Columns.

Dalia Al-Dujaili Column: Who wants Chai?

Who wants Chai?

When I took over the role of chai-maker, it felt like entering a rite of passage to my Arab womanhood. It felt weirdly comforting and empowering, to make others a whole seyneya of tea.

Dalia Al-Dujaili column: Dance is the pursuit of pleasure and of purpose

Dance is the pursuit of pleasure and of purpose

Dancing might be one of the most instinctual acts, but it is worth considering how much meaning and intention it can carry.

Dalia Al-Dujaili column: Mother’s Spice Cupboard

A Map Drawn By My Mother's Spice Cupboard

Domestic spaces and the act of cooking provides many of those in the diaspora a portal to homelands rarely or never visited. As we reminisce on how spice cupboards informed joyous moments of our childhoods, it may be worth asking how they will inform our uncertain futures too.

Karim Elhaoui column: Qahwa with the boys

Qahwa with the boys

Back in summer I traveled from Groningen to my father's home country Tunisia. It's always something special for me because it's like diving into another world. Especially the men's coffee shops fascinate me. Mostly run down on the outside and flooded with a specific ​kind of white plastic furniture, these spots are a playground for guys between 20 and 50 years. Usually the chairs are not arranged in groups but facing the street. Confidential topics and everyday conversations are conducted here. A meeting point similar to a schoolyard, a smoking area or a kitchen in the office. This time I joined my cousin and his boys.