Mid-East Junction

Everyone loves the taste of authentic falafel - but where does this delicious dish come from exactly?

That sweet popping sound of boiling oil just before a falafel pops out: balls of bean goodness that have an international following.

Once the fried fritters, made of chickpeas or broad beans come out, they're thrown into fresh pitta bread and dressed with vegetables, and tahina…crushed sesame seed sauce.

Easy to eat, cheap to buy and everyone agrees they are the typical street food of the Middle East.

But ask about the origins and a conflict may as well break out.

“Well, falafel … there’s a little fight over that. There are those who will say it’s Egyptian, others will say its Lebanese and others will say it is Israeli. Whatever it’s from the Middle East,” says Yumi, the manager of a popular falafel stand in Paris.

Perhaps that’s the safest answer.

But with Paris having an ample Middle Eastern population, I decided the best way to answer this question was to eat my way through the different falafel stands in the city.

It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it.

For simplicity's sake, I've narrowed it down to Israeli, Lebanese and Egyptian falafel.

Before properly answering the question, one has to know that falafel is either chickpea or broad-bean based. Sometimes the two are combined.

Regardless of the preparation, the falafel itself is almost always eaten in a sandwich, generally in a flat type of bread.

Israeli-style in the Marais

In search of the origins of our favourite fritter, I began in one of Paris’s tourist attractions, the Marais neighbourhood.

What used to be a thriving Jewish neighbourhood before World War II, is now a rather gentrified and artsy part of town, complete with small museums and art galleries.

But the rue des Rosiers still upholds the Jewish past of the neighbourhood, with its bakeries, restaurants and falafel stands of the Israeli variety.

As the tourists flock to Paris during the summer months, the pedestrian street is packed with people waiting in line to grab a falafel sandwich from one of the four main restaurants.

I found a few people devouring their falafel and asked them why they came to rue des Rosiers:

Julie, from Paris “For me, it’s the best place for falafel.”

Zanthy, an Australian tourist: “I have had falafels all over the place; this is definitely on the higher scale of falafels.”

Everyone knows how to eat a falafel, but does anyone here know its origins?

Georgia, from the UK admits “I don’t know exactly, you find it in a few different cuisines from different countries.”

One American tourist gives a safe answer stating “It’s Israeli and Arabic; a mix between the two.”

So no one really knows. But then, while scarfing down a falafel, that’s likely the farthest thing from your mind.

Despite the lunchtime rush, the managers from two popular stands find time to discuss the origin of the fritters.

“I’d say it’s Israeli, but maybe Lebanese. Let’s just say Israeli-Lebanese,” says Elon, the manager of King Falafel.

When asked about the different preparations:

“I don’t know another type. Falafel with beans? I didn’t know. See, now you’ve told me that so I’ve learned something!” he exclaims.

“I know Egyptians mix it with beans. It’s called ful mudammas, but Israelis do it with 100 percent chickpeas” explains Yumi, the manager of L’As du Falafel.

Lebanese-style in Bastille

Over in the Bastille area, far from the tourist crowds of the Marais, the streets are lined with French bistros and pockets of Lebanese restaurants. One in particular serves only falafel.

The modern interior of Bar Falafel Bro doesn’t reveal its Lebanese origin. David, originally from Beirut, is one of the owners of the place. When I put the question to him, he smiles and explains diplomatically “Well, if you put the question to a Lebanese, he will say it comes from us. If you ask an Egyptian or a Tunisian or an Israeli they will call claim falafel as their own. But, for me, it remains international; a Mediterranean dish. The meal is very popular - it’s not even a meal, it’s a sandwich. A falafel sandwich is very popular.”

But when it comes to the origin of the word "falafel" David responds honestly, stating “I don’t know exactly where the name falafel comes from. I was born in Beirut and in Beirut it’s really the chance to go to the small businesses and grab a falafel sandwich which is very popular in the working-class neighbourood of Bourj Hammoud.”

As David and Yumi both mentioned, regardless of the origin, the falafel itself becomes appropriated by its country. What's a typically Lebanese falafel?

David explains beginning with the essential sauce, tarator. “That’s the well-known tahina sauce which accompanies the sandwich and the ingredients inside it, like fresh mint, turnip and in addition to that, in Lebabon, we always have a hot pepper on the side. That’s to say a hot pepper accompanies a falafel sandwich; that’s part of the tradition. There’s no sandwich without one.”

Egyptian-style near the Champs Elysées

Over on the other side of town, just a few steps away from the Arc de Triomphe, you’ll find the only Egyptian falafel stand in the city. Nestled on a side street, it’s easily missed if you’re caught up wandering the broad avenues of this neighbourhood.

