http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress Published articles, photos and videos on Yemen and other Middle Eastern and Asian countries, by Lebanese writer and traveler Mira Baz Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:59:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/a-revolution-remembered/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/a-revolution-remembered/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 05:08:00 +0000 Mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=1554

Older Yemenis remember their last revolution of 49 years ago, commemorated in Yemen this week, which toppled the Zaidi Imamate and established a modern republic.

On a trip several years ago in Bani Matar, just outside of Sanaa, I unexpectedly met one of that revolution’s soldiers.

The landscape was wide open, with the blue sky and distant mountains embracing each other. A group of women in their colorful traditional garb conferred together in the shade of a tree, their water containers waiting nearby. They must have just returned from their daily water fetching trips.

When the women saw me, they wouldn’t allow me to photograph them. Instead, one of them invited me to her house, and I soon found myself sitting on a cushion on the floor of her diwan, surrounded by many children who gazed at me as if I were a celebrity or an alien. I was offered very sweet tea and, soon after, a huge bowl of milk “fresh from the cow outside,” my host explained, but I was the only one drinking as several pairs of eyes watched me.]]> http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/a-revolution-remembered/feed/ 0 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/in-yemen-a-girls-day-in/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/in-yemen-a-girls-day-in/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:42:37 +0000 Mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=1489

“So what do you think of Yemeni cooking?” Nooria asked me.

“It takes too long!” I said. She laughed.

It did. This is for women who don’t have jobs, I thought.

Nooria had invited me over to her parents’ house for a cooking lesson. Items on the day’s menu were: the traditional salta and fahsa (and the difference between the two); lahooh, a kind of home-made bread that was very similar to the Ethiopian injera bread; bint al-sahn, the ever-present dessert of Turkish origin; and, one of my favorites, shoufout, a yogurt dish that was often too spicy for me.

Married with a son, Nooria had left her husband and moved back with her son into her father’s house to pressure her husband into getting a job.

]]> http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/in-yemen-a-girls-day-in/feed/ 0 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/death-threats-pride-and-prejudice-in-yemen/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/death-threats-pride-and-prejudice-in-yemen/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2011 07:12:40 +0000 Mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=1450 “Where’s Michael? Are you Michael?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Michael said. He was the Sri Lankan owner of a restaurant in Yemen.

“You’re Christian?”

“Yes.”

“If America attacks Iraq, you’ll be dead. I’ll kill you myself,” the stranger threatened him.

]]> http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/death-threats-pride-and-prejudice-in-yemen/feed/ 0 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/download-the-screensaver-the-old-city-of-sanaa-travel-through-time/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/download-the-screensaver-the-old-city-of-sanaa-travel-through-time/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:25:18 +0000 Mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=1202
"The Old City of Sanaa: Travel through time" is a free slide show screensaver of 15 photos taken in the magical old city of the Yemeni capital. See it like you're there! Please download it here (then double click the file to install it), share it, send me your feedback or leave a comment. (Virus- and spyware-free) ]]> http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/download-the-screensaver-the-old-city-of-sanaa-travel-through-time/feed/ 0