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totallyhussein-blog · 16 hours

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The taste of home. How Iraqi Jewish food ignites the senses

'The food of the Iraqi Jews tells our story. M’hasha is about community. The project of coring vegetables, stuffing them with herbed rice, and stewing them in tangy tamarind is made quick by many hands.

Tebit is a distinctly Jewish dish. Traditionally made to feed dozens of family members on the Sabbath, the spiced chicken and rice are placed in the oven on Friday night and cooked overnight on low through Saturday.'

'My grandmother’s kitchen was on the Upper East Side, but it tasted of Iraq.' Have you read the stunning article Cooking and Sharing Iraqi Jewish Food Helps Me Imagine a Place I Never Knew by Lucy Simon?

'As Ama brushed butter onto sheets of phyllo dough, she’d share stories of her girlhood in Baghdad.

“We’d swim in the Tigris with water buffalo,” she’d say with delight at my amazement, each layer of pastry unfurling more memories. "To escape the summer heat, we’d sleep on the flat rooftops in the cool night air.”

She’d yell to my grandfather in the living room in Arabic, give my dad instructions in French, and speak politely to my measured Methodist mother in English, but to me, she spoke loving words that needed no translation; she’d call me ayuni (my eyes) and qalbi (my heart).

I’ll never know my Ama’s verdant, cosmopolitan Baghdad, in the region my ancestors called home for 2,500 years. But in her kitchen, I could taste it.'

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totallyhussein-blog · 1 day

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Educate and take action against genocide

During a special session held on 17 April 2024, the National Assembly of Armenia unanimously voted on a draft resolution to designate August 3rd every year as a day to commemorate and honour the victims of the Yazidi genocide.

This atrocity was committed by the terrorist organisation known as Islamic State (ISIS) in Sinjar in 2014, resulting in widespread suffering and loss of life.

The bill was introduced by Rustam Bakoyan, a representative from the Civil Contract Party and the Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs. It garnered approval with a majority of 88 votes during the initial reading.

As the Kurdistan Regional Government explained, furthermore, Paruyr Hovhannisyan, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister, stated that preventing genocide and crimes against humanity is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy.

In 2018, Armenia’s parliament unanimously passed a resolution recognising the 2014 mass killings of Yazidis in Iraq by ISIS as genocide. The resolution called on the international community to track down and prosecute those directly responsible for the killings.

The Yazidis are the largest religious and ethnic minority in Armenia and are recognised as a special ethnic component. According to statistics, the population of Yazidis in Armenia ranges from 35,000 to 50,000.

#education #armenia #armenian genocide #yazidis #iraq #iraqi #baghdad #uk #scotland #hussein al-alak #usa #news #world news #breaking news

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totallyhussein-blog · 4 days

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Explore the life and legacy of Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Bell was an archaeologist, travel writer, explorer, and political administrator responsible for creating the borders of the countries of the Near East after World War I and for laying the foundations of the modern state of Iraq. Gertrude Bell made important contributions to archaeology and a greater understanding of the cultures of Mesopotamia and ancient Persia through her books, including what is still considered the best translation of the Persian poet Hafiz’s work.

Queen of the Desert is the compelling story of Gertrude Bell, archaeologist, linguist, and author whose passion for the Arab peoples turned her into an architect of the independent kingdom of Iraq, a role driven by an unyielding spirit. Drawing heavily on Gertrude's personal diaries and letters, journalist Georgina Howell paints an intimate portrait of a Victorian woman who gave up her world of privilege and plenty to navigate the complex geopolitics of the Middle East.

Letters from Baghdad tells the extraordinary and dramatic story of Gertrude Bell, the most powerful woman in the British Empire in her day. An explorer and political powerhouse, Bell shaped the destiny of Iraq after World War I in ways that still reverberate today. More influential than her friend and colleague T.E. Lawrence, Bell was an outspoken critic of the policies of the British colonial office.

