Souq scenes of markets, commerce, buildings and streetscapes. Notable artists in the Orientalist genre include: Jean-Léon Gérôme Delacroix (1824–1904), Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (1803–1860), Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), Eugène Alexis Girardet 1853-1907 and William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) who all found inspiration in Oriental street scenes, trading and commerce. Souq A souq or souk (, "shuq", "shuka", Spanish: zoco, also spelled shuk, shooq, soq, esouk, succ, suk, sooq, suq, soek) is a marketplace or commercial quarter in Western Asian, North African and some Horn African cities () . The term "souq" goes by many alternatives in different parts of the world; in the Balkans, the
American democracy promotion in the Middle East and North Africa American democracy promotion in the Middle East and North Africa American democracy promotion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) aims to encourage governmental and non-governmental actors in the region to pursue political reforms that will lead ultimately to democratic governance. As an area of the world vital to American interests yet generally entrenched in non-democratic, authoritarian rule (with the exceptions of Jewish-majority democratic Israel and semi-democratic Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian National Authority and Turkey), MENA has been the subject of increasing interest on the part of the American government and democracy promoters, particularly after the terrorist attacks of September