Forthcoming

April 30 podcast "The First Muslim": author Lesley Hazelton talks about this important new biography of Prophet Muhammad.

April 23 podcast Adameer Office for Palestinian Prisoners (from our archive). The gorilla in the room: humorist Amer Zahr's "lousy weekend"; with open phones.

April 16 podcast. Fawzia Afzal Khan on parallel Muslim agendas in America-- diverging or supporting? BN Aziz reads from The First Muslim, by Lesley Hazelton.

April 9 podcast. Poetry Month selections; The Campaign to Free Lynne Stewart

April 2 podcast Poet Samuel Hazo, on his novel The Time Remaining set in Washington and Palestine. And jazz by trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf.

March 26 podcast. Celebrating women on Youm el-Oum, Arab Mother's Day--Baghdad resident Souad AlRadi (from our 2003 archive), and poems by Lamees AlAthari

March 19, podcast Authors Willow Wilson, part 2 (see March 12), and Hanan Al-Shaykh (2009 archive); poet Gaith Adhami (2010 archive)

March 12 podcast Author of Alif The Unseen, Willow Wilson (part 1); campaign for imprisoned civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart

March 8, podcast Women's Day special: poet and author Mohja Kahf on western representations of the Muslim woman (a 2000 archive production).  

 Jan 29 podcast Tahrir continues our Jan 22nd with Haddad on the new generation of Muslim Americans. Also, books for young readers

Jan 22 podcast Professor and author Yvonne Haddad: the strategy of 'exceptionalism' for Muslim Americans. Tahrir archive interview with writer/novelist Ahdaf Soueif   

 Jan 15 podcast Hassen Abdellah and BNimri Aziz review advances and setbacks in our communities. Marking his 85th birthday, we look at the work of civil rights attorney Ramsey Clark. (see our Jan 26 blog)

 

Jan 8 podcast ALGERIA: Ammar Kessab comments on Algerian government control of ‘culture’; Simone Fattal examines the role of democracy philosopher deTocqueville in Algeria; nuclear scientist Al-Aboudi details France’s nuclear tests in Algeria & longterm affects

 

Jan 1 podcast New Year special with Sarah Malaika

 

Dec  25 podcast. Year end broadcast hosted by BN Aziz, with listener calls 

 

Dec 18 podcast. Tahrir revisits Algeria's Rai music tradition in a 1997 archival production by Anissa Bouziane, then an update with Arab music aficiando Dawn Elder. B N Aziz reviews the work of Arab filmmakers Yasmina Adi and Ruba Nadda.

 

Dec 4 podcast SF activist Alice Nashashibi (archive); “Existence is Resistance" NYC HipHop Festival supporting Gaza. Algeria: Pt 1:Ammar Kessab on the Algerian government's hegemony on cultural (civic) expression.

 

Nov 27  podcast Before the the UN vote on Palestine, an early commentary by Fouad Moughrabi on land seizures; also scholar Walid Khalidi on Jerusalem history. Book review: "The Time Remaining" by Samuel Hazo. Poems: Suheir Hammad and Lisa Majaj.

 

Nov 20 podcast  from Tahrir's 2005 archive: Salma K Jayyusi on modern Arabic literature; also the NY Arab Comedy Festival.

 

Sept 25 podcast  'The stupid film' everyone is mad about: Wayne State U Middle East specialist Abdullah Al-Arian offers strategies for American Muslims. Ramallah-based Palestinian artist Taiseer Barakat (Tahrir archive)

 

Sept 18  podcast American Muslims: advances and setbacks, with author Stephan Salisbury, attorney Fahd Ahmed, DRUM-NY and Adem Caroll of ICNA. From 1991 Tahrir archive, Sayyid M. Sayeed discusses Islamophobia 13 years ago.

 

Sept 11 Ethiopia's Muslim history, past and  present with Nejib Muhammad US Islamic  Community of Ethiopians. 

 

Aug 21 podcast "From Cordoba to Baghdad", Arab Music with virtuoso, Simon Shaheen.  From our Tahrir archive.

