This is our culture corner. Your weekly Egyptian cultural compass.
Hey there,
You have probably heard many of Sabah’s iconic songs, and can recognize her instantly from the warmth and power of her voice. But beyond the glamour and the music, Sabah also had a way of teaching people something deeper about joy, love, and the strange cycle of life itself.
Few songs capture that feeling more beautifully than Sa'at Sa'at (“Sometimes, Sometimes”). In it, she sings about those fleeting moments when life suddenly feels light again, when the smallest things become enough to make you love being alive.
Even in moments of loneliness and heaviness, she still finds herself laughing and playing “like a spring bird,” comparing herself to a passing breeze that appears for a moment and then disappears.
Sometimes we have to learn to love life through its smallest details, because time keeps moving whether we notice it or not. And if we cannot cherish the little moments, we risk letting the whole journey pass us by.
Best,
Mirna Abdulaal
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Spotlight
Meet Adham Ragab
Speaking of Sabah and the enchanting world of Arab cinema, there is perhaps no better artist to spotlight than Adham Ragab. Through his vintage-inspired paintings, Adham preserves the soul of classic Arab film, immortalizing iconic actors, unforgettable scenes, and the nostalgia that lives within old cinema. The moment you look at one of his paintings, you feel as though you have stepped into another era entirely. His work carries the warmth of dimly lit theaters, the glamour of black-and-white film, and the romance of a time that still lingers in collective memory.
How did you come to develop your own artistic style?
My parents told me that one of the first artworks I created, when I was five years old, was of Amr Diab. That was when they first realized my passion for portrait art. I was also deeply inspired by my maternal grandmother, who was both a successful businesswoman and the artist of our family. I loved watching her sketch beautiful portraits with pencil on newspaper pages, and her work left a lasting impression on me. I became well known at school for my artistic talent, although I stopped practicing art during middle and high school. In my second year of college, in 2014, I decided to return to sketching in order to further develop my artistic skills.
I began studying and sketching classical works by internationally renowned artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Kahlil Gibran, and Michelangelo, among others. I also created surreal portraits of influential cultural icons from Egypt and around the world, including Naguib Mahfouz, Omar Sharif, Mahatma Gandhi, Umm Kulthum, and Édith Piaf. Alongside my drawings, I spent time exploring their life stories, quotes, interviews, and documentaries.
Although I am not an active reader, reading about life, human philosophy, and dramatic novels helped me better understand myself, society, and the purpose of living. All of these experiences shaped and developed my artistic style, allowing me to explore different techniques and mediums — starting with pencil and charcoal, then discovering watercolor in 2015, followed by acrylic and oil painting in 2017.What inspired you to focus on particular actresses and movie scenes in your work?
Well, I was not very interested in Egyptian cinema when I was a child. Perhaps I was more drawn to classic films in general, and during my teenage years I mostly watched foreign movies. I began to discover Egyptian cinema more deeply during my college years, and I became especially fascinated by the films of the 1970s. Those movies beautifully reflected the society, streets, music, and atmosphere of the era, combining both modern and classical styles in a unique way.
Over time, I became deeply attached to Egyptian cinema, especially films from the 1940s up until the early 2000s. Women-centered films are among the genres that attract me the most, particularly the works of Sabah, Nelly, Dalida, and Faten Hamama. I am especially inspired by Faten Hamama’s collaborations with Henry Barakat, whose classical cinematic style was truly distinctive. He directed many unforgettable romantic and dramatic films in Egyptian cinema, such as My Love, filmed in Lebanon and starring Mahmoud Yassin, and The Night of Fatma's Arrest, filmed in Port Said and starring Shoukry Sarhan.I am also inspired by actresses such as Lubna Abdel Aziz, Hind Rostom, Nadia Lotfy, Soad Hosny, Nabila Ebeid, and Magda, whose films often explored feminism, women’s rights, and the struggles women face in our society.
Youssef Chahine is also one of my favorite directors. The rich visual language and detailed cinematic scenes in his films had a major influence on my artistic taste, especially in works such as The Sixth Day, The Return of the Prodigal Son, and Saladin the Victorious.In your view, what makes Egyptian cinema so special, and why do you feel it’s important to preserve it through art?
I believe in the Egyptian saying, “Whoever abandons their heritage is lost,” as well as the well-known phrase, “Old is gold.” Preserving our identity is extremely important, and cinema is one of the greatest ways through which we come to understand it. Film is a powerful platform that captures our daily lives, social issues, beautiful destinations across Egypt, our language, clothing, hairstyles, food, colors, and music. Throughout Egyptian cinematic history, there have been several films that raised public awareness and even contributed to social and legal change, such as They Made Me a Criminal, A Word of Honor, and I Want a Solution, among many others. The mission of cinema is not only to reflect the reality of the streets, but also to inspire people and visualize the beauty and ideals we dream of.
