)

Few Westerners, however, were able to enter the city. The first was the French explorer René Caillié, who visited the city in 1828 and spent thirteen days there without managing to read or even view the manuscripts. Historians themselves did not begin to investigate these manuscripts until a German named Heinrich Barth visited the city and studied the Tarikh Al-Sudan and the Tarikh Al-Fattash—two manuscripts that, after being translated, disclosed valuable scientific and political theories and priceless information about the organization of daily life in Timbuktu. ‬

The content of these manuscripts varies‪ and includes disciplines like medicine, ophthalmology, mathematics, astrology, linguistics, and Qu’ranic interpretation on topics that range from rulings on marriage, divorce and inheritance issues to business etiquette. ‬

‬Mohamd Zabir‪, a well‪-‬known Malian historian and researcher‪, estimated that there are roughly 950‪,‬000 of these manuscripts today‪.‬ A hundred thousand of them are in Timbuktu itself in the hands of ancient families and have been passed down from father to son‪.‬ The rest are located in other regions of Mali like Gao‪,‬ Kayes‪,‬ Ségou‪ and Kidal, as well as the countries of Mauritania‪,‬ Niger‪,‬ France‪,‬ Morocco‪ and Spain, according to the different periods of colonial rule that the area has experienced.‬

Of the family libraries that hold many of the manuscripts, there are several that are especially prominent. These include the Mama Haidara Memorial Library, which contains nearly 9500 manuscripts and‬ is still owned by the Haidara family, well‪ ‬known for its scholars and judges‪,‬ ‪which‬ has received financial assistance from American and British organizations to gather and preserve manuscripts.‬ The Timbuktu Andalusian Library, the Fondo Ka‪’‬ti‪,‬ is owned by the family of Ismael Diadié Haidara, and contains nearly 7000 manuscripts that have now been indexed‪.‬ The Al‪-‬Wangari Manuscript Library is owned by the family of Mukhtar Al‪-‬Wangari and contains texts on Islamic jurisprudence‪,‬ Qu’ranic interpretation‪, and linguistics‪.‬ The most important library, however, is the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research with its collection of nearly 30‪,‬000 manuscripts, most of which are owned by Timbuktu families including that of noted scholar Ahmed Baba.‬ This institute was founded in 1973 and has received funding from many countries, including South Africa‪,‬ Saudi Arabia‪‬ and Kuwait‪.‬

One of Timbuktu’s many manuscripts, showing signs of insect damage. (Asharq Al-Awsat photo)

Georges Bohas, a professor of Arabic at Lyon University who has written extensively on Islamic literature and manuscripts, says that “if 90% of these manuscripts were preserved, then to date only 1% of been translated and 10% of them have been indexed.” However, today the shortage of students devoting themselves to the study of Arabic in Mali has become a real problem, as Arabic translators are now few and far between. The majority of these manuscripts were written in the Arabic alphabet called Ajami that mixes local coastal dialects and Classical Arabic.

Mohamed Zabir, a historian and director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, admits that there is also another problem: the hesitancy of families to surrender their books and manuscripts to the institutes that preserve and index them.

“Many of these families’ libraries were exposed to fire and pillage during Moroccan and French colonialism, and so the Malian families that inherited these treasures do not easily grant their trust,” he says. Many of them continue to preserve these manuscripts in the basements of their homes, in iron boxes, and even under the sands of the country during emergencies.

Jean Michel Djian, the author of The Manuscripts of Timbuktu, attributes the hesitancy of families to present their great written cultural treasures to what he calls “the preference for oral knowledge in Africa and its supremacy over written knowledge.”

He adds, “This has made many of us ignorant of the fact that Africans have left detailed written records since the 13th century … Studying these manuscripts shakes our perception of ‪’the other‪’ and invites us to seriously question‪:‬ Do we Westerners have the right to ignore this great cultural treasure‪, which‬ establishes with written proof that the African man reached knowledge and understanding several centuries before we did, during a time in which we had nothing?”

