Inside The Middle East
EPISODE 45
HOSTED BY BRENT SADLER FROM LEBANON
FASHION DESIGNER REEM ACRA
Brent Sadler profiles Lebanese-born Reem Acra – a designer at the helm of a flourishing fashion empire. It may seem a long way from her Middle Eastern roots in Lebanon, but the buzz of New York City is where Acra has managed to evolve into a renowned niche fashion designer very much in vogue with some of the world’s most famous faces. Her client list is a “who’s-who-of-Hollywood.” Among some of the stars she’s dressed are Angelina Jolie, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Beyonce, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Marcia Cross. Marcia Cross wore an Acra bridal gown for a dramatic season finale of “Desperate Housewives,” later wearing an Acra-designed dress for her real-life wedding off-screen.
UK SMOKING BAN AFFECTS SHISHA CAFES – PAULA HANCOCKS
London’s Edgeware Road is known for its Arab culture – famous for its Middle Eastern food and shisha cafes. The shisha, or hookah, is a tobacco water pipe - and smoking it is a favorite past time of Middle Easterners. But a new English ban on smoking in enclosed spaces means shisha bars will be a thing of the past. Many café owners fought till the end for exemption from the legislation. They say the shisha cafes fulfill an important social role in the Middle Eastern community -- equivalent to the British tradition of a pint at the pub. Paula Hancocks reports on fallout from the ban.
OLD SANAA -- BEN WEDEMAN
Ben travels to Yemen for “Inside the Middle East,”the first time we’ve returned to Yemen since our debut show. He visits Yemen’s Old Sanaa – one of the most ancient surviving cities in Arabia and arguably the longest continually inhabited city in the world. Still teaming with life, Sanaa has been inhabited for over 2,500 years. Its religious and cultural heritage is refected in its 106 mosques, 12 hammams (bath houses) and 6,500 houses built before the 11th century.
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