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daftar دفتر | afikra's Journal

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Essays, interviews, features and research on the Arab Word's histories and cultures.
Daftar is @afikra_ 's Cultural Journal.
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Asma Barakat is a freelance writer and educator currently based in the West Bank. Her main focus is on Palestinian politics and society. She is also an avid tatreez practitioner.

Tuqa Al Sarraj is a Dublin-based multidisciplinary artist. She studied Fine Art media at the National College of Art and Design (2021). Al Sarraj has also studied contemporary art at the International Academy of Art Palestine (IAAP), Ramallah (2017). by @daftarjournal

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2 days ago

“Shot on a quiet street in Omdurman, Sudan, framed against the backdrop of the bullet-riddled structures and the damaged dome of the Sheikh Gariballah Mosque.

For over a century, the Sheikh Gariballah Mosque has stood as a spiritual and cultural anchor in Old Omdurman, Sudan. But the brutal civil conflict transformed this historic Sufi house of worship from a place of peace into a heavily contested frontline battleground. Caught in the crossfire of heavy artillery and urban combat, the building sustained devastating structural damage.

This image belongs to my documentary project #1120dayslater, which captures the persistence of everyday life as the conflict in Sudan endures. My goal is to redirect the global lens toward the resilience of our people, challenging the silence and abstraction that often surrounds wartime reporting.

Every step remains a quiet act of defiance and hope.”

Ahmad Saeed is a Sudanese photographer and business owner who made the decision to return home after 1120 days of war to bring his business back to life. Alongside his entrepreneurial work, he focuses on visual sociology, cultural memory, and human resilience during times of crisis. Through intimate street photography and long-term documentary archives, his work captures the intersections of identity, heritage, and survival within changing landscapes. His latest project, #1120dayslater, serves as a vital visual record of daily life and endurance in conflict-affected Sudan. @kratshyphotos

#Tsawwar is an ongoing visual series in Daftar which explores the stories behind a photograph, taken in the region or by an Arab photographer, written in their own words. by @daftarjournal

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6 days ago

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Maya Alinaizi is a Saudi Arabian-Iraqi writer, researcher, and student at New York University, where she studies Politics and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Her work focuses on the intersections of art, politics, and society, with a particular interest in cultural and visual histories across the Arab world. by @daftarjournal

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9 days ago

“Where is the Sea? is a dystopian photo-fiction series. It tells the story of a connected society, seen through the eyes of someone who does not belong to it. A figure comes out of the water into our hyperconnected world, dressed in a simple white cloth. He walks through it slowly, facing the black shapes of screens and an endless cycle of information, and his day repeats in a loop. When he finally turns back toward the sea, it is too late. The screens have already taken over.

The photo sent here represents the figure in one of his moments of wandering. He carries a newspaper that was originally 800 metres long, an object I built by hand so that the weight of information would become physical. He is reading and unrolling at once, walking a street that only leads further inland, away from the water. It was shot in the industrial zone of Casablanca, in a place where the traces of the past were still standing when we photographed it. Those traces are gone now, replaced by a residential area.

The series of 18 photographs questions how information circulates today: published in mass on social media, flash news is mistaken for knowledge, and the thirst for knowledge has become a passive scroll. The sea in the series stands for what remains human in us, still and constantly changing. It is also the mother, the liquid we grow in for nine months. The character is played by the performer Khalid Raji.” #tsawwar by @daftarjournal

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13 days ago

“I Was Three Meters Away: I took this photograph near Shuhada checkpoint in Hebron’s Old City in September 2025. I was three meters from the soldiers. A child stood between us, looking up at them.

Three meters is not a metaphor. It is breath, reach, the time it takes a body to cross space before thought can intervene.

Their rifles were not raised. They did not need to be. They hung casually, already doing their work. Nothing theatrical was happening, and that was the point. Occupation had become routine: soldiers shifting their weight, a market learning to arrange itself around imposed violence.

I lifted my camera knowing how unequal the exchange was. They did not turn away. They carried the ease of people who knew the image could not endanger them. I framed, focused, and waited as I had been trained to do. I hated how calm my hands were and how cleanly the shutter obeyed.

Every Saturday, settlers move through the Old City under military protection. This photograph would not stop the next Saturday. It would not protect the child in the frame, or me. I do not believe photography is resistance by default. An image can confront power, but it can also reveal how little power fears being seen.