Djian justifies his words by citing the manuscript Mandi Charter that was written at the end of the 13th century during the reign of Emperor Sundiata Keita‪.‬ This document was long thought to be an African legend until written evidence for its existence was discovered.‬ This evidence has been translated thanks to the cooperation of the French National Library and researchers from France and Mali.‬

More importantly,‬ the study of this ancient evidence has shed light on the existence of an older document that clearly and indisputably discusses the concept of human rights, including concepts like gender equality‪ and political freedoms.‬

A 15th-century manuscript in the Ahmed Baba Institute, translated by a Malian researcher called Saadou Traoré‪, is equally fascinating for historians and political theorists. It contains long chapters on the proper principles of government that indicates that the political institutions of the era in which it was written were mature and sophisticated. The first chapter,‬ for example,‬ discusses which attributes are desirable in a ruler, stressing integrity, temperance and the avoidance of crises.‬ Another chapter discusses the structure of and role of a ruler’s councils of advisers, and argues that they should represent both the rich and poor.‬ The same chapter also discusses how to rule during a crisis or when the ruler is traveling,‬ how to chose judges,‬ as well as other rules and theories—and all a whole century before Machiavelli put pen to paper.‬

Al-Nadi Club’s table tennis player Kifaya Al-Awardi plays during the Women’s Games at Salwa Al-Sabah Sports Center in Qurein, Kuwait, on Thursday, May 9, 2013. The event is part of a new initiative launching sports leagues for women. (AP Photo/Gustavo Ferrari)

As part of a new initiative launching sports leagues for women, Shatti and her teammates from Salwa Al-Sabah club downed Qadsiya club 63–13 in a game that attracted several hundred male and female fans. The initiative to launch basketball, table tennis and athletic leagues for the first time in Kuwait illustrates how the landscape for women athletes is improving across the Gulf, where hard-liners have long opposed women playing sports.

Several of the players, in deference to the conservative Muslim culture that is common across the Gulf, wore leggings and covered their heads with hijab. Others, however, wore shorts and T-shirts.

“A competition like this should have happened a long time ago,” said Shatti, who has played in tournaments overseas and only heard about the league in her home country while playing in neighboring Bahrain. “But I am glad it finally took place. We’ve been trying to do this for a long time, and they have promised that more sports will be included in future leagues.”

Helped by government support, increased education and erosion of traditional values, football leagues for girls in the Gulf have started up in Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

Kuwait is typical of the struggle women have endured in the Gulf.

The 1970s were described as the golden era where women were allowed to freely participate in sports in Kuwait, according to Naeema Al-Sabah, the head of the Women’s Sports Federation. But in the ensuing decades, the influence of Islamic hard-liners grew in the country and sports for women all but disappeared. Hard-liners believe that sports will promote immoral behavior and that uniforms inappropriately reveal female bodies.

The low point came a few years back, when a Kuwaiti women’s football team was publicly denounced after returning from playing a regional tournament in neighboring United Arab Emirates.

“We’re taking baby steps toward progress,” Sabah said. “As with any society that is religiously strict, we need to test the waters and take small steps. Everyone in Kuwait now values sports. You see people walking and jogging every day. There is this increasing interest in playing sports in general.”

Shatti said the best sign that things are changing was the number of women and girls who turned out for the basketball game. A music teacher who also cycles and jogs with her husband, Shatti is only hoping to get more chances to play.
“It felt like the first step toward a better future for sports for us here in Kuwait,” she said after her team’s victory.

A Turkish Airlines plane takes off at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul November 30, 2012. (REUTERS/Osman Orsal)

The national carrier had said in a statement this month the use of red and dark pink lipstick and nail polish would impair the “visual integrity” of its staff.

But Chief Executive Temel Kotil said the order was made by over-zealous junior managers who did not consult senior bosses about the initiative.

“As to the lipstick, we had no problems but somehow low-level managers put together a paper without asking us and that paper leaked to the media and became a big issue,” Kotil told reporters in London.

