Music picks: Hussain Al Jasmi: Boushret Kheir

Boushret Kheir mean "good omen". Good omen from Egypt? you may ask, if you follow the political and social struggles this country is going through at the moment. And the more you think about it the more you love this song. Because this is what is needed most in Egypt. Good news. People that stand together, dancing and laughing. People from all over Egypt, regardless of skin tone, political orientation and religion. Together. Dancing. Celebrating.
Hussain Al Jassmi is a singer from the United Arab Emirates. Lyrics with English translation here.

Joy of Dancing: Helene Eriksen or... dancing without an accent

I should have written about her long ago.
Because everything started when I discoverded her art.
My passion for traditional women dances.

Helene Eriksen is a teacher and choreographer of traditional dances of the Balkans and Islamic Orient with decades of teaching experience.
But - what makes her truly unique is the rendering of every single dance in its own character. She is - it may sound almost impossible - dancing without an accent.




She speaks almost as many languages as she teaches dances and bestows her students with dance technique, musical and cultural information around the manyfold expressions of (mostly) woman dances of the East. Yoga, dance notation and explanations of the costumes make the lessons a rich source of motivation and personal development.
Working with her is true bliss.
Find more information on her classes, workshops and Dance Tours here. Helene has many friends all around the world; so, if she comes to your region, do not miss to pay her a visit.
Picture credits: Helene Eriksen.

Ghada Abdel Aal: The comic tragedy of getting married

It's not the first time I feel disappointed by the lack of curiosity and the poor feeling for new literary tendencies on the German book market when it comes to the "minor" languages, as publishers call them, i.e. practically all foreign languages besides English and (maybe) french. Several years ago I have spent a lot of energy trying to rise some awareness of contemporary greek literature, but invane, from my translations into German were published only two books with novels - by a publishing company from Switzerland.
Thanks to another Swiss publisher we can read the shooting star of the Egyptian blog scene - Ghada Abdel Aal.

Ghada works as a pharmacist. She introduces herself on her blog as: ... a representative of 15 million females from 25 to 35 years who are pressured by the society everyday to get married even though this matter is out of their hands. (Reference here).
"In a blog and now a top-selling book, both called, "I Wanna Get Married," Abdel Aal lifts the veil on the demure role young women are expected to play in these encounters -- which often bring on gawaaz al-salonat -- living-room marriages. Not so much arranged marriages as suggested ones, they involve a potential groom, nominated by family or friends, meeting a prospective bride and her family in their home over awkward rounds of tea." (Read more here).

What attracts me most is the humourist approach to a very complex theme that affects young women as much as men not only in Egypt, but in many Arabic societies. Not only girls suffer from the strict rules of how to set up a family - also young men have to wait for a very long time until they can afford a marriage.
Ghada recounts from her own experineces and those of blogging friends, many stories are funny and, but the reader can grasp the tragedy of a whole generation behind.
Translated into German and Italian, an English translation will be available in october from the University of Texas Press.