The past few years I’ve spent so much time in the Middle East one would think I should have multiple notebooks stuffed with thousands of pieces of advice and ever-multiplying safety tips about travel for solo females in this region of the world. This is my advice for traveling in the Mid East: I don’t [...]

In the passport line at the Bahrain International Airport shortly before Christmas season began, I witnessed a very curious site. One counter away from me, a tall, thin woman in an abaya and hijab walked up and handed the person her passport. She then yanked off her hijab and stuffed it away. Underneath was short [...]

In my culture skin darkened by the sun is considered far more desirable than pale complexions. So popular is tanned skin that many of us will not wait until summer sun is available to taint us with its rays, so we shell out significant amounts of money to lie in cancer-causing tanning beds that paint [...]

Shifting from the cushy comfort of Connecticut to the gritty solemnity that is the Middle East has brought eye opening newness to my life. Though I’ve been settled down here for three months, still I am not entirely accustomed to the sights that greet me every day. Each time I look out the window or [...]

Exercising outdoors in the midst of a congested city is a joyless function. I deeply love almost all aspects of throbbing city life, but exercising on crowded sidewalks directly next to four lanes packed with cars spewing forth chemicals is one activity I would like to never again undertake. Greater than my love of cities [...]

So many Middle East myths exist. My experiences in this region of the world almost always effortlessly debunks them. The Kingdom of Bahrain was a just tad more difficult in one area. The world’s oldest and ickiest profession, unfortunately, is legal in the tiniest nation in the Middle East. Renting yourself out in this otherwise [...]

A rooster crows most every morning at half past six somewhere outside my window. I look for it in the direction of its trumpeting screech, but instead my eyes always meet swerving taxis speeding past men in long, flowing cotton clothing who ride bikes with fat wheels past tall buildings of light brown plaster and [...]

Mosques in the Middle East vary in size from as small as a house built for one to as large as a town of 100. One of the largest and most architecturally magnificent is the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. I traveled there a couple of weeks ago and found that this mosque [...]