Asked whether there was a ban, he said “no,” and confirmed female staff could wear lipstick and nail polish of any color.

“As you know, some in Turkey are a little bit keen about these issues,” said the fast-talking, US-educated Kotil, who has served as chief executive since 2005. “We are a great global carrier and we know what we are doing.”

Many Turks took to Twitter to complain about the ban and the president of the airline’s Hava-Is union, Atilay Aycin, called it a bid by the management “to shape the company to fit its own political and ideological stance”.

Turkey is 99% Muslim, but the NATO member state and European Union candidate has a secular constitution.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Freedom and Justice Party, which traces its roots to a banned Islamic party, has relaxed the state’s control over the expression of religion, such as once-strict limits imposed on wearing the Islamic-style headscarf.

Such restrictions were aimed at reining in Islamism and improving women’s rights, but effectively prevented many devout women from studying at university or taking government jobs.

In a presentation, Kotil forecast operating revenue would rise to USD 9.749 billion in 2013 from USD 8.318 billion last year. No net income guidance was given. A decade ago in 2003, operating revenue was USD 1.898 billion.

The airline, which says it flies to more countries than any other carrier, aims to increase passenger numbers to 46 million this year from 39 million last year.

Aviation union Hava-Is has threatened to strike this month over pay, but Kotil was optimistic such action could be averted.

“We love the union, we love our employees … and hopefully we can find a solution,” he said.

Islamic art on display at the courtyard level of Louvre’s new Islamic gallery. (Courtesy of The Louvre Museum)

Paris, Asharq Al-Awsat—For the first time ever, a major Western museum, the Louvre, has provided a permanent home for an Islamic art collection. The Louvre has provided massive new gallery space to house what Louvre Director, Henri Loyrette, describes as being “one of the richest collections of Islamic art in the world.”

Already the most popular museum in the world, with nearly nine million visitors in the past year alone, the new Islamic galleries are set to draw even more people to this grand old lady of Parisian museums. Thew new Islamic Art galleries are noted for their dynamic displays and spectacular new architecture.

Loyrette said: “We have always been open to the world, and today, our visitors are increasingly interested in the Islamic world. But many people don’t know anything about it, and it’s important to show them the luminous face of this civilization.”

Islamic artifacts on display at the Louvre museum. (Courtesy of The Louvre Museum)

In 1793 the French revolutionary government took over the old Louvre palace, founding the Museum of Decorative Arts, and appropriating the royal collection. Among them were a number of Arab/Islamic artifacts, which form the nucleus of today’s collection. At the beginning of the 20th century the Museum of Decorative Arts was amassing a different collection of outstanding craft objects spanning the centuries, including lusterware ceramics from ancient Samarra, pre-dating Mesopotamia; contemporary Berber rugs from north Africa; huge but delicate Egyptian Mamluk mosque lamps; and outstanding textiles, all key elements of Islamic culture.

In 2001 Henri Loyrette launched an ambitious project to devote more space to do justice to the richness of the Museum’s collection, which would be amalgamated with those of the neglected Museum of Decorative Arts. The two collections perfectly complemented each other: that of the Louvre focusing particularly on medieval Islamic treasures; while the Museum of Decorative Arts’s collection included artworks from the Arab world’s great modern empires, from the 16th to the 18th centuries, including the Ottoman empire.

Two years later, in 2003, then French President, Jacques Chirac, announced a new department dedicated to Arab/Islamic art to be created at the Louvre. It now consists of 15,000 artifacts, in addition to the 3,400 works on permanent loan from the Museum of Decorative Arts. Together these collections span the entire geographical and historical Islamic world; from Spain to India, from the 7th to the 19th centuries.

Since the announcement in 2005 of the architects selected to design the new galleries, a massive project began to take shape. Throughout the 800 years of its history, the Louvre palace and Museum have repeatedly attracted each period’s most gifted and influential innovators in the fields of architecture and design. Creating the new department within the Visconti Courtyard raised considerable architectural challenges.

