By Shady Lewis Botros. Huge amounts of government funding are being poured into the arts, while exchange with the West is welcomed. These new freedoms do, however, have their limits, as Joseph Croitoru reports. A French artist has used photos of torture from Abu Ghraib for an oversized artwork at the Berlin Biennale.
Reactions from fellow artists have been mixed, with some criticising and others praising the work. Christine Lehnen reports. In this unusually beautiful book of images and text, published in German and Arabic, artist Marianne Manda presents her own unique take on the megacity of Cairo. In over fifty portraits, she offers a touching insight into the lives of those who inhabit this metropolis of millions. By Volker Kaminski. For over fifty years, British photographer Peter Sanders travelled across the Middle East and further afield, seeking out the saints of Islam.
His work uncovers a little-known world. By Marian Brehmer. Twenty-eight-year-old photojournalist Masrat Zahra documents the situation in India-administered Kashmir with her camera. In this interview with Elisa Rheinheimer, she talks about life in a state of emergency, conservative Kashmiri society and her own family's reservations about what she does.
In her latest exhibition in Japan, Farzaneh Khademian depicts figures who seem detached from their surroundings. In interview with Qantara. By Changiz M. Drawing on the history of Tehran's Shahr-e No red light district, Nasrin Bassiri describes how prostitution functioned in Iran before the Islamic Revolution.
The neighbourhood would end up being destroyed in August , six months after Khomeini came to power. German actress Katja Riemann has made a short yet impressive documentary about a special project in Moria.
