Literature and Arts from the Center of the World
180,000 electronic music aficionados attended the SOUNDSTORM festival in Riyadh this month, but as columnist Melissa Chemam writes, "it is impossible not to see these events as a part of the country’s soft power and policy to whitewash its terrible human rights record."
Despite its repressive regimes, Saudi Arabia has produced a number of world-class novelists — several of whom have seen their best work banned. Rana Asfour reviews three in English translation.
Music journalist Melissa Chemam turns in the first column as part of a new monthly series in which she'll explore icons of Arab music and how they influence music production around the world.