The winning design by Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti meets the test of constructing an avant-garde building on the premises of a protected historical monument, though it has provoked much controversy. Milanese architect Mario Bellini says that he and Ricciotti have “a deep respect for the Islamic collection, combined with personal knowledge of its geographical and cultural context.”

Visconti Courtyard and its glass roof. (Courtesy of The Louvre Museum)

Bellini comments: “It’s like an enormous dragonfly wing that undulates as if suspended in the wind, almost touching the courtyard ground at one point, but without disturbing the historic facades.”

The interior design by Renaud Piérard is equally dramatic yet subtle. Brass-speckled black floor tiles echo the black concrete walls and the gilded tones of the glass roof. The entire muted atmosphere directs the visitor’s focus to the precious artefacts, in all their varying colours and motifs.

The concept for visiting the galleries is the work of Mario Bellini and Renaud Piérard, a perfect loop in which visitors are encouraged to take a journey literally and metaphorically in one single direction. They start on the courtyard level where works dating from the 7th to 11th centuries are shown.Then they proceed to the sub or parterre level devoted to objects from the 11th to the late 18th centuries in muted light. This gentle trajectory evokes an intentional ambiance of contemplation or meditation.

The new galleries are conceived as an introduction to the outstanding principles that define Islamic art and culture, through the chronological exploration of a number of themes. These include architecture, urban life, courtly commissions and the arts of the book, as well as technical mastery. A variety of hi-tech tools appeal to today’s museum audiences, experiencing multimedia installations, listening to Arabic, Persian or Turkish commentaries by specialists, which are also available in French, English and Spanish. For children and their families, there are special guided tours involving folk tales and music.

So what have they all come to experience? As we have seen, the design flow takes us on a journey through time, Islamic time, starting with the first empires or dynasties, the age of the Caliphates, from 632-1,000 CE. First came the Ummayad caliphate; then the Abbasids. One exhibit gives us an idea of the splendor and size of just one of the many royal palaces at Samarra on the Tigris in today’s Iraq. A massive carved teak door panel is 240.5 cm high and 56.8 cm wide.

Peacock dish, Iznik, Turkey, c.1550, on display at the Louvre Museum. (Peacock dish, Iznik, Turkey, c.1550.(

“It’s been kind of a detective story,” said Sophie Makariou, the Louvre’s Director of Islamic Art. “Suddenly this great piece of architecture appears that illustrates the grandeur of Cairo during this very exceptional dynasty. But I promise you I’m not Agatha Christie!”

The Ottomans, ruling a vast empire from the 14th to the 20th centuries, are the last time-frame covered in the stately choreographed minuet around the Louvre. Naturally magnificent Turkish Iznik ceramics are displayed, which included some 3,000 16th and 17th century tiles that had been languishing in storage since the 1970’s. To rebuild the spectacular and enormous tiled wall now on display was: “A giant puzzle that took more than seven years to complete,” says Makariou.

The last section, spanning all eras of Islamic culture, focuses on the Arts of the Book, reflecting the various styles and scripts of manuscript illustration. These include calligraphy, painted borders and title letters, as well as bookbinding, stretching from North Africa via Iran, Turkey and Arabia to India.

More than merely inviting visitors to view a succession of artifacts, the aim is to take them on a memorable journey to the heart of Islamic civilization. Today the collections of the Department of Islamic Art continue to be enhanced by significant purchases, gifts, and bequests. All in all, the ongoing enrichment ensures that the Louvre is home to a collection that is one of the most valuable in the world.

An Afghan youth performs onstage during “The Sound Central Festival” at the French Cultural Center in Kabul on May 1, 2013. Source: AFP Photo/Sham Marai

Kabul, Reuters—More than 400 Afghan women and girls jumped from their seats, screaming and even headbanging to rock and rap music at an all-female music festival in the capital of Kabul, which organisers say was the largest such event in the country’s history.

