By Joobin Bekhrad Originally published in REORIENT   With the bulk of major exhibitions being held in Europe, the UAE, and the United States, Canada is often dismissed as a cultural backwater when it comes to contemporary Middle Eastern art. Things are changing, however, slowly, but surely. Running between April 20 and September 15 at the Museum ... Continue reading »

On that bright, sunny day in the middle of the sweltering month of Mordad, I saw the ends of your loose, red hejab fluttering gaily behind you as you clutched onto your aquiline-nosed paramour on his motorbike, laughing like a little girl. At that moment, it seemed as if you had brought that squalid city to its knees. Like the limpid rays of light ... Continue reading »

A thick, murky haze of opium smoke rising like a Chinese cloud above a vision of paradise as foretold in a Kashani prayer rug, the lover’s cry bellows forth as he invokes the sage Saadi: The one I long for, who yearns to see me slain, for all her coquetry, is ever free from blame. With this olden verse of longing sprung from the boughs of Shiraz ... Continue reading »

    Only you, O Iranian woman, have remained in bonds of wretchedness, misfortune, and cruelty; if you want these bonds broken, grasp the skirt of obstinacy- Forough Farrokhzad, Call to Arms   By Joobin Bekhrad Originally published in REORIENT   Opening February 19th at Philadelphia’s Asian Arts Initiative is That Person Who is Your Creation, an e ... Continue reading »

Originally published in REORIENT   (L-R) Saeed Mohamed Aklan Ghaleb, Naser Abdo Rehman & Ibrahim Mohamed Ali   Portraits courtesy the A.M. Qattan Foundation   A history spanning a hundred years saw generations of seamen from Yemen settling along the River Tyne in England’s North Eastern region of South Shields, in search of new opportunities abroa ... Continue reading »

By Joobin Bekhrad Originally published in REORIENT   ‘YOU ASK YOURSELF A THOUSAND QUESTIONS PLUS ONE: WHO AM I?’ Haleh Anvari – Chador-dadar – London (Courtesy Galerie Kashya Hildebrand)   As the bombs from Babylon fell from above across the hazy Tehran skyline, dotting the skirt of the mountain whereon Arash once let his felicitous arrow fly, my ... Continue reading »

By Joobin Bekhrad Originally published in REORIENT   ERIC PARNES ON POP CULTURE, BEING IRANIAN-AMERICAN, AND THE 15th ISLAMIC ARTS FESTIVAL   Babak Kazemi – The Exit of Farhad and Shirin (Detail) – Courtesy Galerie Kashya Hildebrand   Currently exhibiting in Sharjah is the 15th Edition of the long-running Islamic Arts Festival. Featuring over 1,70 ... Continue reading »

By Joobin Bekhrad Originally published in REORIENT   The Caucasus – that mythical land of mountains, valleys, and steppes – has always held a peculiar, inextricable place within the depths of my soul. Don’t bother asking me why, though, as I myself have yet to relate the beginnings and sparks of this romance. I didn’t fall in love with a picture, ... Continue reading »