Inside The Middle East
SHOW #80
Rima Maktabi hosts from Lebanon
RAMADAN ROUND-UP
As Muslims around the world mark the holy month, we bring you Ramadan stories and images from around the region. In Jerusalem, Paula Hancocks takes us to a soup kitchen that caters to the orphans and the needy in a building dating from the 14th century. In Abu Dhabi, Stan Grant reports from the Sheikh Zayed mosque where every day at Iftar up to 15,000 people come to break their fast. In Cairo, we look at how the decorative Ramadan lantern or "fanous" - traditionally handmade in Egypt - is facing increasing competition from a foreign manufacturer.
SCHOOLING LEBANON'S CANCER KIDS
Mireille Nassif lost her 12-year-old son Paul to bone cancer last year. Now she's on a mission to make sure Lebanon's other cancer children have the right to an education so they can keep up with their schooling - if need be, until their last day. She recently hosted a marathon to raise money to pay for tutors. Rima Maktabi meets the woman behind the vision and the children whose lives she hopes to improve.
THE ROOTS OF KAHLIL GIBRAN
Renowned internationally for his writing and poetry, especially his 1923 masterpiece The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran has been inspiring readers for generations. We visit his hometown Bsharri in the mountains of Lebanon and see his manuscripts, his many paintings, and his burial site under a cedar tree where written is his epitaph, "I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you."
ARAB IMAGE FOUNDATION
An artist's mirror self-portrait in 1950s Cairo, a woman with a snake in 1930s Baghdad, a family portrait from 1960s Lebanon - these are the kinds of photos housed at the Arab Image Foundation. The NGO's mission is to collect, preserve and study photographs from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora. Aiming to show this region's visual history as represented by local photographers rather than foreign travelers, the foundation is fighting to spread awareness about the importance of preserving the region's cultural history.
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