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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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We’re taking you inside Daftar: Beginnings, our first print publication, offering a glimpse into the different voices, perspectives, and disciplines that shape its pages.

In An Apartment in Agdal: On Fatema Mernissi’s Intellectual Salon, academic Idriss Jebari explores the intellectual world cultivated by Moroccan feminist sociologist Fatema Mernissi, examining how her home in Rabat became a space for collective thinking, writing, and social change, and how her legacy continues to shape intellectual life in Morocco and North Africa.

Read the full essay in Daftar: Beginnings. Order your copy through the link in our bio.

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ست الفول Sit Al-Foul - The Peanut Lady

In a Sudanese market, a peanut vendor sits surrounded by baskets of her harvest, forming a scene of color, pattern, and daily labor. Seen from above, the arrangement reveals the quiet beauty of ordinary work and the enduring connection between people and their livelihoods

The vibrant orange fabric stands out among the earthy tones of peanuts and woven baskets, drawing attention to the human presence at the center of this marketplace. The photograph celebrates the dignity of work and the often-unnoticed individuals whose daily efforts sustain local communities.

"Sit Al-Foul" is a phrase that reflects both familiarity and respect, honoring a seller whose presence is inseparable from the rhythm of the market itself.

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

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Falasteen Mansour is a journalism student at Northwestern University in Qatar, pursuing minors in Media and Politics and Middle East Studies.

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In a world of fast-moving digital content, independent print publications across MENA are embracing the value of collectible editions. Stories, culture and design worth revisiting and keeping.

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Read the full piece on daftarjournal.com

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"We drove towards the edge of the mountain. Three men in hattas and dishdashes awaited us. One was squatting preparing tea on the woodfire. The second man was standing, face towards the valley, hands on his binoculars encasing his eyes. And the third was, like any sheikh would do, sitting, leaning on their elbow, his legs creating a triangular shape, the most stable shape, waiting for the tea to boil, and ready to welcome us.

The wood from the fire appeared to be from an ancient tree, twisted and turned, thick and short. The quiet embers of the fire slowly heated up the tea. They made sure to have two kettles to always have one hot and ready for seconds or thirds.

I say hello to the three men. They all stood up to greet me. We exchanged firm handshakes, and we looked straight into each others eyes, and we said, “Peace be upon you”, “and upon you be peace”.

The valleys of Dana, located in Southern Jordan, carry secrets in the ancient waterways leading to the deserts of Wadi Araba to the west. And from the east, histories of antiquity traversing the mountains of Petra and Wadi Musa.

Dana is not known to many.

They invite us to tea. The man takes the large bag of sugar and lifts the bottom of the bag high, aiming the sugar towards the teapot. 1 second. 2 seconds. 3 seconds, 4. The sweetness is essential to the black tea with sage..."

Read the full feature on Daftarjournal.com

Suhayb Al Jawhari @suhaybphoto is a Palestinian-Jordanian documentary photographer based between Amman and the United States. Suhayb’s latest work explores the themes of personal histories, masculinity, and nature in the Arab world, using images as a narrative tool. His practice is often retrospective and reflective, offering a style of storytelling that weaves pen and camera to offer contextual and cultural depth to his images.

#Tawwar

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We’re taking you inside Daftar: Beginnings, our first print publication, offering a glimpse into the different voices, perspectives, and disciplines that shape its pages.

In The Arab Heritage Boom: The Future Has Arrived, but Everyone’s Looking for the Past, writer and filmmaker @alia__yunis Alia Yunis explores our relationship with Arab cultural heritage, questioning what we choose to preserve, how we reinterpret the past, and what it means to carry our histories into the future.

Read the full essay in Daftar: Beginnings. Order your copy through the link in our bio.

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“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.

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What does the sea remember when we forget?

"This series explores the void as both an emotional and physical space, suspended between presence and absence. Through fragments of light, the photographs trace fleeting moments of intimacy, solitude, and disconnection. The images become emotional landscapes where silence, memory, and longing coexist. 'What does the sea remember when we forget?' approaches the void not as emptiness, but as a living space charged with tension, stillness, and unseen emotion."

Francesca Matta (b. 1994) is a visual artist based in Beirut, Lebanon. Working primarily through photography, her practice explores memory, intimacy, and the fragility of time through images, text, and archives. Her work moves between fashion and visual storytelling, shaped by a sensitivity to light, gestures, and fleeting moments. She is currently undertaking a photography residency at Imago+ in Puglia, where she is developing an artist book centered on the city of Bari.

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.

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Read the full piece on daftar@afikra.com

Gloria Habsburg is a multimedia producer who focuses on impact storytelling. Most notably she was the associate producer on Academy Award-winning documentary film Navalny (2022), and co-editor of the book Palestine is everywhere (2025). The central theme always being listening to and empowering those who are being silenced. She studied International Relations at SOAS in London, and also did a semester at Birzeit University in Palestine studying Arabic and Philosophy.
@glohabsi

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Read the full interview with @souadabdelrasoul on daftarjournal.com

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The Harvest, October 22, 2023

"In October 2023 I was supposed to go to my friend's family olive grove in a village in south Lebanon but it was no longer safe to go due to Israel's bombardment. Instead, I went to my aunt’s small grove in Chekka where this photo was taken. The blanket, white sheet, and plastic cover were laid under the tree to catch the olives that were shaken from above. Something about the way they were connected reminded me of Blad el Sham. My initial feelings were that the white sheet was Lebanon's mountains, the brown and orange blanket was what I imagined were Syria's farmlands and sunrises, and the plastic was Palestine being suffocated under occupation, but a thin and see-through occupation that is weak and temporary. I considered rotating the image to somewhat match the actual map, but decided to leave it the way I initially took it – underneath, it is land that binds us.

Most people outside the Levant don’t know or understand our ties to olive trees. Many are hundreds of years old. They’re planted by our ancestors and passed on. They’re rooted to the land and our history. They provide olive oil, a main component to our food. Mostly, they represent a love that our great grandparents had for us; descendants they would never meet. Their joy in knowing the future will be nourished by the hard work of their hands. Attacking olive trees, as the Israeli military has done to thousands, is no accident. It is intentional and deeply rooted in erasure."

Rita Kabalan is a Lebanese American photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Beirut. Her work has focused primarily on cultural heritage, displacement, migration, and uprisings. Her work has been published in Al Jazeera English, Le Temp, Foreign Policy, Middle East Eye, Guernica Magazine, and The Public Source, among other outlets. Rita also teaches photography workshops and is a contributor to the EveryDay Middle East Instagram account.

#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.

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