Last night Biden referred to Egypt's dictator Sisi as the "President of Mexico"

The Egyptian internet is going NUTS

For years Egyptians have used "Mexico" as code for Sisi to avoid censorship since it's forbidden to criticize his regime

So the memes are just rolling out...

Anyone calling for a "two-state solution" is totally checked out of reality.

Israel has spent five decades building settlements across the West Bank that make a Palestinian state an impossibility

That was literally the point - and the US sent Israel billions of $ to do it

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1715790062359593029

Israelis and Palestinians live in a one-state reality.

Israel controls land and sea borders and airspace.

It controls everyone's lives, directly or indirectly, through civilian or military rule.

Either this one state will be democratic or, as it is now, an apartheid state.

The other day I stumbled upon this pin at a flea market in Mexico.

It resembles a flamenco dancer’s fan, and in the center is what looks like Arabic - but not quite...

It's Pseudo-Arabic!

An unexpected legacy of Islamic rule that made its way to Mexico. A thread... I could almost read Allah (الله). Staring harder, I realized the writing didn't make sense.

It was seemingly copied from an Arabic seal that was reversed and added to by someone who didn’t understand it and thus garbled it.

The point wasn't the words - it was the aesthetic

Some are asking whether Iran's uprising is against religion

It's not. It's a rebellion for freedom and against tyranny

For 40 years, the state has used religion to repress. It has killed and tortured in God's name

It is Iran's government that has done the most to profane Islam If a gov't smacks people over the head with a Bible every day for 40 years, is it really so hard to understand that people will resent the Bible?

This is the problem with a state that defines itself as God's representative:

Every act of violence is done in the name of God

In recent days, protests have broken out across Iran condemning the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, at the hands of morality police.

United in anger at police brutality and restrictive moral codes, Iranians are demanding freedom and an end to government repression: The protests are astonishing in their scope and also the bravery of protestors. Many are women who have removed their scarves to protest the mandatory veiling law

Many veiled women have also joined in, disgusted by the use of Islam and religion as a weapon to punish other women:

Situating the Malay World in the Persianate Cosmopolis

Dozens of Malay words attest to role of Persian in trade and governance: pasar (bazar), angur (grape), bandar (port), dewan (council), istana (palace), ...

The question is how and when they arrived:

journals.openedition.org/moussons/3572?… "Iranians dominated trade in the area until as late as the 17th century, with Persian nakhodas in charge of great portions of the Indian Ocean trade, including long-haul links such as between the Persian Gulf, Surat and Masulipatnam and the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya (Siam)"

Deeply disturbed to learn that the Saudi government has begun demolishing much of Jeddah, one of the country's most diverse and historic cities.

500,000 residents displaced to build a "futuristic" landscape cleansed of its people, a travesty of immense proportions.

Thread: The destruction of Jeddah is part of Saudi government project called "Jeddah Central" to build luxury apartments, hotels, etc around its historic center

Under the excuse of slum clearance, they're wiping away working-class areas that ring the old city

france24.com/en/live-news/2…

Egypt’s 1977 Bread Intifada, a story about the power of collective action and people power in the Middle East:

https://twitter.com/progintl/status/1483377147083472896

“The most recent and vivid memory of bread and revolt in Egypt is tied to the 25 January revolution slogan: “eish, horeya, a’dala egtema’eya” (bread, freedom, and social justice).

Before that there was“Intifadet Al-Khobz” (The Bread Intifada).”

egyptianstreets.com/2022/01/18/45-…

Imamzadeh Yahya, a beautiful shrine in Varamin, near Tehran, Iran, dating back 700+ years.

Notice the white gaps between the wall tiles.

What you see is a holy place stripped of its beauty by Western archaelogists.

A thread about archaeology, colonialism, museums, and theft: In the 1800s, Western archaeologists began excavating in Iran.

The French pressured Iran, weak and indebted, to give it a monopoly.

This allowed them to take half of what they found.

Religious sites were exempted.

Yet, Imamzadeh Yahya was pillaged. ALL tiles were stolen.

The history of the Sikh community in Iran, historically based in Iranian Baluchistan.

It's said that Zahedan ("Ascetics") was renamed in their honor (from Dozdab, meaning "water-thieves").

