The offer comes via BlackBerry Messenger: "If you want to marry a beautiful fair young Syrian woman, contact ..." and a number is provided.

As the conflict in Syria rages on, with no respite in sight, desperation is hitting Syrians hard. And there are many around to take full advantage...

Like three princesses, they sat ready to be served: hair perfectly set, one was in a pink dress, another in a lilac one and the third in a peach coloured skirt and white shirt. They looked to be between 10 and 12, and the youngest one's hair was held in...

It all started with a single text message from a friend: "I am going to Syria tomorrow, let me know if you need me to visit your homes to check on them and your loved ones. If you need me to carry anything urgent, like medicine, let me know. I...

Americans gather together this week with family and friends for one of their most important holidays: Thanksgiving.

Throughout American history, it has been in times of great trouble when the holiday has meant the most.

Even during the Civil War and Great Depression the country was able to pause...

It began with a myth...

Almost every tradition in the Arab world has a legend behind it, and pieces of clothing are no exception.

It is said that sometime in the eighth century of the Abbasid Islamic period, a merchant selling cloaks ran out of all the colorful ones and...

Scene: An immaculate hospital

'Excuse me? Excuse me," I said to the group of female and male nurses sipping tea and coffee at one of the desks in an Abu Dhabi hospital.

One of them looked up, glanced at me, and ignored me.

"Hey, excuse me, it...

Not long ago, there were people who feared the camera, believing it to be 'a tool of the devil.' They feared this 'evil instrument' that captures and imprisons parts of your soul forever.

Of course, the devil's part in creating the magic in a photo has long been discredited, but...

Best feature: "her eyes."

Worst feature: "cat hair on her shirt."

And because I was too "tall", laughed "too much" and was too "independent" in my replies, I didn't pass the traditional matchmaker's test.

"You don't fit the criteria of any of the men on my list," she tells...

"I can see my toes..." was scribbled in Arabic on a piece of torn cardboard smuggled out of a Syrian jail.

It was the third note my grandfather, a Syrian general, was able to send to his wife, my grandmother, by bribing one of the guards overseeing the cell holding...

I was nine years old when I wore my first niqab.

The entire fourth grade at my all-girls school in Saudi Arabia joined the older girls wearing the niqab to "protect" us from the prying eyes of the crowd of drivers that waited outside the gate at the end...

America had Marilyn Monroe, Europe had Brigitte Bardot, and the Arab world had Hind Rostom.

She was a screen sex goddess from a golden era of Egyptian cinema, one whose talent and presence was captured in both glamours black-and-white and glorious technicolor.

She was the Arab world's once most desired...

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." - Oscar Wilde

This, I have to admit, is one of my favourite quotations, and by one of my favourite authors, too. All book readers know how sensitive --...

"And then the spider appeared as it promised at midnight, with a new story to tell... "

Most of the bedtime stories my mother told me had something to do with a spider: She's half Polish, and it seems the spider is a big part of their children's story tradition....

"You can have any photo but this one... " said my grandmother, snatching it out of my hands before I had a good look.

At first, she refused to show me this black and white photo, dismissing it as "silly" and not worth looking at. But as I insisted...

"The cat was created when the lion sneezed" - Arabian Proverb

By writing this column, I am probably relegating myself to a lifetime in the realm of spinsterhood. Why? Cats. Yes, I admit I own two of them: Tiny and Tuna.

And yes, I carry passport pictures of...

'I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla / And I kiss this wall and that wall / It's not Love of these houses that has taken my heart / But of the One who dwells in those houses' - Majnoun Layla

Similar to Romeo and Juliet, Majnoun Layla...