 

Aug 14  podcast Naif Al-Mutawa creator of “The 99”and CEO of  Teshkeel Media speaks about his challenges, his vision, his plans for this international superhero young people's project. From our 1994 Tahrir archive, an excerpt from The City of Cairo with Kadry Al-Arabi, and some Ramadan poetry.

 

Aug 7 podcast Mustafa Davis California-based filmmaker & photographer producer of “Deentight” an award winning film talks about hip hop artists and Islam. And productions by this summer’s Tahrir interns-- Weaam Wali and Omar Ammar.

 

July 31  podcast Ramadan from the streets of New Jersey with Tamara Issak.  "The 99",  preview for Aug 14. Comment by MT Mehdi (1997 Tahrir archive).

 

July 3 see podcast. Attorney Omar Mohammedi  assesses Congressman King's hearings and Islamophobia;   interview with London based S. Asia fusion vocalist 'Najma' ('94), and Farid Esack ('97 Tahrir archive)  

 

June 26 see podcast MT Medhi on airport profiling in 1997 (WBAI news archive); Three Veils director Rolla Selbak, and  review of gay/lesbian activists ('97 Tahrir archive) with host Dave Hall.

 

June 19,  see podcast. A review of Arab theater and "Food and Fadwa", by Reem Nasr; Ginan Rauf comments on two Egypt-focused films-- Goodbye Mubarak and Tahrir: LIberation Square 

 

June 12, podcast. Ilyasa Shabazz, author of "Growing Up X", and daughter of Malcolm Al-Hajj Shabazz.

 

June 5 podcast,  Muslim students talk about their experience after revelations of infiltration by US intellegence agencies  of their student assemblies. Also, a  Tahrir archive  profile: the early 20th C. Egyptian feminist Doria Shafiq

 

May 14  2 hour special: The 'Nakba', 64th anniversary of the expulsions from Palestine in 1948.  

 

May 1 podcast Tribute to Brother Ghazi Khankan 1934-2012. 

 

April 24 podcast Actor/film-director Newark-born Usman Sharif  talks about his career, his productions in progress and the politics of making films. 

 

April 10 podcast Iraq--an economic model? From our archive on pre-1990 Iraq--economist Rashid Yakob. Also: Tuareg of the Sahel and crises in Saharan areas of Niger, Mali, Algeria, Libya-- a commentary by BNAziz.

 

April 3 podcast Managing multi-identities: Arab Americans’  interface with whiteness, with artistic director Jamil Khoury of Silk Road Rising Theater Chicago.

   

March 27 podcast "Water in the Middle East"-a radio documentary from our archive, with updates.  

 

Mar 13 podcast Muslim Responses to Unlawful Surveillance: Sharifah Salaam, NJ & Imam Ramadan, NY

  

"Men have singled out women of outstanding merit and put them on a pedestal to avoid recognizing the capabilities of all women" — Huda Shaarawi (1879-1947), Egyptian political activist and  feminist

 

March 8 podcast Women's Day Special from Tahrir's 1990 archive- women leaders: Huda Shaarawi and author Nadia Hijab

Jan 31 podcast Turkish TV dramas in the Arab World: with Aydin Baltaci and BN Aziz. An excerpt from RNasr's interview with journalist/author Ashraf Khalil-- Liberation Square. (full interview podcast Feb 11)

 

Jan 10 podcast. Sex education for Muslim youth--Mohamad Ahmad and Amir Mertaban, hosts of Irvine CA’s online radio’s "Boiling Point" debate the issue.   

 

Jan 3, 2012 podcast “Warrantless Profiling and Surveillance”: guest attorneys Omar Mohammedi and Faiza Patel.Listener calls. 

 

Dec 20, 2011 podcast Educating our children in Islamic values: private school principal Amanny Khattab of Noble Academy, NJ public school teacher Suada Charaf. and home-school.advocate Nabila Hanson.

 

Nov 29, 2011 podcastFencing champion Ibtihaj Muhammad; and medical specialists discuss treatment of NJ Arabs with disabilities.