Mickael, who was born in France and is of Egyptian Coptic background, is the owner of Micka Falafel.

When asked about the origins of the bean fritter, he quickly launches into an explanation, beginning with the word "falafel" itself:

“Falafel is a word used in the Coptic language that was the national language of Egypt back in the day," he says. "When one talks about falafel, it is about rolling the batter, which is made from broad beans, into balls which are then thrown into oil, creating a crust. It is this crust that is called falafel.”

In certain Middle Eastern countries, such as Egypt, falafel is also eaten for breakfast.

“If you eat falafel in the morning for breakfast, you need to know a little about where it comes from,” Mickael says when asked how he came by his explanation of the word's origins. That interest took him to his grandfather who can speak Coptic, and transmitted his story about the origins of falafel.

Food for the hundreds

Tamiya is another term for falafel, which is only used in Egypt.

“In Egypt 2,000 years you would find falafel and years after they changed it to tamiya,” explains Mickael. He says it was changed following the Islamic conquest of Egypt, when Arabic became the new language, so efforts were made to Arabise the country. The food falafel remained but, because it is considered a food of the people, it took on the name of ta’miya from tam, meaning taste, and mi'a, meaning 100. So food for the hundreds.

But another school of thought says tamiya is in fact a word rooted in the Coptic language, a successor to the pharaonic language. The term falafel in fact is the plural form of filfil, meaning peppers in Arabic.

So the name itself is highly disputed.

Whatever the origins of the dish and its name, it remains popular.

“A falafel sandwich will always just be a ball of chickpeas and beans,” says David. “The price will never be as high as meat and that’s why it’s always available in the working-class neighbourhoods.”

But chickpeas or beans? Could that be the determining factor in narrowing down the origin?

“When there was a large Jewish community in the country [Egypt], that’s when the difference in the preparation happened," he explains. "We began to see a mix between broad beans and chickpeas, so in Alexandria, in Cairo, in the cosmopolitan cities.

"But in the more conservative cities of the south, so in Minya or Asyut for example, which never really had a significant Jewish population and has remained relatively Coptic, falafel has always been made from broad beans.”

Pharoahs and beans

This idea of falafel coming from Egypt could be correct, given that the Coptic people, thought to be descendants of the ancient Egyptians, still maintain practices from those days. There is evidence of dried broad beans found in pharaonic tombs and at least one book cites pharaonic cooks as making bean fritters using mashed beans, garlic onions and spices; all ingredients native to the country and region.

Given that the Copts engage in many fasts, which forbid any animal products, during the course of a year, eating falafel during these times has always been popular.

And as Islam spread across the country and region during the 600s, falafel also became a favourite of Muslims, especially during Ramadan when it is eaten as an appetiser to break the daily fast.

Regardless of the country, the fact remains that the idea of a falafel spread from one country to another and stayed in the region.

And, as David stresses, “Each country has its own recipe. Maybe some with more chickpeas than chives, or with more spices. Those who add garlic or those who don’t. Each one makes the falafel recipe his own. Even if I were to say I’m 100 percent convinced its Lebanese, it wouldn’t make a difference, but I don’t believe that because, well it’s just very Mediterranean.”

In the end, no one really knows the true origin, though you might be able to come up with your own conclusion. Whether you love your falafel with chickpeas, or with broad beans, or both, it’s still delicious.

And it’s so good it even inspired a song, as sung by comedian Go Remy.

Saudi Arabia and its allies have ramped up pressure on Qatar since declaring a diplomatic embargo of the the small Gulf state earlier this month. They say the action is because of Qatar's links to Iran and support for the Muslim Brotherhood group but analysts see it as a power struggle over the future of the region.

On 5 June several countries, notably Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, announced they were cutting ties with  Qatar.

This is the first time such action has been taken since the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was created in 1981.

Each day there are new developments, as the leaders of the pack -- Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt – unveil new measures to block Qatar: stopping its access to their airspace, shutting down its ground border with Saudi and kicking out Qatari nationals.

The two main reasons for the cut in ties were said to be Qatar’s growing relationship with Iran and its harbouring and support of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which has branches across the Middle East.

According to David Hearst, the editor in chief of the Middle East Eye, this is really a play between three regional blocs vying for power. Bloc one is Iran and its state actors of Iraq and Syria and non-state actors of the Shia Muslim Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iraqi Shia militias.

Bloc two is what he calls the old regime, made up of the absolute monarchs and military dictatorships that stand to lose from any government changes resulting from the Arab Spring of 2011. This includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt and Jordan.

The third bloc is Turkey and Qatar, working in conjunction with the Muslim Brotherhood who momentarily took advantage of the Arab Spring to win support and, in Egypt's case, power.