Today most Iranian Sikhs live in Tehran, home to a gurudwara.

scroll.in/magazine/10122… Some images I took a few years back of the Sikh gurudwara in central Tehran from the outside.

The story of Tehran Street in Seoul, South Korea.

In the 1970s, Tehran and Seoul became sister cities and renamed streets for eachother.

Tehran Street, Seoul was located in a farmland area called Gangnam.

It would soon grow to become Seoul's most important economic hub... Teheran-ro got its name in 1977, following a visit by Tehran's mayor.

Tehran was more developed than Seoul at the time. What is now Teheran-ro was mostly farmland and gravel.

But in the decades that followed, Gangnam grew into an economic hub as Korea's economy boomed.

Proposed designs for the Palestinian flag, submitted by readers to Filastin magazine amid the 1929 Palestinian Revolt against British colonialism and Zionist incursion.

Arab colors were a constant, and some included the Jaffa orange and/or the Cross and Crescent

THREAD: The addition of orange to the Arab colors reflected the importance of the Jaffa orange in Palestine's coasts

The Cross & Crescent, meanwhile, was likely an inclusive Arab response to the Zionist mvmt's use of exclusively Jewish symbols

More info: plaza.ufl.edu/tsorek/article…

Historical gems from/about Pakistan, found in Tehran’s second hand book markets First off is this 1966 magazine of The Voice of Pakistan, the Persian-language Pakistani radio station that broadcasted nightly into Tehran

On the cover is “Hazrat President,” Ayub Khan, as he was referred to in the Persian

The countryside of Lorestan, in western Iran, is dotted by dozens of old bridges and aqueducts.

They carefully bring precious water down from western Iran’s springs and glaciers across great distances. Qaleh Hatem Bridge, Negar Borujerd, is an example of both in one.

It’s an aqueduct across a river that connects an old castle on the hill with the town across the river, and also separates drinking water from that used for watering the fields along the riverside.

The moment you enter Harun Vilayat Imamzadeh shrine in the heart of the old city of Esfahan, Iran, you’re overwhelmed by the walls - covered from floor to ceiling in tiles and murals depicting some of Islam's holiest figures. To the right, Imam Ali alongside Imams Hassan and Hossein; to the left, the Prophet with a veiled face. They are surrounded by angels and animals commonly associated with them. Imam Ali is represented by a lion, for example. The fire above their heads is the equivalent of a halo.

.@HAZINEblog publishes reviews of archives across the Middle East and helpful tips for researchers - from Tehran's best archives to Istanbul's best historical libraries, and everywhere in between.

Check out their work - and support their fundraiser:

hazine.info/donate/ "The al-Hakim Library services the tens of thousands of students and scholars of the Najaf seminary, and thus can be considered the chief reservoir of Shi’ism as a school of thought"

hazine.info/al-imam-al-hak…

"Turkey’s Christian community is vanishing, and with it the diverse fabric of our country.

Turkey will be immeasurably poorer if that heritage is lost."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/… A lot of analysis celebrating the conversion of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque focuses on Turkey's historical struggle with colonialism and Ataturk's brand of secularism - and feels a bit like projection from elsewhere.

The Calcutta-London Bus Line, better known as "the Indiaman," an overland bus service that operated from the 1950s-1970s.

The bus connected India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Italy, Austria, Germany, France, and the UK.

Thread: The story of the Indiaman is usually told from the Western perspective.

For Western travelers, the stretch from Turkey through Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan was the Hippie Trail, luring off the beaten path travelers with a penchant for hashish.

Every June, gorgeous red poppies sprout up in the mountains of northern Iran.

This is at the unbelievably dramatic crystal blue Lar Lake, two hours outside Tehran.

Yes, that’s actually the color of the water!! #Iran The road to the poppies.

I'm collecting expressions and jokes about Persian found in South Asian languages and Arabic.

Got any? Send them my way!

So far I've found them in Punjabi, Pashtu, Hindi/Urdu, Bengali, and Kashmiri. “Am I speaking Farsi?“ - in Urdu

When a person pretends not to understand the speaker's point.

A quick guide for the Iranian-American community for thinking about race, anti-racism, and showing up for #BlackLivesMatter.

Thread: Start with this resource from @IAABsays.

Educate yourself & advocate for Black lives, police defunding, & anti-racist work among your friends, family, and community

https://twitter.com/IAABsays/status/1267621696439189508