The Baghdad Archaeological Museum was established with the help of the British author Gertrude Bell in 1926. In the 1920s the Museum was under the Ministry of Public Works while under the Ministry of Education in the 1930s. The Iraqi National Museum is now the only institution dedicated to protecting the comprehensive and collective archaeological heritage of Iraq from loss or destruction, in order that it may be enjoyed and studied by the present and future generations.

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totallyhussein-blog · 4 days

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Are you celebrating St. George's Day?

I'd like to wish everyone a very happy St. George's Day. If you're not off fighting dragons today, here are 9 things from English Heritage that you might not know about the patron saint of England.

As the BBC also explains, St George isn't just the patron saint for England. He holds this position for Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Moscow, Istanbul, Genoa and Venice.

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totallyhussein-blog · 6 days

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The change begins! What does it mean to save lives in Iraq?

The Iraqi Children Foundation have released their 2023 annual report, which illustrates what it means to nurture and empower the children of Iraq.

For the first time, ICF invested in a project in Fallujah, rescuing a clinic serving disabled children from permanently closing its doors.

During the first six months, 831 services were provided to disabled children including medical consultations and physical rehabilitation.

#manchester #iraq #iraqi #london #uk #baghdad #liverpool #scotland #hussein al-alak #usa #iraq solidarity news #breaking news #world news #news #business news #article #us news

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totallyhussein-blog · 9 days

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Playing for time. How Ameen Mokdad resisted ISIS destruction

One day, when Ameen Mokdad was 10 years old, he found his father hard at work in their home in Mosul, Iraq.

In June 2014, the extremist jihadi group ISIS then took over Mosul, and Mokdad suddenly found himself living under their occupation.

Music was banned under the Islamic State, but Mokdad continued to play in secret as Michael Levitt and Ari Shapiro report for NPR.

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totallyhussein-blog · 11 days

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Armenia to recognize 3rd August as Day of Commemoration of Yazidi Genocide

The Armenian Parliament voted this week to designate August 3rd as the official commemoration day for the victims of Yazidi Genocide. The bill submitted by ethnic Yazidi MP Rustam Bakoyan passed the first reading with 88 votes in favor. Armenia will thus become the first country after Iraq to enshrine this into law.

“Genocide is a crime against humanity, and it is the biggest crime. This is a direct result and a direct consequence of incorrect and improper condemnation of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. The destinies of Armenians and Yazidis are quite similar, and our destinies have always crossed paths. We have often found ourselves in the same situations in different stages of history,” Bakoyan said as he presented the bill.

“The Republic of Armenia, adhering to the policy and priority it adopted in the process of prevention and condemnation of genocides, in 2014 condemned the genocide of Yazidis in Iraq from the high podium of the United Nations. In 2015, the Yazidi genocide in Iraq was condemned by the Armenian National Assembly factions, and in 2018 by the National Assembly,” the MP said.

“The prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy,” Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said, adding that Armenia actively supports the measures aimed at the prevention and condemnation of the mentioned crimes, the processes of further development of tools and mechanisms for the prevention of genocides and other mass crimes, both on bilateral and multilateral cooperation platforms.

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totallyhussein-blog · 12 days

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Kosovo charges man for crimes against Yazidi women and girls

Kosovo’s Special Prosecution on Friday said it has indicted a Kosovo citizen for alleged crimes against Yazidi girls and women while fighting in Syria and Iraq during 2014-2017.

In a press release, the prosecution said the suspect with initials M.D. has been charged with crimes against humanity and serious violations of laws of armed conflicts.

“These charges were committed against girls and women of the Yazidi community during the conflict in Syria and Iraq during 2014- 2017 and this criminal case has now been transferred to the Special Department of Pristina Basic Court,” the Special Prosecution said.

According to Perparim Isufi for the Balkan Insight, the suspect is under detention in Kosovo.

When the conflict in Syria erupted in 2011, around 300 Kosovo citizens joined Islamic State, ISIS, in its attempt to topple Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad.

Since 2014, the Kosovo prosecution has filed indictments against more than 120 Kosovo citizens for terrorism-related charges, while more than 100 others are under investigation.