Why now?

Hearst believes that this attack was premeditated and in fact follows on from unfinished business in 2013 when Egypt's then president Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, was ousted and the organisation was banned and driven out of the country.

While it is true that many of those who have fled Egypt since Morsi's overthrow ended up in Qatar for a time, many more ended up in Turkey, according to Eric Trager, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of Arab fall: how the Muslim Brotherhood won and lost Egypt in 891 days. "And, of course, Istanbul is where the Muslim Brothers and their fellow travellers have established roughly five satellite television networks which are very active in promoting the Muslim Brotherhood’s message, really across the region and as well as online.”

Essentially, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt showed other governments what could happen in their countries.

Is fear of Muslim Brothers justified?

“The Muslim Brotherhood poses a significant threat to some of these governments” says Trager. “The MB's entire ideology is about replacing existing governments on the assumption that the empowerment of the MB is the same as the empowerment of Islam itself. The brotherhood equates its organisation and its empowerment with the victory of the religion more broadly.”

There is also some popular mistrust of the organisation, Trager explains. “Many people across the region, seeing as how the 'Arab Spring' turned out, are also wary of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood because they fear chaos more than they fear their current government,” .

The embargo also appears to have been made possible by Riyadh's confidence that it had Washington's backing. The declaration came just after US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May, during which Riyadh was able to secure the partnership of Washington

Hearst also sees the Muslim Brotherhood as being a main impetus for the cutting of ties, especially when the job that was started after Morsi was ousted, was never finished. “They [the states against Qatar] saw Trump as an opportunity to basically finish off the political opposition and the Islamists’ political opposition, which they call terrorists, but is actually political; and to do it now.”

Iran connection

The second reason cited by Saudi Arabia was Qatar’s growing closeness to Iran.

An alleged hack on the Qatari news agency, alleging that Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had congratulated Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on his election, led to the breaking of ties, the other GCC countries judging that it showed Doha was becoming too close to Tehran.

Qatar claimed the statement was fake news and, anyway, the other GCC countries also have relations with Tehran.

The GCC is not a cohesive bloc, Mahan Abedin, a writer on Iranian affairs points out,  and its internal problems go back to before the present crisis.

Iran, says Abedin, is one of the many problems, but “they have territorial disputes, and in respect to Iran, it's long been divided. Oman, for instance, has very close ties to Iran, much closer than Qatar, because Iran and Oman have very stable and strong relationships stretching to 45 years when the former Shah of Iran intervened in the Dhofar crisis in the mid-1970s.”

Abedin notes that Oman, in fact, has a kind of “silent partnership with Iran”.

Added to the mix is Kuwait, which also has strong ties with Tehran.

But most surprising is the fact that the UAE, despite territorial disputes on three islands in the Persian Gulf, maintains a lot of contact, such as trade, with Iran.

“There are nearly half a million Iranians living in the Emirates,” Abedin says, going on to explain that “there’s only really two countries that Iran is having very a difficult relationship with. One is obviously Saudi the other is Bahrain, for obvious reasons. The rest of them, they're all divided, they all have their own specific issues and policies towards Iran.”

Latest ultimatum

The latest major development in this crisis was on 23 June, when Saudi Arabia and its allies handed over a list of 13 demands that Qatar had to fulfil within 10 days to end the siege.

Needless to say, Doha refused.

Abedin believes the list was really a clear step “towards escalation because these demands which were issued and formalised, they cannot be met. They are asking Qatar to shut down Al-Jazeera, basically they are asking Qatar to shut itself down. It's not really feasible.”

The small emirate has developed an international reputation through its news channel which criticises regional governments and opens a window on these countries to the rest of the world. The only caveat is that Qatar is off-limits for criticism.

However, Trager says that Al-Jazeera is vilified by the others because they believe it promotes the Muslim Brotherhood’s political message, something which inspires fear in these regional states.

Another reason for the insistence on shutting down the international broadcaster is the way it has opened up Qatar to the world. It has shown that Doha can be an innovator in the region, which Abedin says is exactly the problem:

"I think what this is highlighting is how closed-minded they [the Saudis, the Emirates and Egyptians] are. They have no vision for the region apart from shutting down voices, of crushing dissent, they cannot tolerate any new vision apart from their own. And I think this issue really highlights that they want to shut Qatar down mainly because Qatar has a different vision for the region, and they cannot tolerate that.”

Crisis continues

Qatar, one of the richest countries in the world, has been able to cope with the blockades.

But the diplomatic situation is starting to have an effect outside the region.

