Category: Middle East
-
Head scarf hassle
Head scarf hassle Nowhere have I seen more importance being given to bright red coloured lips than in Iran. Maybe it is to honour Iran’s still immensely popular 14th century poet Hafiz who never got tired of singing his odes in praise of the red colour of wine, roses and his lovers’ lips. But these…
-
Lipstick lips
Lipstick lips Iranian mannequins are made and used in bits and pieces. After the torsos for showing dresses and legs for leggings – see two earlier posts – it’s now the turn of heads for scarfs. Or is it lips for lipsticks? Photo of the week: Mannequin heads, Tehran, Iran 2017
-
Legging legs
Legging legs Underneath the body-covering veils and the hair-covering head scarfs of Iranian women a secret, colourful, swinging world can go hidden, unnoticed by the peeping eys of the morality police. Photo of the week: Legging legs, Tehran, Iran 2017
-
Window dressing
Window dressing “How beautiful … will I ever be allowed to wear a dress like this?” White dreams for ladies in black. Photo of the week: Window dressing, Tehran, Iran 2017
-
Salty beach
My old Hachette guide tells me that very long ago, before the Tertiary Era, the Dead Sea was an expanse of sweet water lying above (!) the level of the Mediterranean. After the dislocation of the valley of the Jordan it sank to great depths and came into contact with salt deposits deep down in…
-
Dead at the Dead Sea
This luxury resort at the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea looks pretty dead itself. Tastefully laid out in a colour scheme that pleasantly matches the backdrop of the Dead Sea landscape, it does look rather sterile. There’s no living soul to be seen; even the palm trees look artificial and don’t succeed in blowing a…
-
Witness from Baghdad
The heads of the women are blurred and their faces hidden in veils. But their eyes see. We see eyes that see. Eyes that have seen. And now the eyes have directed their penetrating look at us, confronting us onlookers. Remember last week’s photo? REMEMBER? We shall remember, Halim Al Karim! Photos of the week:…
-
Remember
REMEMBER: written in capital letters on a wall on a hillside in Amman, Jordan. I saw it from the opposite hill during a visit to two modern art galleries situated there. REMEMBER: is it an artistic statement; is it related to the works of art in the gallery compounds and buildings? It could well be. As an isolated…
-
Patriotism
I once was seriously lectured by a young boy in India about my alleged lack of patriotism. Everybody in India always wants to know where you come from. Whenever they heard I was Dutch they would often relate to me the story of how a small boy in Holland had saved his country and people…
καιρός remembered 