Regional Voices: A livelihood stolen, a heritage eroded, a future uncertain. Haidar Abu Middain runs a calloused hand over the rough bark of a solitary olive tree, one of the few remaining witnesses to a lost world. Sixty years old, his face etched with the hardship of a lifetime in Gaza, he surveys the flattened […]
Regional Voices: Shared vulnerability transcends political divides. The scent of cardamom coffee hangs heavy in Umm Kulthum’s small tea shop, a favourite haunt for mechanics and drivers just outside Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, it was filled with a different kind of tension. “Everyone was talking about the plane,” Umm Kulthum tells me, stirring […]
Regional Voices: Cypriots yearn for a future beyond division. The scent of jasmine hangs heavy in the air as Old Man Yiannis tends his small lemon grove in the buffer zone, a green line slicing through Nicosia. He hasn’t been able to visit his ancestral village, now just metres away but on the other side, […]
Regional Voices: Fear and Fatigue in a Cycle of Retaliation The chipped turquoise paint of Old Man Hassan’s tea house in Isfahan seems a little duller these days. He still serves the sweetest nokhodchi biscuits with his tea, but the chatter is lower, laced with worry. “It started with whispers,” he told me, his voice […]
Regional Voices: A Father’s Plea, A Nation’s Weariness. Old Man Khalil sits on a plastic chair outside his damaged home in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon. Dust motes dance in the afternoon sun. His home, like many in the town, bears the scars of recent fighting. He isn’t angry, not anymore. Just… tired. “My son, he joined […]
Regional Voices: A fisherman’s quiet desperation in Oman. Old Man Tariq adjusts the netting on his dhow, the wooden boat worn smooth by decades of sun and salt. We meet him in the port of Musandam, Oman, a quiet corner overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. “The sea… she used to provide,” he says, his voice […]
Regional Voices: A Baker’s Worry, a Mother’s Resilience Old Man Khalil runs a small bakery just a few streets from the Four Seasons in Damascus. The scent of warm bread, normally a comfort, felt thin today, choked by the dust settling after the explosions. He wasn’t sure where they hit, only that the ground shook, […]
thought The Quiet Work of a Final Farewell Regional Voices: A gardener’s perspective amidst national mourning The Story Under a scorching Tehran sun, Hossein Moghadassi works in the gardens of the Grand Mosalla. Clad in a hat and a scarf to shield his face from the heat, Hossein isn’t thinking about geopolitical strategy or military […]
Regional Voices: Grief, uncertainty, and a quiet longing for peace. Old Man Hassan sits on a stool outside his spice shop in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, meticulously arranging saffron threads. His hands, worn smooth by decades of work, move with a practiced rhythm, but his eyes hold a distant sadness. He remembers a time before the […]
Regional Voices: A shopkeeper’s quiet worry, a nation’s uncertain path. The scent of çay (tea) hangs heavy in Mehmet’s small Istanbul shop, a haven from the relentless summer heat. He polishes the same glasses he’s polished for twenty years, his movements slow and deliberate. “Business is… cautious,” he admits, gesturing to the almost empty street […]