Ahmed Soliman, a specialist in the Horn of African at Chatham House, highlights one example - the Eritrea–Djibouti border dispute. Since 2010 there has been Qatari mediation of that border, including the presence of peacekeeping troops. That in turn had led to an easing of tensions between the two, as last year when Eritrea released four Djibouti prisoners.

But Djibouti has downgraded relations with Qatar, which has now stopped the mediation and withdrawn its troops.

"I think the reasons for this are in part of Djibouti’s downgrading relations with Qatar and possibly the existence of both Saudi and UAE deployments in Djibouti and in Eritrea at the base of Assab,” , explains Soliman.

As the effects of the embargo start to take hold outside of the region, Qatar has reaffirmed its willingness to find a resolution.

Speaking in Washington DC earlier this week, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani reiterated Doha’s commitment to ending the crisis, adding “we have stated consistently and unequivocally that Qatar is willing to sit down with our neighbours to discuss all issues pertaining to regional security and stability, so long as these demands do not infringe upon our independence and national sovereignty."

Al-Thani also noted that Qatar is willing to negotiate any “legitimate grievances with our neighbors, but we will not compromise our national sovereignty”.

It doesn’t appear the crisis will wind down any time soon.

On 30 June United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said the demand for Qatar to shut down Al-Jazeera is an unacceptable attack on the right to freedom of expression and opinion.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s ministry of defense announced the arrival of a new group of Turkish troops at the military base to help raise the country’s defence capabilities and maintain security and stability in the region.

Saudi Arabia and its allies have ramped up pressure on Qatar since declaring a diplomatic embargo of the the small Gulf state earlier this month. They say the action is because of Qatar's links to Iran and support for the Muslim Brotherhood group but analysts see it as a power struggle over the future of the region.

On 5 June several countries, notably Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, announced they were cutting ties with  Qatar.

This is the first time such action has been taken since the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was created in 1981.

Each day there are new developments, as the leaders of the pack -- Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt – unveil new measures to block Qatar: stopping its access to their airspace, shutting down its ground border with Saudi and kicking out Qatari nationals.

The two main reasons for the cut in ties were said to be Qatar’s growing relationship with Iran and its harbouring and support of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which has branches across the Middle East.

According to David Hearst, the editor in chief of the Middle East Eye, this is really a play between three regional blocs vying for power. Bloc one is Iran and its state actors of Iraq and Syria and non-state actors of the Shia Muslim Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iraqi Shia militias.

Bloc two is what he calls the old regime, made up of the absolute monarchs and military dictatorships that stand to lose from any government changes resulting from the Arab Spring of 2011. This includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt and Jordan.

The third bloc is Turkey and Qatar, working in conjunction with the Muslim Brotherhood who momentarily took advantage of the Arab Spring to win support and, in Egypt's case, power.

Why now?

Hearst believes that this attack was premeditated and in fact follows on from unfinished business in 2013 when Egypt's then president Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, was ousted and the organisation was banned and driven out of the country.

While it is true that many of those who have fled Egypt since Morsi's overthrow ended up in Qatar for a time, many more ended up in Turkey, according to Eric Trager, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of Arab fall: how the Muslim Brotherhood won and lost Egypt in 891 days. "And, of course, Istanbul is where the Muslim Brothers and their fellow travellers have established roughly five satellite television networks which are very active in promoting the Muslim Brotherhood’s message, really across the region and as well as online.”

Essentially, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt showed other governments what could happen in their countries.

Is fear of Muslim Brothers justified?

“The Muslim Brotherhood poses a significant threat to some of these governments” says Trager. “The MB's entire ideology is about replacing existing governments on the assumption that the empowerment of the MB is the same as the empowerment of Islam itself. The brotherhood equates its organisation and its empowerment with the victory of the religion more broadly.”

There is also some popular mistrust of the organisation, Trager explains. “Many people across the region, seeing as how the 'Arab Spring' turned out, are also wary of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood because they fear chaos more than they fear their current government,” .

The embargo also appears to have been made possible by Riyadh's confidence that it had Washington's backing. The declaration came just after US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May, during which Riyadh was able to secure the partnership of Washington

Hearst also sees the Muslim Brotherhood as being a main impetus for the cutting of ties, especially when the job that was started after Morsi was ousted, was never finished. “They [the states against Qatar] saw Trump as an opportunity to basically finish off the political opposition and the Islamists’ political opposition, which they call terrorists, but is actually political; and to do it now.”

Iran connection

The second reason cited by Saudi Arabia was Qatar’s growing closeness to Iran.

An alleged hack on the Qatari news agency, alleging that Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had congratulated Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on his election, led to the breaking of ties, the other GCC countries judging that it showed Doha was becoming too close to Tehran.