Kosovo outlawed participation in foreign armed groups in 2015 and tens of those who returned from the Middle East faced trial and were imprisoned.

More than 260 Kosovars including fighters and their families were repatriated from Syria since 2019; many of those who were part of the fighting lost their lives on the battlefields.

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totallyhussein-blog · 13 days

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Mosul discoveries brought to light in new documentary

In 2014, Mosul fell under the control of ISIS (also called Daesh). During its three-year reign, the militants destroyed artifacts and buildings saying they were forms of idolatry.

As the CBC news channel explains, they also targeted sites for looting and to get attention, filming the destruction and sharing it in propaganda videos online.

But ISIS's actions inadvertently created opportunities. Sifting through the wreckage after ISIS's occupation, archaeologists have gained new insights into this great ancient city.

The city of Mosul in northern Iraq encompasses what was once Nineveh, the largest city in the seventh century BC and capital of Assyria, the world's first superpower.

Lost World of the Hanging Gardens looks at new discoveries in the ashes of ISIS's occupation and explores whether Nineveh was in fact the site of a lost wonder of the world — the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

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totallyhussein-blog · 14 days

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The cost of caring. Is Britain failing its carers?

Who are Britain's army of carers? The 2021 Census estimated the number of unpaid carers in England and Wales at 5 million but Carers UK research estimates the number could be as high as 10 million people.

But the obstacles Britain's unpaid carers face, has been making the headlines after it came to light the Department for Work and Pensions have been penalizing them for working while claiming Carers Allowance.

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totallyhussein-blog · 16 days

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Breaking news. Germany detains two suspected of IS genocide against Yazidi's

Two Iraqi citizens have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as membership in terrorist group Islamic State (IS).

As Politico EU reports:

The detention of the married couple follows a resolution by the German parliament last year that recognizes crimes committed by IS against the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq as genocide. The intent of its authors was to facilitate prosecutions against such crimes in Germany’s courts.

“Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. were married according to Islamic law and were members of the foreign terrorist organisation ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria between October 2015 and December 2017,” the Office of the Federal Prosecutor said in a statement Wednesday that did not give the full names of the suspects, as is customary in Germany.

“They held a then five-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave since no later than late 2015. Since October 2017, they enslaved a then twelve-year-old Yazidi girl as well. Twana H. S. repeatedly raped both children,” the prosecutor said.

The suspects denied the girls the right to practise their own religion and beat them, before handing them over to other IS members, it added: “All of this served the organisation’s objective to destroy the Yazidi religion.”

The suspects were brought before an investigating judge, who ordered that they be placed in pre-trial detention.

Germany jailed an IS member for the first time in 2021 for involvement in genocide and crimes against humanity committed against Yazidis in Iraq and Syria — including the murder of a five-year-old girl.

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totallyhussein-blog · 18 days

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First German Kurdish film festival gives voice to Yazidi community

Düsseldorf, Germany, introduces the first Kurdish Film Festival (DKFF), offering a vital platform for Kurdish cinema and spotlighting the Yazidi community.

As Medya News reports, this event running from 25-28 April, underscores the urgent need to preserve and evolve the Kurdish language, culture and history, under long-standing political repression.

Kurdish filmmakers and artists safeguard their community’s cultural identity through works that double as both artistic expressions and historical documents.

Their films not only delve into the Kurdish way of life, demonstrating resilience in the face of adversity, but also play a crucial role in educating and challenging prejudices. Among these artists, Yılmaz Güney stands out as a pioneering figure in Kurdish cinema and a cultural ambassador across borders.

Beyond showcasing films, the DKFF programme includes discussions, lectures and cultural events, giving attendees the opportunity to engage deeply with Kurdish culture and history. These activities are aimed at promoting tolerance, understanding and solidarity.

The festival reflects on the historical suffering of the Yazidi community, notably the genocide committed by ISIS in the Sinjar (Şengal) region of Iraq in 2014. With Germany home to the largest Yazidi diaspora, the festival bridges cultural divides and amplifies the voices of this distinct minority.

