Half the population, only half the story: Western tourism’s revival in Afghanistan
“During a trip through Afghanistan, you will see beyond the turbulent current era and experience a beautiful country with a rich cultural history.” Safarat Travel One travel website offers paid tours throughout Afghanistan, promising to take the keen explorer places which will reve
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Cici Zhang
‘Drinking, Drowning: Summer 2024’ Ink and pencil on paper, 17 x 12 inches ‘Drinking, Drowning: Summer 2024’ is a series of graphic art loosely connected by a shared theme of water. Water is the essence of life. It is the material of our bodies, the source of our continuous survi
Beer is Arab, but whiskey is European
Part I July, 1961. In the northern suburb of El Menzah, Tunis, a secretary types as a beleaguered doctor dictates. Tunis – a city described by the Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish as ‘the smell of night musk and salt’ – was a vestige of an eroding cosmopolitan Mediterranean, a city o
The Isis goes to the Presidents’ Summit
Last week, three unpresidential Isis writers visited the Presidents’ Summit, an AI-themed event for presidents of Oxford University societies. They had thoughts, and a lot of free drinks. Only the thoughts are below, entirely human-written. We write for free: you can’t replace us with ChatGPT if
In conversation with: Merve Emre
Merve Emre has a CV to tremble before. She is the author of three award-winning books, is a contributing writer at the New Yorker, regularly travels the world speaking at conferences and universities, interviews authors of the likes of Sally Rooney and Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, is the Shapiro-Silver
Being seen to be seeing someone: Oxford’s privacy problems
When I lived in college, the walk from the big medieval doors to my room when I brought someone home made me feel more naked than any ensuing level of undress could. From the glaring clinical light and audience of paid spectators in the Porters’ lodge to the unlucky coincidence that the moment you
Icon of the Week: Postgrads
The Oxford postgraduate is a curious, often overlooked, creature. We scarper the halls of each college, taking up library space that rightfully belongs to nineteen-year-olds with a Bridge hangover. If you think there’s not much that separates your own undergraduate experience from your long
PRESSURE POINT: Beware the new theocrats
Theocracy has a new frontman in Ahmed al-Sharaa. The overthrow of longstanding dictator Bashar al-Assad saw the replacement of a nominally secular government with an elite who have spent much of their careers waging jihad in the region. But for all the blood-infused devotion usually associated with