Yasmina Bitar

Yasmina Bitar is a culture writer at GQ Middle East, where her essays and artist profiles make the case for taking Arab music seriously enough to criticise it. Her 2026 run includes “Arab Music Doesn’t Need a Visa to Be Global,” written after US visa delays postponed Saint Levant and Wegz tour dates — an argument that an artist’s power is proven by touring the Arab world, not by “breaking America” — and “Arab Culture Needs Better Haters,” on why identity debates have crowded out the question of whether the work is any good. She has profiled Michael Hakim, Issam Alnajjar, and Bayou, and written on the legacy of Ziad Rahbani.