The DKFF invites the public to explore Kurdish cinema and participate in constructive dialogue with diverse cultures and communities.

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totallyhussein-blog · 20 days

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Learning to communicate opens the door to heritage, culture and growth

"My name is Noor Shater, and I am a first-year law student at The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, with aspirations to pursue a career in international law.

Attending the 8-week Arabic School was an incredibly enriching experience. It equipped me with a vast array of vocabulary that will prove invaluable in my chosen field, while also deepening my understanding of Middle Eastern politics and fostering a deeper appreciation for Arab culture and language.

Delving into Arab art, culture, and history exposed me to facets of my heritage that I had previously not encountered.

Moreover, the program broadened my comprehension of Modern Standard Arabic and various dialects, including Moroccan, Tunisian, Yemeni, and Iraqi, which complemented my existing knowledge of Palestinian and Egyptian dialects.

This summer, I will be interning with the International Criminal Court, where I anticipate utilizing my Arabic skills to contribute meaningfully to the pursuit of justice on the global stage! Learning Arabic has really opened up opportunities that I would not have had otherwise."

The Arab American National Museum is the first museum in the world devoted to Arab American history and culture. The Museum seeks to show visitors the Arab American experience through a timeline of exhibitions, public events and wider community engagement.

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totallyhussein-blog · 22 days

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German court upholds 'War Crimes' prison sentence. Who will be next?

Last month, the German Federal Court of Justice confirmed a German ISIS member’s 14-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership in a foreign terrorist organization.

The now 32-year-old ‘Jennifer W’ travelled to Syria in 2014 to join ISIS. Together with her then-husband – Iraqi national Taha A.-J. – she held a Yazidi woman and her 5-year-old daughter Reda as slaves in their home in Fallujah, Iraq, as part of ISIS’ brutal genocidal campaign against the Yazidis.

The Yazidi captives were deprived of sufficient food, forced to follow Islamic rules, and subjected to almost daily beatings. The Yazidi girl ultimately died after the defendant’s husband tied her with a cable to the bars of the outside window and left her hanging there in the scorching heat of up to about 50 degrees Celsius.

Although Jennifer W. could have intervened, she did nothing to save her life. Instead, the girl's mother was forced to watch her daughter die a slow death while she was held just metres away inside the house.

After the NGO Yazda identified and interviewed the mother, Jennifer W. was put on trial in Germany, with the mother as the key witness. She was represented by a legal team consisting of German lawyers Natalie von Wistinghausen and Wolfgang Bendler and UK barrister Amal Clooney.

Jennifer W. was sentenced to a prison term of 14 years in August 2023. Last month, the defendant’s appeal against the sentence was rejected as ‘manifestly unfounded’ and the sentencing decision is now final.

Commenting on the final decision, Amal Clooney said:

‘The trial against Jennifer W. was the first trial anywhere in the world against an ISIS member for crimes against humanity and the first trial charging ISIS with crimes against Yazidis. This landmark case was made possible by the courage and determination of my client.'

'Thanks to other Yazidi survivors who have also come forward, we have now seen 7 other ISIS members convicted of war crimes against Yazidis in German courts. These milestones are important.'

'But 40,000 people from more than 80 countries joined ISIS, and there are thousands of victims of genocide still waiting for their day in court. It is time for an international court that can deliver this’.

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totallyhussein-blog · 24 days

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Not silent! Yazidi's need justice to survive, heal and thrive

Almost ten years ago, ISIS seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria and launched a genocidal campaign against the Yazidis in northern Iraq.

In August 2014, shortly after ISIS declared a caliphate, they attacked Sinjar, the northern Iraqi Yazidi homeland. More than 400,000 Yazidis fled their homes and tens of thousands took refuge on Mount Sinjar where they remained stranded and hungry for weeks.

Over 3,000 Yazidis, mostly men and elderly women, were killed, and around 6,000 women and children were captured by ISIS. The captive women and children were targeted for sexual slavery and trafficking, while the boys were trained to fight for ISIS.

