From Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, here’s something you may not have heard…
by Rashmee
Posted on December 24, 2019
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Kairouan has magic and mystery and it’s on the map
by Rashmee
Posted on November 18, 2018 / The Arab Weekly
KAIROUAN, Tunisia — Tunisians boast that Kairouan, a couple of hours south by car from Tunis, is Islam’s fourth holiest city, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Perhaps. Ethiopians say the same of Harar. Both Kairouan and Harar are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Both know Islam from its very first century. However, fourth holiest or not, Kairouan wins … Continue reading “Kairouan has magic and mystery and it’s on the map”
Read MoreTozeur, lush and bountiful oasis in southern Tunisia
by Rashmee
Posted on June 2, 2018
Tozeur is a lush and bountiful oasis dotted with “palmeries” as they call them here. These are farms – of date palms. The more ingenious grow a great deal else too – pomegranates, figs, peaches, bananas and various vegetables. The oasis is enormous – and rich – fed by hot springs and carefully tended like … Continue reading “Tozeur, lush and bountiful oasis in southern Tunisia”
Read MoreTozeur in southern Tunisia wears its storied history fairly lightly
by Rashmee
Posted on June 1, 2018
Aboul-Qacem Echebbi, the 20th century poet whose style is admired throughout the Arab world and is responsible for the current Tunisian anthem, belonged to Tozeur. So did Ibn Chabbat, the 13th century engineer who built this oasis-city’s sophisticated, still-functioning irrigation system. The city has commemorated both men in stone. For Echebbi, whose poetry … Continue reading “Tozeur in southern Tunisia wears its storied history fairly lightly”
Read MoreTunisia: ‘Menu Ramadanesque’ and other delights
by Rashmee
Posted on May 31, 2018
Ahead of iftar, when the day’s fast ends during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the streets are deathly quiet. In the Tunis Medina (see photographs), there’s hardly anyone abroad. Those same venues will be heaving by 9 pm. In the supermarkets, they start making the zalabiya, the deep-fried syrup-soaked sweets that are faintly reminiscent … Continue reading “Tunisia: ‘Menu Ramadanesque’ and other delights”
Read MoreIn Tamezret, Tunisia, a 2,000-year-old Berber kitchen in a mountain cave
by Rashmee
Posted on May 29, 2018
In Tamezret, a mostly abandoned mountain-top Berber village in southern Tunisia, we meet Monji Bouras, who runs Le Musee Berbere de Tamezret. Mr Bouras, an architect who left Tunis to return to his Berber home, started the museum 18 years ago out of a passion to preserve and tell the story of the Amazigh people. … Continue reading “In Tamezret, Tunisia, a 2,000-year-old Berber kitchen in a mountain cave”
Read MoreWhat meaning did Meghan Markle’s white wedding dress really have?
by Rashmee
Posted on May 21, 2018
That Meghan Markle’s elegant wedding dress was white meant really nothing at all. It didn’t really have any particular meaning, considering Ms Markle was previously married and seemed to be living with Harry before their May 19 ceremony in Windsor. It was meant to be virginal. Certainly, it had nothing of the symbolic significance Queen … Continue reading “What meaning did Meghan Markle’s white wedding dress really have?”
Read MoreA distinctly European sensibility in a Tunisian troglodyte house
by Rashmee
Posted on May 19, 2018
We walk into the Trait d’Union, Tijma, Matmata in distant south-eastern Tunisia. The Libyan border is about 150 km away. Trait d’Union is a 350-year-old troglodyte house that now takes in paying visitors. Seven generations of one troglodyte family lived there from the early 1600s. In 1967, after the natural disaster that locals call “the … Continue reading “A distinctly European sensibility in a Tunisian troglodyte house”
Read MoreLiving below ground: Matmata, southern Tunisia
by Rashmee
Posted on May 18, 2018
I sit in a troglodyte structure to write this. It is a dwelling typical of Matmata and because it is 20 feet below ground, there is no connection with the world beyond this part of south-eastern Tunisia. No connection other than the memory of having come through Tamezret and Douz and beyond that, through Kebili … Continue reading “Living below ground: Matmata, southern Tunisia”
Read MoreIn Old Matmata, Tunisia, they still live below the ground as for centuries
by Rashmee
Posted on May 17, 2018
Off to Matmata, the Berber town in southern Tunisia, where some of the locals still live the way their ancestors did – underground. Until 51 years ago, the troglodyte buildings were basically unknown to the world. No one knew they were there and once they did, the settlement of Matmata was built above-ground. But the … Continue reading “In Old Matmata, Tunisia, they still live below the ground as for centuries”
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Rashmee has lived and worked in several countries in the past decade, including Afghanistan, India, Haiti, Tunisia, the UAE, US and UK