It may also be one of the last. In ultra-conservative Afghanistan, women’s rights remain precarious.

Afghan women have won back hard-fought rights such as education and work since the Islamist Taliban was toppled 12 years ago, but there are fears these freedoms could shrink once NATO-led forces withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year, ending their fight against a Taliban-led insurgency that began in late 2001.

“I’m worried that when the troops leave, we’ll be stuck in our homes like we were in the past,” said 16-year-old student Shabona Nabizada, shouting above the din of electric guitar.

“As women we’re ridiculed and harassed. I feel free being able to come here and leave all that behind,” she added with a timid smile.

The rare women’s day, part of a multi-day Sound Central concert, was held in a city concert hall on Tuesday and drew a boisterous crowd – mostly teenagers in the high school uniform of grey tunic and white hijab, but also abuse victims from shelters and even a few grandmothers.

Increasing insecurity is deterring some women from pursuing work outside the home, and rights workers accuse the government of not doing enough to safeguard women – claims that President Hamid Karzai’s administration denies.

The women-only festival kicked off the 4-day Sound Central rock fest, now in its third year, featuring acts by Afghan-American singer Ariana Delawari and Kabul-based expat rockers White City, whose British lead singer Ruth Owen sent the crowd into a frenzy.

The number of women attending the women’s day more than doubled from last year’s debut event, said its founder, Australian multimedia producer Travis Beard. He publicised the concert by sending out fliers and teams of women to schools to convince teachers and parents that the festival would cause young women no harm.

“Women’s day is the most significant part of the festival. Just having this kind of attendance for the first time in the country, at a rock concert, is groundbreaking,” Beard said.

As local rap artist Ramika took to the stage, dressed in turquoise leggings and an oversized t-shirt, several wide-eyed Afghan soldiers guarding the event crept in to steal a look at the show, which only female press members were allowed to cover.

To one side of the audience sat a small, solemn group of young women from shelters that give refuge to abuse victims, many of whom have escaped violent homes and unhappy arranged marriages. The unmarked and often hidden shelters around the country face an uncertain future, with recent government attempts to bring them under their control.

Last year, Justice Minister Habibullah Ghaleb called the shelters houses of “prostitution and immorality”, provoking a barrage of condemnation from Afghan women.

One shelter director, who only gave her first name, Horshid, said coming to the music festival was a way to “temporarily bring the girls back to life”.

Horshid, who runs a shelter attached to the Afghan Women’s Skills Development Center, a non-governmental organisation, said women are increasingly concerned by the government’s attempts to establish peace talks with the Taliban.

“If the Taliban regain any power, our rights will be the first sacrifice,” she said.

Saloua Raouda Choucair
Waterlens 1969–1971, detail
© Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Jessica Morgan, co-curator of the Lebanese artist’s current retrospective at the Tate Modern, explains how Choucair was ground-breaking in registering that abstraction was not a Western creation, but had in fact existed for centuries.

“The real significance of Choucair’s work is the way in which she brought together her interest and knowledge in Islamic form and architecture with a Western conception of abstraction, combining both to create a new avenue of modernism,” she explains.

Morgan is confident that if Choucair had remained in Paris, rather than returning to her homeland, the Lebanese artist would be a household name, rather than a relative unknown, only being brought to light in her 97th year.

This 120-piece exhibition, many of which have never been seen before, takes the viewer on a journey through a lifetime of Choucair’s highly creative and experimental work. It starts with a 1943 self-portrait, showing a determined, head-scarved young woman with a slight frown and serious gaze.

Saloua Raouda Choucair
Self Portrait 1943
© Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

At this early point in her career, Choucair was under the tutelage of two of Lebanon’s leading landscape artists, Mustafa Farroukh and Omar Onsi. However she soon moved to Paris to study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, finding a place in the atelier of cubist and figurative painter, Fernand Léger, where she was to spend several formative years.