The 2015 documentary Escaping ISIS, recently released on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel, presented the gripping, first-hand accounts of Yazidi women who escaped ISIS with the help of an underground network.

Now, almost a decade later, while ISIS’s so-called caliphate has collapsed, the Yazidi community is still dealing with the aftermath of the terror group’s brutal rule. FRONTLINE examines the challenges many Yazidis still face as they seek justice, reunite with family members and attempt to rebuild their community.

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totallyhussein-blog · 25 days

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New book explores the lives of modern Arab artists

Lebanese author and art expert Myrna Ayad recently released “Alcove,” a book of 30 essays exploring the lives of celebrated and forgotten modern artists from the Arab world. Ayad based her essays on intimate interviews with the artists’ relatives, students, and close friends.

“I was not after describing their work,” Ayad, who lives in Dubai, tells Arab News. “My aim was to focus on the person — what moved them, what affected them, how they lived, how they survived and why they persevered.”

The artists hailed from the Gulf, the Levant and North Africa, and were working between the 1950s and 1980s — a time when the MENA art scene was far smaller than it is today.

“Despite geography, they all knew each other and were friends,” says Ayad. “They exhibited alongside each other and deliberated together. In those days, there were key cultural capitals like Baghdad, Beirut and Cairo, so they would all gather there."

"They were likeminded people.” What also united them was a sense of struggle — be it political, personal or professional. “It was not easy at all being an artist in those days,” says Ayad. 

They were also documenters of their time — depicting contemporary historical and political events. “They had enough liberty and confidence to do that, which is why you find a lot of answers in modern Arab art.”

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totallyhussein-blog · 27 days

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Mesopotamian heritage explored through the history of cooking

It was sometime in 1990 when Iraq was going through another wave of political and military turmoil under former president Saddam Hussein that Nawal Nasrallah, at the time a professor of English literature and linguistics, arrived on the East Coast of the United States.

As Dina Ezzat describes in the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram, having a passion for the quality food that she had long enjoyed wherever she had lived in Iraq, Nasrallah, like many Arab expatriates, connected with her home country while abroad through its traditional recipes.

With the passing of time, Nasrallah’s cooking evolved from being a way to satisfy her homesickness to an incitement to do research about the history of these delightful meals, however, not just in terms of the evolution of the recipes, but also in terms of documenting the long history of Iraqi cuisine.

Eventually, she ended up being the translator of several ancient cookbooks, including classics from the 10th, 13th, and 14th centuries that offer a thorough insight into culinary culture, not just in Iraq but also in other countries that were once controlled by the mediaeval Abbasid Dynasty in Baghdad.

Published in 2003, another crucial moment in the modern history of Iraq, Nasrallah’s Delights from the Garden of Eden introduced Iraqi cuisine in both its past and present guise to a world that may have known more about Saddam’s political and military adventures.

The title was the culmination of thorough research into the history of mediaeval Arab cuisine that had led Nasrallah to translate a 10th-century classic by Ibn Sayyar Al-Warraq called Kitab Al-Tabikh (Cookbook) that came out in English as Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens.

There were also her translations of the Best of Delectable Foods and Dishes from Al-Andalus and Al-Maghrib, a cookbook by the 13th-century Andalusian scholar Ibn Razin al-Tujibi, and the 14th-century Kenz Al-Fawaed fi Tanwia Al-Mawaed that came out under the English title of the Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table: A Fourteenth-Century Egyptian Cookbook.

Nasrallah is keen to establish two facts about her work: first, that writing about the history of food is also a type of literature; and second, that a cookbook in the mediaeval context is not just a set of recipes but also includes nutritional facts, cooking techniques, and eating manners.

Through her work on the subject, Nasrallah said, it is not difficult to trace the uninterrupted thread of recipes from Mesopotamia, the Iraq of the Middle Ages, to modern Iraq today.

#manchester #iraq #iraqi #london #uk #baghdad #liverpool #scotland #hussein al-alak #usa #cooking #food #heritage #culture #history #museums #art history #learning #education #teachers #teaching

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