Sarah Ayoub

Published in Eureka St, 18th December, 2009. Copyright Sarah Ayoub, 2009

See the article as it originally appeared on the Eureka St website, here

As they gather in strength and unity, their roaring voices are a perfect match with the beating and pounding that characterises who they are and where they come from. Men of dark hair and olive skin, travelling together in seeming packs and bound by an unbreakable tradition. There is a leader among them, and even if he is not explicitly seen, he is found in their actions and in their pursuits, and in their quest to dominate the task ahead.

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Published on The Punch, 12th October, 2009. Copyright Sarah Ayoub, 2009

See the article as it originally appeared on The Punch website, here

Do you remember the choose your own ending tales of your childhood? Well, I hope so, because this is a choose-your-own beginning kind of opinion piece, and trust me, no one’s going to choose the beginning that it is meant to go with it.

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Published on The Punch, 30th September, 2009. Copyright Sarah Ayoub, 2009

See the article as it originally appeared on The Punch website, here

When my little cousin waltzes into my room and asks me for nail polish, it doesn’t really bother me. Perhaps her decision to forego my sexy reds and vixen blacks for the playschool razzle dazzle of my fluro pinks and purples fills me with a little confidence that her safe and happy childhood is very much intact.

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Published on The Punch, 7th September, 2009. Copyright Sarah Ayoub, 2009

See the article as it originally appeared on The Punch website, here

I realise it is incredibly un-trendy to like the monarchy. Heck, sometimes I even wish that the French revolution had never taken place, if only for my personal amusement of watching England and France compete via the insecurities of their ruling leaders, as they did once upon a time.

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Published in Girlfriend, September 2009. Copyright Sarah Ayoub 2009

Sacred, traditional and beautiful, the transition from child to woman is a beautiful journey for every female, no matter her cultural and religious background. Four girls tell us how they celebrated their biggest milestone yet…

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Published in ABC Unleashed, 7th August, 2009. Copyright Sarah Ayoub, 2009

See the article as it originally appeared on ABC Unleashed website, here

In the past year, films and plays centred on Australia’s Arabic communities have begun to home in on the pop-cultural spotlight.

Anglo and Arab teenage boys battled it out in The Combination, Lebanese ‘habibs’ grappled with their dual identities in From Lebanon With Love II, and young people still dealing with the aftermath of the Cronulla riots were represented in the interview-based skit Stories of Love and Hate.

This month Serhat Carradee’s film Cedar Boys will join the list, weaving itself into the mix of productions that seem to mirror and represent the social and cultural problems of our time – while exploring the tensions associated with being a Lebanese crim in what the protagonist often sees is a racially prejudiced Australia.

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Published in Eureka St, 30th July, 2009. Copyright Sarah Ayoub, 2009

See the article as it originally appeared on the Eureka St website, here

This week, Aussie film Cedar Boys will hit the big screen. It is the second film in just a few months that will portray the lives of Lebanese boys in South-Western Sydney. Caught between the usual dilemmas of youth, they must also grapple with  issues of crime and culture in what they feel is an already hostile world.

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Published on The Punch, 28th July, 2009. Copyright Sarah Ayoub, 2009

See the article as it originally appeared on The Punch website, here

When I was 19, I started mapping out my career plans. I was in my second year of university when I decided to volunteer as an unpaid intern for two full days per week at a magazine publishing house. My baby-boomer father never understood how I could do it for two years without pay (while working weekends in retail, where yes, I dealt with the worst customers imaginable and cleaned up kid vomit from the floor of my store), but I had faith in the fact that it would one day pay off.

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Published on The Punch, 10th July, 2009. Copyright Sarah Ayoub, 2009

See the article as it originally appeared on The Punch website, here

In 2006, I was driving out of Beirut airport in the backseat of a taxi when I had a horrible thought. Around me, cars were driving in and out of lanes, zipping past one another in dangerous manoeuvres and in disturbing excess of the speed limit, over packed with passengers sticking their arms, legs and even their heads out of windows.

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Published in Girlfriend, June 2008. Copyright Sarah Ayoub 2008

It’s a charmed life for those dressed in the latest threads and rapidly joining the jet-set. But if you think their lifestyle is way out of reach because of your McDonald’s wages, think again. A few changes to the way you manage your money could change all that, and before you know it, you’ll be jetting off to schoolies in style! It’s a hard-knock life for us no more…

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