The small series of paintings entitled Les Peintures Célèbres in the first room of the exhibition are a homage to her mentor’s Le Grand Dejeuner, using similar bold colors and flat shapes, yet her figures are more womanly, softer and more naïve.

Just prior to her sojourn in Paris, Choucair spent some time in Cairo and had fallen in love with Islamic art, design and architecture, which were highly unfashionable at the height of modernism. However, she did not see the two as mutually exclusive, and set about combining her love of the simple line and curve of Islamic geometry with the abstract modernism of her Parisian experience.

Her Fractional Modules, painted around this time, begin to explore and examine the possibilities of such a synthesis of ideas, through mathematical repetitions and duplications, all rendered in a soothing, muted palette of gouache.

Returning to Beirut in the early 1950’s brought Choucair’s chances of international recognition to an end, says Morgan. Despite knowing it would be detrimental to her career, Choucair wanted to be with her husband. Only a few years later, she gave birth to a daughter, Hala.

This period between the 1950s and 1970s was a time of prolific activity for Choucair, during which she experimented with many different materials, including wood, metal, stone and fiberglass. Fusing her fascination with science, geometry, engineering and architecture with her understanding of Sufi poetry, Choucair produced her modular Poems series.

Saloua Raouda Choucair
Poem 1963–1965
© Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Similar, yet contrasting, are the artist’s Duals, which are made up of two closely entwined pieces of the same sculpture, but unlike Poems, they are only complete when embracing their metal, wood, stone or plastic partner—a sort of essential yin and yang. It is difficult not to reach over the exhibition ropes to run ones’ hand over the smooth curved surfaces of these infinitely tactile, interlocking works.

Room three holds perhaps the most startling work of the exhibition, and the one that perhaps best reflects Choucair’s later life. Two = One is a modular painting whose canvas is covered in scratches and tears; there are even a couple of pieces of glass embedded in the painting, the result of a bomb exploding near her flat during the civil war in the 1980s.

However, the driving force of Choucair’s talent persevered, informed by her highly intelligent, open-minded and inquisitive nature.

On the opposite side of the room is a glass case full of maquettes (scale models), each created from different materials. Among these are models and plans for large-scale public projects, which were sadly never made. These sit cheek-by-jowl with smaller, intriguing works of jewellery and household design, such as quirky salt and pepper sets.

Choucair’s irrepressible creativity is astounding, especially considering she was seen as outlandishly avant-garde in Lebanon at the time. Despite her passion and obvious talent, she never received the same attention as her male counterparts, nor did she receive the respect and acclaim she deserved until much later in life.

Saloua Raouda Choucair
Intercircles 1972–1974
© Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

The last room reveals several of Choucair’s plexiglass and nylon thread structures, careful geometric configurations balanced meticulously in the center of the room, each one exploring the idea of potential kinetic energy within its structural form. Although accomplished, delicate and impressive works of art, these are less appealing to me personally, as they seem to lack some of the intimacy, femininity, warmth and wit of her earlier work.

However, this is a well-curated showcase of a lifetime dedicated to experimental and highly creative work, finally granting Choucair her rightful place in the history of art.

In comparison with the blockbuster Lichtenstein retrospective downstairs, this modest, yet committed, exhibition is a welcome reprieve. It is only a shame that Choucair, at 97 years of age, is too old to travel and see the enjoyment that lights the faces of the visitors who flow through the rooms, marveling at her life’s work.

This exhibition runs from April 17–October 20, 1013, at the Tate Modern, London.
Admission £10 (£8.50 concessions)
Open 10am to 6pm every day and 10pm on Friday and Saturday.
www.tate.org.uk
020 7887 8888

Detail of “Scrutineer of the Hidden Passion” by Rachid Koraichi, one of the 47 works that will be sold at auction by Sotheby’s in Doha today. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Lina Lazaar Jameel, Sotheby’s international contemporary art specialist, said of today’s auction: “Doha is a hugely exciting art hub of the MENA region, and the sale presents exemplary works by extremely important artists.”