I return to this photograph, and it refuses to settle. Some days it feels like evidence. Some days it feels like failure. Some days it feels like the only honest act available when looking away is easier, and refusal carries a cost.

The photograph did not save anyone. It did one thing: it stayed, not as proof of photography’s power, but as a record of its limits, and of the distance between those who can leave the frame and those who remain inside its conditions.”

#Tsawwar by @daftarjournal

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20 days ago

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Nadine Zaza @zazanadine is a Jordanian American designer, educator, and researcher whose work explores cultural preservation and participatory human centered design across the Arab world. She holds a Master of Science in Engineering and Management from MIT and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Nadine is the founder of Culture Crate, an educational initiative and social enterprise dedicated to preserving and reimagining endangered cultural practices through hands-on making and storytelling. Her recent work includes Gaza Molds, a collaborative project with Palestinian students that will be exhibited at Amman Design Week 2026. by @daftarjournal

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24 days ago

Forgetfulness Cannot Swim

“Captured at the Gaza seaport in June 2025, this image documents a surge of life within the destroyed harbor, amidst the city's heavy daily burden. This moment serves as a visual metaphor for a raw, collective drive to create a possible hope, illustrating how these generations reshape the structures of loss through a rope by which they can float toward the horizon”

Moayed Abu Ammouna is a visual artist and filmmaker from Gaza, Palestine. His multidisciplinary practice merges research and visual production to explore themes of land, collective memory, and the profound impacts of social and historical trauma, utilizing his creative artistic tools to deconstruct and visually re-represent these concepts.

#Tsawwar is an ongoing visual series in Daftar which explores the stories behind a photograph, taken in the region or by an Arab photographer, written in their own words. by @daftarjournal

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25 days ago

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Abdullah Al-Tekreeti is a writer based in Sharjah, UAE, where he works at the Barjeel Art Foundation. His work explores the Arab intellectual and political tradition, modern Arab art, and the histories of working-class and revolutionary movements and figures across the Arab world. by @daftarjournal

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a month ago

"I took this photo on my phone last May in Eltimeid village, in Al-Halawin, Gezira State, Sudan. I captured it during a visit with my mother to our relatives, a place we used to visit often to share tea and conversations. At the time, there was no power, and while we were sitting and talking, I noticed this turned-off television.
The scene immediately felt familiar. I felt that there is hardly any Sudanese home that does not hold a similar image: the television standing quietly in the corner, surrounded by the familiar details of a Sudanese house. For a moment, anyone looking at this scene, including myself, might feel as if they have seen it before, or even wonder if it is their own home. It carries a sense of belonging, memory, and a shared experience that connects many Sudanese families."

Fatima Alam Eldin @__fatimaalam__ is a Sudanese documentary and visual photographer from Khartoum. Her work explores everyday life, memory, and belonging, capturing the familiar moments and details of Sudanese life shaped by her experience of displacement.

#Tsawwar is an ongoing visual series in Daftar which explores the stories behind a photograph, taken in the region or by an Arab photographer, written in their own words. #tsawwar by @daftarjournal

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@doudywiddy takes us on a journey through the inspirations and experiences that connect her to her hometown and the Arab world.

Every month, we pick the brain of a local from our global community and feature the breadcrumbs they leave us. It’s a small way to get to know our community and discover the interesting things they’re reading, watching, listening to, and thinking about. If there’s someone that you think we should feature next, drop their handle below!

And make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter to receive it in your inbox. by @daftarjournal

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Lilit Hovsepyan is an Armenian student majoring in Journalism and Strategic Communication at Northwestern University in Qatar, with a minor in Media and Politics. Her reporting focuses on the intersection of politics, culture, identity, and diaspora, with particular attention to Armenian communities, cultural memory, and questions of church, state, and belonging across generations and borders. @lilith.hvs by @daftarjournal

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Ahmed Morsi works across architecture, exhibitions, writing, publishing, and video. He orbits real estate development, preservation, dissident cultural production, and the arts infrastructures that mediate between them. In 2021, he co-founded Dataland Publications in Cairo, through which he has commissioned and edited material on underutilized buildings — questioning the terms on which buildings are deemed worth preserving, and what they get turned into. He completed a graduate degree in architectural history and preservation, followed by postgraduate curatorial studies at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and a fellowship at Fondazione Prada in Milan, where he went on to join the curatorial team for a year. He keeps ties to Cairo and New York. by @daftarjournal

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