Which Egyptian artists have inspired you the most, and which ones would you recommend others explore?
Shadi Abdel Salam truly inspires me. He was a multi-talented artist who worked on costume design, set decoration, storyboarding, and directing his own films. He was a true legend of Egyptian cinema and visual art. I am also inspired by Youssef Francis, who was not only a remarkable screenwriter and director, but also a talented visual artist. There are many Egyptian visual artists who inspire me as well, including Mahmoud Saeed, Salah Taher, Abdel Aal Hassan, Mounir Fahim, and many others. I also feel that we need to learn more about Nadia Lotfy, as she is one of Egypt’s true cultural icons. Her intellectual background and the films she chose to make were both remarkable and influential. The same can be said about Nelly. She was not only a legendary performer, but also a gifted actress who portrayed many memorable roles in Egyptian cinema. And of course, Sabah is another timeless icon we should continue to celebrate and learn more about. She was an extraordinary actress and singer whose presence left a lasting mark on Egyptian cinema through countless unforgettable films and songs.
Feature
Colour and Laughter
Sabah was was movement, colour, laughter, glamour, and noise. A woman who seemed to carry life itself wherever she went.
She became one of the Arab world’s earliest feminist figures not through political speeches, but through the way she lived unapologetically and publicly. Across nearly 90 films and decades of music, she became a symbol of joy and possibility across the Arab world.
Everything about her was oversized: her blonde hair, sparkling dresses, booming laughter, and magnetic stage presence. While many viewed her glamorous image as superficial, her fashion and persona were deeply expressive. She dressed boldly, spoke freely, and lived in a way that challenged traditional ideas of how Arab women were expected to behave.
Even journalists often questioned whether someone so flamboyant could still fit society’s image of an “Arab woman.” Her response was simple and powerful: “I am a woman, I can be everything.”
What to Read
Women of Lebanon
It is easy to reduce Arab countries to fragments of war when viewing them only through brief news clips online. Yet this narrow lens overlooks the resilience and vitality that have long defined their societies. In Lebanon, for instance, the years of civil war between 1975 and 1990 left around 150,000 people dead, hundreds of thousands injured, and nearly a million displaced within their own country. But even amid this devastation, Lebanese women emerged as a sustaining force at the heart of society.
They became the infrastructure of survival and of building schools and clinics when systems collapsed, safeguarding historic sites from destruction, and creating art that gave form to grief, memory, and endurance. Through their work, they preserved not only daily life but also the cultural identity of a nation under strain.
The book brings together forty-two accomplished Lebanese women across fields such as the arts, literature, education, government, law, social work, media, business, and medicine. Each reflects on how war shaped their humanitarian work, careers, and private lives.
What to Listen to
A New Shore
Contemporary “dream pop” in the Arab world is being reshaped by classical Arabic poetry, creating a sound that feels both modern and deeply rooted in cultural memory. Egyptian artist BOSA, whose ethereal, cinematic music blends soft electronic textures with Arabic lyrical traditions, draws inspiration from poets like Salah Jahin.
Rather than relying on direct storytelling, her songs evoke mood, emotion, and fleeting beauty, much like classical Arabic verse, which often trusts the listener to feel meaning rather than fully decode it.
What to Watch
Love Street
Two of the biggest icons in Arab entertainment history, Sabah and Abdel Halim Hafez, sharing the screen together is a reason enough to watch. The chemistry is real, the music is gorgeous, and the whole film just has this effortlessly cool 1950s Egyptian energy that you rarely see anymore. Do yourself a favor and watch it.
What to Eat
Mawal Al Rehab
You can never go wrong with Palestinian food, which always makes you slow down and actually enjoy a meal. We're talking fluffy taboon bread, musakhan loaded with spiced onions and olive oil, maqlouba that gets flipped upside-down right at the table, and knafeh that ruins every other dessert for you permanently. It's honest, generous food built on good olive oil, fresh herbs, and recipes passed down through families for centuries. Mawal Al Rehab is the place to go if you’re seriously craving a warm and cozy meal straight from a Palestinian family’s heart.
What to Visit
ASWAN
Beautiful, beautiful Aswan…there is so much to say about this city because it feels like it holds the entire history of the world in its ancient monuments and rivers. So much to say and so much to paint about. For Adel Moustafa, Aswan is transformed into an exhibition inspired by the poetry of the South and its deeply human warmth. You can live that poetry very soon with its opening on May 17.
Saudi Spotlight
Inside Hevolution
Most people, when they think about aging, think about how long they will live. Saudi Arabia is investing a billion dollars a year to change the question. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Riyadh, the Hevolution Foundation has quietly become one of the largest scientific funders in the world targeting a single problem: how to extend the years of life that humans spend in good health, rather than simply the years they spend alive. The distinction matters more than it sounds, and the science behind it is at the frontier of what modern medicine is attempting to do.
