Hey there,

We hope you’re still holding onto your summer plans, even if, at times, the weight of everything happening in the world has made them feel a little out of reach.

And if planning feels like too much right now, if you’d rather stay home and embrace a slower and quieter routine, there’s no shame in that. Egyptian grandmothers mastered the art of joy within their own walls. They didn’t need the beach to create its spirit; they brought the warmth, the laughter, and the energy of a seaside gathering right into their homes.

There was also a special kind of magic in stepping into a grandmother’s closet. Tucked between hangers and folded fabrics were pieces kept for decades, each one carrying stories, memories, and traces of the women who wore them before. In that single space, you could find history, self-expression, and heritage, but above all, the feeling of family.

Best,

Mirna Abdulaal

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“Having a bit of both – the past and the future – is and always will be the great balance that makes this world worth living and beautiful as it is,” Dina Fahmy, one of Egypt’s pioneering contemporary artists, says.

Since 2011, Fahmy’s artistic journey has evolved through her travels across the world, shifting from early explorations rooted in idealism and warmth to a more recent embrace of minimalism. Today, her style is best described as colorful minimalism. In 2015, she took part in her first group exhibition at the Italian Consulate in Cairo, followed by another collective show at the Cairo Opera House.

By 2016, she had reached a defining moment in her career with works such as “The Southern Woman” (2016). Her recent projects move digital art toward something more organic, delicate, and refined. Drawing inspiration from ancient Greek mythology, she uses her work as a bridge between past and present, inviting viewers to uncover layered stories rich with wisdom and imagination. Even when these myths are not immediately clear, they gradually reveal deeper meanings over time.

Discover her work here.

Long before there was any idea of a fashion brand, an Egyptian grandmother had an entire brand of her own, hidden in a place that only she and the other women in her family knew, and that place was her closet.

Her closet, in and of itself, was the brand, and she was both the trendsetter and the curator, dressing and accessorizing out of her love for self-expression, without being tied to or held down by any global trend or external opinion. The only opinion that mattered was the emotional relationship she had with her clothes, and, above all, her bag.

It was here, in their grandmother’s closet, that sisters Mounaz and Aya Abdel Raouf, founders of the renowned brand OKHTEIN, began to build the emotional core of their brand.

As the luxury market continues to be reshaped by rising prices and growing questions around sustainability, the OKHTEIN sisters are navigating it through the idea of emotional durability, where a single bag is passed down from a grandmother to a mother, and finally to a daughter, simply out of love for the bag.

Read the article here.

The Teta Loula Cookbook feels like a warm invitation into a home filled with memory, love, and generations of shared meals.

Rooted in Egyptian heritage, the cookbook gathers over 55 authentic family recipes passed down through generations, alongside handwritten notes, stories, and cultural reflections that bring each dish to life. It reads like a living archive of tradition, where food is not just nourishment, but a way of remembering, gathering, and holding onto family ties across time and distance.

There’s a strong sense that every dish carries a memory, whether it’s a festive table shared with loved ones or the comfort of everyday cooking.

Read more here.

This song carries this soft, sun-drenched energy that instantly feels like summer in the early 2000s, like drifting through a coastal Arab city where everything is glowing in golden light and time moves a little slower. It has that carefree mood of childhood holidays and long afternoons outside, where everything felt simple and endless. The melody brings back the feeling of salt in the air, bright colors, and the kind of quiet joy that belongs to summers that never really leave you.

Listen here.

If you’ve ever wondered whether heartbreak can actually affect your body, this podcast with Sir Magdi Yacoub is really worth a listen. He talks about something most of us have felt but rarely take seriously from a medical point of view, which is that deep emotional pain can have real physical consequences, especially on the heart. Coming from one of the world’s leading heart surgeons, it hits differently. It might make you think twice about stress, grief, and how closely our emotions and physical health are tied together.

Watch it here.

If you’re looking for the perfect way to wind down after a chaotic work week, the mushroom truffle pizza at Budz is worth making time for. It’s rich, earthy, and comforting in that indulgent-but-not-overwhelming way that feels like a reward rather than just another meal. Pair it with an oat milk matcha on the side, which is the smooth, slightly sweet matcha balances the savory depth of the pizza surprisingly well.

Find out more here.

Jazz has a way of becoming your first nostalgic feeling, even if you’ve never heard a note before; it echoes the past through improvisation, emotion, and rhythm, connecting you to moments you didn’t know you missed. Sitting in a room where the music flows freely, you begin to feel time soften, as if the present and the past are gently blending together.

Find out more here.

Saudi women’s participation in the labour force rose to 35 percent in 2025, up from 22.8 percent the previous year before the launch of Saudi Vision 2030, according to the program’s 2025 annual report. The figures highlight one of the most visible social and economic shifts under Saudi Arabia’s reform agenda, which has focused on increasing women’s employment, expanding private sector opportunities, and easing barriers to entering the workforce. The report also showed growth in women-led commercial activity, with women’s share rising to 48 percent in 2025, compared with 41 percent in 2024. Women’s representation in leadership roles also continued to grow, reaching 43.9 percent in senior management positions, according to the report.

Read more here.