 

Oct 4, 2011 podcast Afghan-Americans in a NY performance; Khalil Meek of Muslim Legal Fund.

 

 

Sept 27 podcast. Mohammed Ghani Hikmat ,Iraqi sculptor (1929-2011); and BN Aziz' report on her 1993 visit to Gaza at the time of the Oslo Accord (archive)

  

Sept 6, podcast  Our civil rights and entrapment of Muslims by US security agencies. Attorneys Asaad Siddiqi and Lamis Deek.

 Aug 23, 2011 podcast Tahrir archive special Ramadan children's stories, poems and people: AbdHayyMoore, Ibr.Gonzalez, Sapphire Ahmed, Somayieh Uddin, Dasham Brookins, Sharam Shiva & more.

 

Aug 16, no podcast available. What is halal; how halal is your Ramadan iftar? "My Halal Kitchen", and spiritual melodies of our Syrian group "Noor"  

 

August 9, see podcast What Ramadan means to me.

  

Aug 30, see podcast Prophet Mohammad: a third in our series on "the prophets", with Muhammad Jaaber

 

Tahrir Team

Reem Nasr
Reem Nasr is a journalism and Middle East studies graduate from NYU. She combines the heritage of several Arab nations with American life, pursuing a career in journalism. While covering New Jersey-NY community affairs, Nasr regularly visits Arab lands to keep abreast of developments there.

Sally Sharif
Sally Sharif recently received her BA from Montclair State U. NJ. She plans to pursue a masters degree in communications, towards her goal of a career in media as the owner of her own media network. She says Tahrir has inspired her in numerous ways: “It ultimately gave me confidence in pursuing my passions and dreams in media. I am honored to be part of a distinctive on-air voice on for the Arab and Muslim community.“

2004 co-producers

Kareem Freeman,Saadia Aslam, Rachida Mohammedi, Imran Ahmed, and BN Aziz

Robert E. Meyer
Meyer helped build our program web site in 2003 and has contuinued supporting Tahrir and WBAI over the years. He pased away in Nov. 2012 and will be missed.

Saadia Aslam
Saadia finsihed her MPS in Art Therapy at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and currernly works in Orange, New Jersey. She joined Tahrir in 2004. As a broadcast journalist, Aslam takes delight and pride in discovering voices in our Muslim communities and introducing new personalities to Radioland.

Aisha AlAdawiya and Hassen Abdellah
Aisha AlAdawiya is founder and director of "Women in Islam" based in New York. She joins us as an occasional host on Tahrir.

Tamara Issak
Tamara Issak is a contributing producer and co-host with Tahrir, having joined the team as an intern in 2005. A Fulbright Fellow to Syria in 2008-2009, she completed her MA in English literature at Rutgers University. Tamara now resides in New York where she is a PhD candidate in English language and literature.

Ryme Katkhouda

Co-founder of the dcradiocoop.org and wbix.org, Ryme is executive producer of "Voices With Vision", airing Thursdays at 11am on WPFW 89.3FM in DC.

She has been a senior producer and trainer at WPFW 89.3FM since 2003 and is also national correspondent with Free Speech Radio News FSRN.org

Dean Obeidallah
Obeidallah is a standup comedian working in many venues. Co-director with Maysoon Zayid of the successful Arab American Comedy Festival, they also hosted "Fen Meshnoon with Dean and Maysoon" on Tahrir from 2004-2006. Dean is based in NYC but travels constantly, performing and organizing festivals. .
www.arabcomedy.org See www.deanofcomedy.com.

Nadja Middleton
Nadja worked as Tahrir's sound engineer for more than two year's. She then specialized in community news. In recent years Middleton has been working as a producer with NPR's "Story Corp".

Aydin Baltaci
Aydin Baltaci, assistant producer, is www.RadioTahrir.org’s webmaster. He holds a B.S. from Istanbul and M.A. in Geography from Hunter College N.Y. “Tahrir offers me a refreshing, down-to-earth, yet sophisticated work atmosphere. I enjoy great colleagues while I engage in the honorable work of bringing unbiased voice to our worthy minority peoples. These are some of the things that attracted me to Radio Tahrir."

