Making visible the many aspects of Middle Eastern culture that are often relegated to the background: this is the mantra of Sahar and Forough Sodoudi, twin sisters from Iran. A visit to ‘Dr&Dr’ - a food lab, political and cultural project.
Culture
Caught between the dark waves of economic collapse and explosion, Lebanese artists struggle to stay afloat. Many have already chosen to leave.
Neysatu, the queen of the Tunisian underground music scene, speaks to zenith before her latest concert in Berlin about rediscovering her Amazigh heritage, her musical Africanity, and the perils of performing under Ben Ali’s dictatorship.
Syrian journalist and filmmaker Waad al-Kateab talks to zenith about life in Aleppo under siege, taking the Syrian regime to courts, and knocking on doors the world over in pursuit of justice.

Acclaimed photographer Yumna Al-Arashi on her focus on the female body, the beauty of positive Islamic imagery, and her increasing sense of estrangement from photography.

Meryam Joobeur, director of the Oscar-nominated short film, ‘Brotherhood’, talks about how a chance encounter in rural Tunisia spawned a powerful collaboration, the renaissance in Tunisian cinema, and why young people find themselves drawn to ISIS.

Feras Fayyad, the director of the Oscar-nominated documentary, ‘The Cave’, speaks to zenith about seeing the future of Syria in his female protagonist, surviving torture in Assad’s cells, and facing discrimination in the USA and Denmark.

Iraqi poet and multimedia performer Umar Abdul Nasser speaks to zenith about performing in a Mosul basement under ISIS, making life-long friends in Poland and finding fresh inspiration in the footsteps of Goethe.