Qatar claimed the statement was fake news and, anyway, the other GCC countries also have relations with Tehran.

The GCC is not a cohesive bloc, Mahan Abedin, a writer on Iranian affairs points out,  and its internal problems go back to before the present crisis.

Iran, says Abedin, is one of the many problems, but “they have territorial disputes, and in respect to Iran, it's long been divided. Oman, for instance, has very close ties to Iran, much closer than Qatar, because Iran and Oman have very stable and strong relationships stretching to 45 years when the former Shah of Iran intervened in the Dhofar crisis in the mid-1970s.”

Abedin notes that Oman, in fact, has a kind of “silent partnership with Iran”.

Added to the mix is Kuwait, which also has strong ties with Tehran.

But most surprising is the fact that the UAE, despite territorial disputes on three islands in the Persian Gulf, maintains a lot of contact, such as trade, with Iran.

“There are nearly half a million Iranians living in the Emirates,” Abedin says, going on to explain that “there’s only really two countries that Iran is having very a difficult relationship with. One is obviously Saudi the other is Bahrain, for obvious reasons. The rest of them, they're all divided, they all have their own specific issues and policies towards Iran.”

Latest ultimatum

The latest major development in this crisis was on 23 June, when Saudi Arabia and its allies handed over a list of 13 demands that Qatar had to fulfil within 10 days to end the siege.

Needless to say, Doha refused.

Abedin believes the list was really a clear step “towards escalation because these demands which were issued and formalised, they cannot be met. They are asking Qatar to shut down Al-Jazeera, basically they are asking Qatar to shut itself down. It's not really feasible.”

The small emirate has developed an international reputation through its news channel which criticises regional governments and opens a window on these countries to the rest of the world. The only caveat is that Qatar is off-limits for criticism.

However, Trager says that Al-Jazeera is vilified by the others because they believe it promotes the Muslim Brotherhood’s political message, something which inspires fear in these regional states.

Another reason for the insistence on shutting down the international broadcaster is the way it has opened up Qatar to the world. It has shown that Doha can be an innovator in the region, which Abedin says is exactly the problem:

"I think what this is highlighting is how closed-minded they [the Saudis, the Emirates and Egyptians] are. They have no vision for the region apart from shutting down voices, of crushing dissent, they cannot tolerate any new vision apart from their own. And I think this issue really highlights that they want to shut Qatar down mainly because Qatar has a different vision for the region, and they cannot tolerate that.”

Crisis continues

Qatar, one of the richest countries in the world, has been able to cope with the blockades.

But the diplomatic situation is starting to have an effect outside the region.

Ahmed Soliman, a specialist in the Horn of African at Chatham House, highlights one example - the Eritrea–Djibouti border dispute. Since 2010 there has been Qatari mediation of that border, including the presence of peacekeeping troops. That in turn had led to an easing of tensions between the two, as last year when Eritrea released four Djibouti prisoners.

But Djibouti has downgraded relations with Qatar, which has now stopped the mediation and withdrawn its troops.

"I think the reasons for this are in part of Djibouti’s downgrading relations with Qatar and possibly the existence of both Saudi and UAE deployments in Djibouti and in Eritrea at the base of Assab,” , explains Soliman.

As the effects of the embargo start to take hold outside of the region, Qatar has reaffirmed its willingness to find a resolution.

Speaking in Washington DC earlier this week, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani reiterated Doha’s commitment to ending the crisis, adding “we have stated consistently and unequivocally that Qatar is willing to sit down with our neighbours to discuss all issues pertaining to regional security and stability, so long as these demands do not infringe upon our independence and national sovereignty."

Al-Thani also noted that Qatar is willing to negotiate any “legitimate grievances with our neighbors, but we will not compromise our national sovereignty”.

It doesn’t appear the crisis will wind down any time soon.

On 30 June United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said the demand for Qatar to shut down Al-Jazeera is an unacceptable attack on the right to freedom of expression and opinion.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s ministry of defense announced the arrival of a new group of Turkish troops at the military base to help raise the country’s defence capabilities and maintain security and stability in the region.

The drums beat a hypnotic rhythm. The fighters, each armed with a bamboo-like rod, display their footwork as they keep an eye on their opponent, accelerating or slowing down in time with the music. They move in circles around one another, often in duels between two, sometimes three or four at a time. This is Tahtib. This week - May 28 - the first ever tournament in Paris is being held.
 

To the majority of people, it’s an unknown sport. But in fact, it’s a 5000 year old martial art that comes from Egypt.

Adel Boulad is the founder of today’s Modern Tahtib. Armed with books on this ancient martial art and a passion to spread the word about this ancient sport, he sits down to describe in detail the origins of Tahtib.

