12th March 2025

Tamara Taher

On a sunny cold morning of January, around a hundred people gathered in a land in the area of the Abdoun Corridor in West Amman to participate in an initiative organized by Al Barakeh Wheat. A call had appeared on the social media pages of the latter in early December 2024, inviting people to participate in the seeding and harvesting of baladi wheat in a land inside Amman for the season of 2025. The call received enthusiastic response and feedback on social media, as it opened a space for city dwellers to closely follow and actively engage with the entire process of producing baladi wheat and flour across the year. 

Families, friends and individuals gathered at the time and place comunicated by the organizers, who explained that the activity was not made possible earlier, in December, because of the scarcity of rain this winter. When rain finally came, it was time to seed the wheat and watch it grow. 

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18 September 2024

Tamara Taher

Set in the al-Weibdeh neighbourhood, the "Souq Nos Al Osbo3" ("The mid-week market") has been taking place on a bi-weekly basis since August 2024. Seasonal products and handicrafts are sold by local producers and groups, and activities are organized for families and children. 

The market is co-organized by Fann wa Shai, an art gallery and tea bar, and Taghmees, an association that works on re-appropriating forms of learning, local knowledges and food in the context of Amman. 

I have found the market to be a cozy and friendly space, where all producers participating know each other and the community supporting the initiative. The organizers of the market underscore the importance of their efforts in building a social fabric that is aware of the painful times people are living in the MENA region and Palestine. Within such context, the organizers say, it is crucial that hope is not lost and collective "wujud" ("presence") is practiced and preserved, free from the power dynamics of "foreign funding". 

12 August 2024

Tamara Taher

The first edition of the Jordan International Food Festival has been held in Amman, from the 7th to the 11th August 2024, at the King Hussein Business Park. 

Thousands of people from across the city have visited the Festival, which hosted a local food market of Jordanian shops and producers, cooking workshops and events with featured guests and Michelin-starred chefs, and food trucks, restaurants and family entertainment. 

I was particularly interested and went through the Local Market, where I met and learned about local producers of Jordanian "jameed", olive oil, foods, local "baladi" wheat and foods. 

17th July 2024

Tamara Taher

As-Salt is located 30 km North-West of Amman. Situated on three main hills (the Cadital, Gadaa and Salalem), it is a beautiful and thriving city with a rich history. Across centuries it has had an important position in regional trade networks, connecting cities across the region and beyond. In 2021, the city has been included in the "World Heritage List" by UNESCO, who described as "The Place of Hospitality and Tolerance". Tourism has been increasingly promoted in the city, which hosts an Ecomusuem that guides the visitors inside one of its main urban landmarks, "Abu Jaber House", and around the city. 

Walking around as-Salt gave me a sense of its closeness to cities like Jerusalem, Nablus and Syrian cities. Its architecture is testament to the historical processes that attracted skilled craftsmen that participated in constructing its characteristic yellow limestone buildings. 

The city also hosts the shrine and church of St. George (in Arabic: Al Khader), originally built in a cave in 1682.

Visiting as-Salt was significant for my research on and in Amman as the latter became the Jordanian capital after independence, in 1946, while as-Salt was considered bigger and more significant in the previous period because of its commercial and cultural centrality in Transjordan, serving as its actual capital for a brief time between 1922 and 1923. In this sense, it was interesting for me to observe the architectural and demographic differences between the two cities and their geographical positions and distances in relationship to each other and in relation to other major cities in the Mashrek region.