author - oman observer

“Right,” I lie, when the lady beside me at a pottery studio (run by an Omani mother of two) in Muscat says Michael Jackson’s music is not from our generation. She gives me a look with her big...

On a Saturday afternoon, I got three whole 'likes.' Offline at a soiree on a farm in Muscat, that is, not as reactions to some unpolished post on my low-follower private Instagram account....

Tuesday, last week: A cup of coffee at the café downstairs with our guest, a Parisian, though originally American. Fair enough: He moved to France in the 1980s, making him an immigrant like me here...

“You have many lovers!” “Thanks, habibti! Wait.. what?” “I mean, we really like you as our team member!” Without looking up and a little lost in (Freudian) translation, my sweet colleague...

“What if it had been a baby inside that cage, mama?” I was calmly asked after we met Bruno, the Doodle Dog, at a local veterinary clinic that made global headlines last week. It was a loaded...

Should I blame Bella Hadid, the glamorous American supermodel of Palestinian and Dutch descent who wears Prada to the Oscars and posts frequently about Gaza and health? After all, following her (on...

“Astaghfir Allah,” I muttered after one or two curse words did cross my mind while chasing the cat who was once again trying to ruin my late parents’ furniture by using it as a scratching post....

Go or stay, stay or go. Apprehensive, maybe even afraid. That was the Muscat state of mind I anticipated of first-time visitors to Oman who normally live on the bustling yet close-knit Dutch street...

At first, I was dismayed as I was clearly vilified. Patience, Patience, Patience, I told myself, as a glimpse at another unpleasant personal email brought a feeling of distress. My hands hovered over...

I still look around in some embarrassment and even turn away my laptop screen when someone approaches while prompting “Betty” (my nickname for ChatGPT, since I keep mixing up the ‘T’ with the...

My first (and last) real encounter with Marco van Basten, known to football fans worldwide, was when he walked into the gym where I worked part-time as a receptionist while still a student. He looked...

“Mister, why is the moon sometimes visible during the day, if you say she only appears after sunset?” my now husband, who was then seven years old, and his friends once dared to ask their strict...

“We offer the best espresso and hot chocolate in Oman, and you would be our fifth customers since we established this business,” two friendly, young and very PR-savvy Omani students from Sultan...

Last weekend, we took my sister, who is like a sister, visiting us in Oman all the way from Amsterdam, to Bidiyah to explore the desert, and perhaps find ourselves out there after a year during which...

“I am a woman, phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that is me. I am the legacy of all the women who dared to be themselves before me,” once wrote Maya Angelou. Her words remind me that the courage,...

"She seems to lead this project with a soft hand," a former Omani colleague once told a team member who was helping us build the 'Your Decision, Your Future' platform, designed to support...

“I just wanted to get away from the competitive rat race, that hectic daily grind, the rush,” said a woman, born and raised in London, whom I once met at a funeral at a friend’s home in Muscat....

“Mark my words; she is going to stay and settle down there,” my mother told her best friend after I simply texted her that I had just arrived safely in Muscat. It was my first visit to Oman,...

Understanding Arabs was one of the hundreds of books my late father left behind when he passed earlier this year. To my surprise, I recently found it in a box among my parents’ belongings, which had...

Weekly extended family lunches in Oman are practically sacred, especially for the head of the family, which, in my case, is my mother‑in‑law. Almost every Friday or Saturday, it is in with the...