He shows photos of what he claims are “the most ancient engravings we have in Egypt, [which]  in Abouseer: between the pyramids of Giza and Saqqara and the Abouseer site”.

Based on these pharaonic engravings, it is now believed that Tahtib was one of three disciplines for the Ancient Egyptian army: archery, wrestling and figthing using staffs, or rods.

At the time, Boulad explains, the ultimate goal was to “destroy the other person’s head; today the aim is to […] graze it.”

Military origins

The rods that are used today are also lighter, and unable to inflict the same harm.

Although the ancient military training disappeared from the Egyptian landscape long ago, the art has itself remained ingrained in the culture across the southern rural areas.

"Gradually it was transformed to become a game; a rural game played in the evenings,” explains Boulad.

“You know, in Egypt you have at least four or five hours after the work [day] because the sun set is very fast, and no tv, [so] people used to stay together to chant, to have poetry and to play music and also with the stick; just to play with the stick, so it became a rural game."

Rural pastime

It has remained a pastime for men in the rural areas passed down through the family. "This was a traditional transmission from the father to the son, the uncle to the son, the grandfather to the son", explains Boulad. "This is now disappearing because there is no more traditional transmission."

He adds that at one point nearly 85 percent of the country lived in rural villages, versus roughly 15 percent today.

This rapid urbanization sparked warning signs for Boulad. He expalined: “ [I wanted to] safeguard this heritage and to develop it in a different form so it is suitable to the new Egyptian society.”

To the common Egyptian, knowledge of stick fighting is associated with the culture of the fellahin: the peasants.

It is also associated with the folkloric dance that made a resurgence during the 1960s under the Reda dance troupe, led by Farida Fahmy and Mohammed Reda.

Together, they fused elements of Tahtib along with baladi, or Egyptian folk belly-dancing that made its way into live performances and films. One of their famous dances involved a stick, which is why many people from that generation associate Tahtib with dance.

But apart from the Reda group or those living in the villages, no one really knew about the true Tahtib.

Just as many urban dwellers had done, Boulad admits he also overlooked the traditional art form, even though he himself had studied martial arts for over 30 years.

"After having snubbed [tahtib] for 30 years, I considered [it] for a long time as [a] folklore dance, not serious, compared to the other martial arts," he said.

"It's when I removed this wool from my eyes […], I discovered their way of talking to me in the same language as the Japanese martial arts....the Japanese masters.

I was really astonished in discovering that they have the same philosophy, the same thinking. This happened in 2000 and from that time, I said this deserves something else than only folklore dance."

Reviving Tahtib

What really struck Boulad is the fact that the country was sitting on a 5000 years-rich history, and nobody was doing anything about it! With his background in East Asian martial arts, he set about structuring Tahtib to spark interest to the people of today.

“When you look at the other martial arts, you will discover then in each culture you have what you call a form. In Japanese it's called kata.”

He explains the same phenomenon is also found among the martial arts in Korea, China and Indonesia. In all the forms, there exists a sequence of movements that includes rotation, distance, and so on.

It was this structure that was lacking in Egypt.

“This is what I created to facilitate the transmission," he said.

From that starting point, he created eight forms. Each form is made up of a sequence of 30 to 60 movements.

Here at the tournament in Paris, all the participants move in synchronization to the beat of the music. It’s almost like a choreographed dance, except each person is armed with a stick, and uses the movements to access his or her opponent.

Much like Brazilian Capoeira that moves to music as well, Boulad explains that in Tahtib the “music is here to kind of moderate or modulate the game to boost it, to catalyze it if it's too slow, or calm it down if it is too tough, and it links the game to the crowd.”

 

As the combatants encircle each other, deliberating their next step, the music slows down and the crowd claps in rhythm to the drums, adding to the suspense of the match.

Music aside, part of the art of Tahtib is also mastering the stick. Right from the onset of training, participants are taught how to develop control and power of the stick. The maneuvering of the stick sets up the defense and offense between the combatants. The sound of the ‘clank - clank’ as the sticks hit each other are done in a rhythmic fashion as well.

In addition to bringing Tahtib to the forefront of modern martial arts, Boulad did one thing that 5000 years ago was unheard of: he ensured it was open to both men and women.

Prior to this first tournament in Paris, due to be followed by one in Cairo in July, competitions were never held, apart from a display of fighting as part of a cultural festival in the Egyptian city of Luxor.

But as the modern sport continues to spread outside of Egypt, training clubs have opened up all over, including in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, the Czech Republic and here in France.

In fact, here in Paris, there are over five clubs that are competing against one another at this tournament.

