Hurrah! The Annual Girls’ Holiday Dinner was an unabashed success (even though the stuffed chicken was much too salty, even for my taste…). The Reason(s) The main reason I began…

In a little over two hours, some of (the others missing in the USA) The Girls are coming over for my Annual Holiday Dinner. Technically, this evening is for 2007,…

You all know her as the crazy wonderful woman who lives here and peppers our conversations with ROCKSTARs and HIGHFIVEs: Yasmine, Yasmina, Yaznotjaz. (The table in this photo is a…

This is Deema, my baby cousin aged 12. Last night, we had the following conversation that very nearly made me pee in my pants… Deema: Maha, I need to ask…

I’ve finished my trip to Oman where I saw for the first time ever wild dolphins. They move in the most beautiful symmetry…and I will post videos soon enough, Inshallah….

Hi & sorry for not writing sooner! I’ve discovered that I suck at writing while on holiday… Long story short, the longer of which I will eventually write about (within the coming…

Caballo Every evening, I walk past the Jason Duval Sussex Studio, and covet the work of a particular artist by the name of Marcelo Suaznabar. The ingredients of his work…

“Look outside, pretty lady! I*m standing directly across from no 8 price street! :)” To which, in response, Baby Jane flew out of no 8 Price Street’s doors and ran…

Seated across from me on the airplane, I knew I recognized him but I couldn’t quite place from which television show. Because…it’s difficult to name That Canadian Actor under the…

Baby Jane was giving me ‘directions’ as thus: “Go South – that means down the hill, towards a clock tower, Maha – blablabla” because she knows that directions confuse me…

…filled with a lot of coffee, many bagels & cream cheese, Indian cuisine, Thai cuisine, seven movies, late night conversations and late day sleep-ins. My friend’s new apartment is gorgeous…

I chose Moroccan and Russian, because they are the crème de la crème and if I am to emulate any hooker, it would be a combination of the two. My…

Where I am looking at these two precious things: Nora May & Trenty (who when I pointed my phone at him gave me this face) We’re about to have dinner…

They did it! They did it! They did it! (With only the knowledge of their families.) Alf mabrook!

.1. My mouth attracts disaster. A few evenings ago, I roasted chestnuts. I was so tired and in my own head that I didn’t make the cuts in the chestnuts…

It’s possible I am pushing through solid rock in flintlike layers, as the ore lies, alone; I am such a long way in I see no way through, and no…

This is my contribution to the world of hilariously pretentious art: Marvin Under Glass. (I am certain Marvin’s great great grandfather served as the muse to Kafka.) I am quite…

“…our Government (USA) did not admit it was a mistake, but it is worse than a mistake because our Government seems to continue to claim the authority to snatch someone…

to me Happy Birthday to me Happy Birthday to me-eeeee Happy Birthday to me I was born at 8.04am years ago today. (Pretty picture courtesy of This Next.)

To my sisters and brothers: Congratulations! Mabrook! !عید مبارک We did it! WE CAN HAVE MORNING COFFEE AND LUNCH AGAIN! To everyone – defaulted to ‘The World, Including My Sworn…

Allah yir7amak ya Seedo. I can’t even begin to express how much I miss my Seedo. It’s been years since he passed, but these last couple of weeks have seen…

This is my favourite salad, and it is Gazaweeyah (hailing from the Gaza Strip). In Arabic, it’s called دق, pronounced da’ah. I’m uncertain of the specific root of the word…

Someone’s just posted this to my comments section. I’m pulling it up to the front because I think it’s an excellent initiative and I don’t want it to go unnoticed….

I’ve received several emails asking me where / how one could experience this with Muslims if they’re not currently living in a Muslim country, or if they don’t have any…

Because every once in a while it’s necessary for me to reinforce publicly the fact that I am a very big nerd. When I was six years old, I choreographed…

That’s not their real name, but it’s what I’ve been calling them. They’re the super duper clean toilettes that are much too eager to flush all on their own. They’re…

As promised earlier, here you go…

The Store Don’t let the daunting exterior of Joe Mamma’s dissuade you from entry. Although it appears skateboarder meets snowboarder meets bmxer (the three of whom are dudes) they are…

is my favourite poet, and this is my favourite of his poems. It was read to me when I was 22 and I was as moved to sadness then as…

A snippet of last night’s conversation – Aalya: “I heard this kid call out ‘PARMINDER! PARMINDER! OVER HERE!’ and so I expected to turn around and see a little Pakistani…

When mama gets anxious or upset or nervous and tries to communicate in English, she sounds a little like Dr. Seuss. Exhibit A: ‘If I could tell her I would…

Forget what you think you know. And listen to the voices of the silenced majority. Open your minds and remember Malcolm X’s famed words: “…what I have seen, and experienced,…

“It is good for a woman to keep her sense of humor intact and at the ready. She must see, even if only in secret, that she is the funniest…

Serving as a sort of balance – for lack of a better word – to the neoc*n article I posted a few hours ago, here is a Frontline interview with…

“If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” – Malcolm X, may he be resting in peace.

If the consequence of such thinking weren’t so devastating, it would be comical. Fundamentalists ranging from the Fundamentalist Muslim, Fundamentalist Jew, Fundamentalist Christian, Fundamentalist Anti-Religionist, Fundamentalist Anti-Crayonist, and Fundamentalist Anti-Humorist…

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” -C.G. Jung

I love rap and every once in a while come across a talented group whose music and lyrics blow my mind. All of the groups and individuals to whom I’ve…

Two couples I know recently purchased their first homes together. Aalya & Dietrich in old Gatineau and Katie & Michael off of Pretoria Bridge in Ottawa. Visiting their homes has…