In Dubai, where another highly successful Art Dubai fair has just ended, Michael Jeha, managing director of Christie’s in the Middle East, said that their auction proved that “the market responds extremely well to carefully curated sales with great works by artists of high caliber.” He also noted “the increasing interest of international buyers and the maturing of an ever-increasing group of informed and committed local collectors.”

This is fascinating. Not only are international buyers—museums, collectors and investors—swooping like hawks, but there has been a significant increase in the number of buyers from the region. Furthermore, neither group will accept anything but first-class art, of which there is so much, covering such a wide area: not only the Middle East, but also North Africa, Iran and Turkey.

“Al-Moulatham” by Ayman Baalbaki, 2010, acrylic and paper collage on printed fabric. Image courtesy of Christie’s.

Only a few decades ago, the Middle East was perceived by the rest of the world as a region that produces extremists, anguish and oil. That image was not helped by 9/11, with all its negative implications. The MENA region was certainly not an area associated with contemporary art, but a Golden Age of creativity was dawning, although of course a vastly rich tradition has always existed. Writing on the theme of “Arabness” after the June war of 1967, when Arab armies were defeated by Israel, poet and critic Buland Al-Haidari described artists as “vying with each other in trying to blaze a new trail which would give concrete expression to the longing for Arab unity, resulting in the Arab world giving birth to an art of its own.”

Venetia Porter, curator of the Middle East department at the British Museum, wrote in Word into Art, the catalogue for a seminal exhibition of contemporary Arabic calligraphy at the museum in 2006, that as a consequence of those turbulent times, “Arab artists, many of whom had been trained in the West, or had been exposed to Western art traditions, began to seek inspiration from aspects of their indigenous culture. The increased use of script by some artists can certainly be seen in the light of this.”

The development of contemporary Iranian art has followed a different path. Lebanese-born Iranian Rose Issa, an independent gallerist and curator of contemporary visual art and film from the Arab world and Iran, points out that “in the last 20 years, the influence of Iranian cinema has encouraged a mix of documentary films and photography mixed with fiction. This has led to a new aesthetic language. Photography came to the forefront in Iran following the Iran–Iraq War, which caused so much loss of human life, [and destruction of] the natural environment and architecture, that artists wanted to document their towns, their families, their history. Photography was the easiest and cheapest way to do this. The strength of Iranian art still comes from the way it tells real-life stories, the poetry of life, winning prizes and influencing Western artists.”

A major exhibition has just ended at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, entitled Light from the Middle East: New Photography. It included the work of several prominent Iranian photographers.

Another continually war-torn area, Lebanon, is also a vibrant art hub despite the fact that there is hardly any government funding for the arts. In other oil-rich countries of the MENA region, as well as in Turkey, the blossoming local cultural development infrastructure is underpinning this Golden Age of Arab art, establishing museums, art fairs, biennales and funding (some) art education. In those countries, the number of private galleries expands each month. Beirut lacks both public and private art venues. Nevertheless, Lebanese artists create powerful, poetic and often very high-tech images, confronting the ghosts of their civil war and seven Israeli invasions.

Pioneering galleries sprang up early on in Cairo from 1982 onwards, and in 2000 the Nitaq Festival began to introduce a new generation of artists and media. Articulate Baboon gallery was founded as “a harborage for counter-culture in Egypt and the Middle East,” according to its creators, and recently showed Palestinian exile Laila Shawa’s Arabopop!

“Secret Garden” by Farhad Moshiri, 2009, oil, acrylic, metal and glitter paint, beads, Swarovski crystals. Image courtesy of Christie’s.

Most contemporary Arab art is iconoclastic, thematically relevant, dealing with the issues of today, and markedly less nihilistic and self-indulgent than most modern Western art. Even in strife-ridden, impoverished areas like Palestine, there is a hunger for art. The situation there is clearly fraught, yet their Riwaq Biennale for Art & Design is a supportive arena for artists—not only to show their work and to dialogue with artists from other countries, but to network with patrons.