While the traditional dress, still found in the villages, is no longer worn by the modern competitors, a red sash around the waste is required by all those training and competing in Tahtib, as it resembles a similar belt seen in the ancient engravings.

As of November 2016, UNESCO, recognized it as an intangible cultural heritage of Egypt.

That means Tahtib will now have the international backing to ensure the ancient sport cannot be appropriated by any other country, and its heritage will be maintained for years to come and martial arts’ enthusiasts can learn the discipline of staff fighting.

Here in the small country of Qatar, the warm breeze from the sea smells fresh, and as you wander the streets in the old souk or along the boardwalk, one is struck by how clean the capital Doha is - pristine would even be a better word.

In this month's Global Focus on the Middle East, RFI's Anne-Marie Bissada takes a closer look at what implications Israel's Regularization law might have in the West Bank.

In this month's Global Focus on the Middle East, RFI's Anne-Marie Bissada takes a closer look at what implications Israel's Regularization law might have in the West Bank.

In December, a song and video released by Saudi singer Majed al Esa, called Hwages, which loosely translates into 'Concern', went viral almost immediately.

In December, a song and video released by Saudi singer Majed al Esa, called Hwages, which loosely translates into 'Concern', went viral almost immediately.

The opening scene shows three women, covered from head to toe in the traditional Saudi dress - the abaya – getting into a car that is being driven by a young boy. Women in the kingdom are prohibited from driving.

They then begin to clap and sing in Arabic: “If only god would rid us of men!"

The provocative and humorous video doesn't sugar-coat the problem it is trying to describe, notably that women in the Saudi Arabia have no rights, or freedoms.

They are forbidden to travel on their own, to say what they want, or to even drive. They live under a male guardianship system that places them under the wing of male relatives, or family members.

Rule by guardians

While many think it’s a system unique to Saudi Arabia, Hala Aldosari, a researcher in women’s health and Saudi activist now living in in exile in the US, disagrees:

“It’s not the only country that implements this kind of a system, it’s implemented to various degrees in different countries, with different conditions, such as Kuwait,” she says.

That said, it does not exist in other countries to the same degree as it does in Saudi where it controls all aspects of women’s choices, where “control is in the hands of a guardian.”

A history of guardianship

But where did this system come from?

To understand this, you have to look at the history of Saudi Arabia, which by comparison to other countries in the region, is a very young country.

Olivier Da Lage, a former middle east correspondent and author of The Geopolitics of Saudi Arabia, explains why the country is what it is today:

“In the 18th century an alliance between a [chief and a] preacher- who was exiled for many years found refuge in a small village in central Arabia. [His name was] Mohammed Abdel Wahab. The chief of the village was Sheik Mohamed al-Saud.”

Da Lage explains that this alliance was supported because the local king gave protection to the preacher for spreading a religion fostered by Wahab, which was soon known as ‘Wahhabism’.

He adds: “Over the years that alliance spread across the Arabian Peninsula, to the extent that the Turks became wary of their influence, [so] they crushed the first Saudi state.Then many years later, in the 19th century, a [second] Saudi state was crushed by the Turks and Egyptians, working for the Turks.”

After the rise and fall of a number of failed states, Saudi Arabia as we know it today was founded in 1932. It was called the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Each time the Saudi state was created, it was built on a foundation of this strict form of Islam, or Wahabbism. Even still, until the current state’s creation in 1932, women in the kingdom had relative freedom by comparison to today.

Changing states

Saffaa (family name not provided), a self-exiled Saudi activist and artist explains how during the 1970s, Saudi society was less restrictive by comparison to today: “I look at pictures of my mom in the 70s; she never wore a head scarf or abaya, she sometimes had photos of her driving around Mecca with my father.”

But things began to change at the start of the 1980s.

Towards the end of 1979, the Great Mosque of Mecca was overrun by a group of extremists who tried to over throw the House of Saud.

For two weeks, Saudi troops along with French and Pakistani troops helped fight the extremists. In the end hundreds of militants were killed or jailed.

The result was that soon after, the House of Saud began imposing a stricter enforcement of Islamic code, which immediately had an impact on women and marked the beginning of the guardianship system.

In addition to this, while much of Saudi law is based on custom, Aldosari says it’s still a country that has no written penal, or personal status code.

For that reason, the guardianship system is particular, because it is based on a “set of law that is written and customary norms, where officials use their own authority to request guardian permission for women, or in things that are not written in the court…not something written but practiced”.

The system extends to all aspects of a woman’s life. While there is no law that says a woman cannot be enrolled in education, the universities themselves have their regulations, so a woman cannot apply for schools or universities “without permission from [their] guardian” explains Aldosari.