Hanan alShaykh and Tahrir members
Tahrir producers Lea Khayata, Reem Nasr and BN Aziz with the author. Hear an excerpt about Hanan and her mother on "features"and the full interview, in 2 parts-- Sept 29 and October 13, now podcast.

Hassen Abdellah

Hassen Abdellah joined our team as co-host in 2001. He likes to bring controversial issues on to the air and open the phones to for listener call-ins. WBAI offers a perspective not found elsewhere, he says.

A graduate of Seton Hall Law School and Bucknell U.,PA, now has his own law firm in Elizabeth, NJ. He is chairman if the board of Darul Islam Elizabeth Inc. Mosque in New Jersey.

At high school and college Br. Hassen played basketball and football and continues to follow NBA, NFL and college sports.

Barbara Nimri Aziz
Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz is an anthropologist and a print journalist as well as a broadcaster. See her regular blog on this webpage. Aziz began her interest in radio as a student at Queen's University, Canada, where she was producer for CFRC. She joined WBAI-NY in 1989 when she moved to NY and entered the world of journalism. Aziz has been with Pacifica WBAI in New York for 23 years where she now concentrates on managing and co-hosting RadioTahrir, a regular weekly magazine. Based on her early interviews working with Arab writers, Aziz founded the Radius of Arab American Writers Inc. (RAWI.org), a national organization. Aziz regularly visits the Arab countries on assignment and many of her productions airing on WBAI are based on interviews abroad.

Mona Iskander

Mona Iskander is now associate producer with PBS TV, having spent two years as a producer at CNN in New York and NPR Radio.

She started her journalism career in 2002, as an intern with Radio Tahrir, WBAI New York. Iskander has a master's degree from the Columbia Journalism School.

Sarah Malaika
Sarah Malaika completed her MA in anthropology, Middle East and museum studies. She works in NYC museum programs and is now an occasional producer with Tahrir. "I joined Tahrir to be part of a creative radio voice on air." Malaika is a long-time community radio fan and has been involved in community programs for many years.

Lynne Stewart with our interns
Civil rights Attorney Lynne Stewart with Nazek Habatfa(l) and Mona Iskander.
www.LynneStewart.org

Jad Abumrad

A graduate in music composition and a Tahrir intern from 1999-2001, Jad is now host and curator of RadioLab, a weekly program on WNYC, NY.

Each episode of RadioLab is a patchwork of people, sounds, stories and experiences centered around One Big Idea. On RadioLab, science bumps into culture... information sounds like music. radiolab@wnyc.org

2011 Tahrir Producers
Sarah Malaika, Saadia Aslam, BNimri Aziz, Aydin Baltaci

Tamara Issak
Tamara Issak is a contributing producer and co-host with Tahrir, having joined the team as an intern in 2005. A Fulbright Fellow to Syria in 2008-2009, she completed her MA in English literature at Rutgers University two years later. Tamara now resides in Chicago where she teaches college-level English language and literature classes.

Maysoon Zayid

Maysoon Zayid is an actress and professional stand-up comedian. She has appeared on major TV programs and tours widely performing standup comedy.

Zayid is co-producer of The Arab American Comedy Festival in NY .
www.arabcomedy.org , now in its 8th season. Follow her performances on www.maysoon.com



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Men have singled out women of outstanding merit and put them on a pedestal to avoid recognizing the capabilities of all women--

Huda Shaarawi (1879-1947), Egyptian political activist and feminist

Tahrir Diwan

a poem.. a song..
poem "My Wish", poem for South Lebanon, Arabic
Umm Kayed's praise poem for the liberation of South Lebanon, Arabic

See poems and songs list

Flash
poems
poem Ya Rabbi Mustafa
praises to the Prophet, from Nazira CD, female voices

See audio list

Book review
G Willow Wilson's
The Butterfly Mosque
reviewed by BN Aziz.

See review list

Tahrir Team

Dean Obeidallah
Read about Dean Obeidallah in the team page.

See Tahrir Team

WBAI Online

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