Living in London, Laila Shawa cannot return to Palestine. Sotheby’s will auction a piece from her new Gun Series, called Where Souls Dwell III. It is a gold-painted AK45, entirely covered with Swarovski crystals, rhinestones, feathers and butterflies. It is glittery and pretty—but it is a gun. Shawa says: “I come from the most fought-over country in history, and have a particular distaste for the damages and traumas of wars. The butterflies in this work represent the souls of those who were killed by these guns.”

Lurking below the high-rises of Dubai in a few of the only remaining traditional wind-tower buildings are some cutting-edge modern art galleries, most of which operate on an international platform. One of them is Third Line, which has a satellite in Doha. Their stated mission is to show “young, unknown talents and those who live in the West.” Artists of the Arab diaspora, either leaving their countries voluntarily or forced out by politics, almost all retain the spirit of their homeland in their work. Themes of dislocation, identity, loss and alienation prevail, along with inherited memory of an imagined land.

But not all is doom and gloom; there is a sense of optimism that comes from the strength of survival. Moroccan-born Hassan Hajjaj chooses to live partly in Marrakesh and partly in London. His photographic assemblages capture the upbeat rhythm of North African street life with humor, warmth and a degree of kitsch self-mockery. His series of satirical photographs of the young women of Marrakesh, whom he calls the “Kesh Angels,” shows them posed on Harley Davidsons. The heavily made-up eye of one starlet winks at you, the viewer, above her Louis Vuitton-branded djellabah. The veil in the work at the Sotheby’s sale recalls the stars and stripes, and she is surrounded by aluminum tins that look like Coke cans. “I wanted to express so-called ‘Arabic’ work in a cool way,” stresses Hajjaj. He and his contemporaries are playfully questioning stereotypes of tradition and modernity, East and West.

The first contemporary art gallery in the Middle East was set up within Jordan’s National Gallery, kick-started by the collection of Princess Wijdan, who is a respected artist in her own right. She and the National Gallery were instrumental in organizing the first exhibition of Contemporary Art from the Islamic World at London’s Barbican in 1989.

Another space, the Dar Al-Funoon Gallery in Kuwait, was founded in 1994. “It took us ten very difficult years to even awaken interest and awareness for art in the Middle East,” said its owner, Lucie Topalien. “The last few years have gone well thanks to the international auction houses and the media, especially Canvas magazine.” Other magazines, such as BidounM and Contemporary Practices, have also spread the word globally.

The involvement of the auction houses has been crucially important in providing an international platform for Arab artists. Sotheby’s was the first on the scene, with a London auction in 2001; Christie’s opened in Dubai in 2005. Layer came Bonhams and Phillips De Pury. In 2008, Christie’s introduced Turkish art for the first time, and the next year it held a sale of work by Saudi Arabian artists, who began to exhibit at the Venice Biennale in 2009. The Edge of Arabia, a Saudi organization that works to promote Arab and Saudi art, recently opened a London gallery. There were few private galleries in Saudi Arabia until very recently, owing in part to religious objections to depicting the human form. But now they are mushrooming, encouraged by King Abdullah’s strategy to make his state investor-friendly.

“Love” by Mohammad Ehsai, 2011, acrylic and silver leaf. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Some of today’s artists don’t want to be labeled as “Arab,” “Middle Eastern,” “African” or “Islamic.” They refute the one-dimensional inference of ethnicity, inferring the “Other,” someone non-Western. They are trapped between concepts of “modernity” and “authenticity” when addressing an international audience; when catering to local tastes, they are subject to sensitivity and even censorship about certain subjects such as nudity. Nevertheless, contemporary Arab and Iranian artists, together with their patrons and collectors, galleries and museums, are creating an extraordinarily potent movement, whose ripples are spreading over the globe.

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Doha Sale takes place at 7 p.m. on April 22 at Katara Cultural Village Foundation, Building 5.