Even the health of a woman is affected by the system. Aldosari points to the case of abortion. In the late 1980s, there was an edict, for example, that the right of a woman to an abortion in life-saving situations.

The circumstances which would necessitate such a procedure was listed and approved by the medical community. But then this was left to interpretation by the ministry of health, which then adopted its own regulation. That regulation stipulated “that a husband must approve of such an operation”, which means if her husband does not approve, she can die.

While a woman can appeal certain situations before court, the judge is left to his own interpretation of the law, which is this blend of written and customary laws.

The role of the Ulemma

The King has the highest authority and ultimate power to impose new laws or take away old ones, and his actions are essentially based on interpretation of religious practices. He receives his directives from the religious council called the Ulemma.

Unlike other Sunni Islamic countries that take its religious cue from the highest authority in Al-Azhar in Cairo, the Ulemma is its own entity.

Da Lage explains: “The Saudi religious establishment would not agree that the main authority sits in Cairo. The Saudis argue though that the purist form of Islam is that practiced in Saudi."

The constant dependency on a male, be that the father, the husband, the brother or the son, means women’s movement is consistently checked and limited. The system even extends beyond borders.

Saffaa, for example, says during her time studying abroad in Australia, she had to fly in her brother every so often to prove to authorities that her guardian was still there.

She explains that it was at this point that she decided to concentrate her energy on changing the system:

“I felt it was humiliating. I asked myself why is this happening to me? I am my own person. I’ve been financially independent from my parents for a while, but here I am calling my younger brother to chaperone me.

“But of course they keep telling you that these are the rules, the rules of the country. That was the moment that shifted my career. I wrote my thesis on it. [Since then], my research has been focused on the plight of Saudi women.”

Why Now?

But why is the battle for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia only breaking out now?

Prior to the era of social media, the Kingdom was impenetrable, which meant voices that were trying to be heard, were mute.

In 2011, the year of the Arab Spring, the widespread use of social media became a new tool in the fight for change and, as Aldosari says, this is how the movement for change started.

“Social media is the only outlet because we don’t have any political party, or unions or independent civil society to lobby the government in peaceful means,” she says.

Aldosari adds that prior to 2011, the only way to introduce change was to lobby the King directly via petitions.

She said she wrote many petitions to the King and the Shura - the advisory council- but there was never any response.

She initially joined the online movement supporting the right of women to drive, joining forces with Manal al-Sharif.

Since then, Aldosari says “we have used social media in a systematic way to lobby the government, to get attention of the global media."

The original online movement in 2011 was called in Arabic #Saudi Women Revoking Guardianship Law.

The role of social media

In 2012, Saffaa created her own movement in English, which soon joined forces with the Arabic one. Hers is #Iammyownguardian.

Much of her art work now goes into promoting the rights of Saudi women and has become representative of both the Arabic and English movements.

Her popular portrait of a young veiled woman with defiant eyes was inspired by Maryam, one of the first women to be involved in the online movement in Saudi Arabia.

Maryam initially went to prison because she refused to deactivate her social media account from which she was voicing her opinions on freedom.

As her guardian, her father reported her for disobedience and she was put in prison. But with the large following she had gathered online, there was pressure to release her. Saffaa adds: “It was becoming shameful for them to keep her in jail.”

Unfortunately though, Maryam has once again fallen victim to this system. After suffering abuse from the hands of her brother for rejoining the online movement, she tried to file a police report; but the police refused to take her statement. At present, there is an online movement, #JusticeForMaryam to put pressure on the Kingdom to protect Maryam.

While there is a draft law criminalizing domestic abuse, according to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, it is widely seen as flawed because the men involved can file a disobedience case against their daughters and wives to force them back into their homes.

Saffaa points out that the system is even further convoluted because if a woman is being abused by her guardian, she cannot report him to authorities “without the guardian’s approval”.

Changes to the system?

While working with Human Rights Watch to update a report on the guardianship system last year, Aldosari began to notice the impact posted videos about the guardianship system online line were creating.

So she decided to once again write a petition to the King, adding that “in one month we gathered 150,000 signatures, despite the fear of those who are willing to put their full names.”

Despite all the online action, change remains painfully slow.

Saffaa describes her ultimate goal:

“I really want change, [I want] the country to stop discriminating against its women, the country to recognize us as human beings. For Saudi authorities to look at this problem that they created, and say ‘we did this, let’s fix this.’ It won’t make ‘us less as men’. They must know we can contribute better to society.”

It's an industry known worldwide - think about the last time you went into a shop to buy a towel. If you checked the label, chances are it said Egyptian cotton. But while the product itself is recognized worldwide, the industry is in a state of what appears to be a terminal decline.