play — Features

On the complexity of Cairo, young love, and the Arab Spring: In conversation with playwright Ahlam

Ahlamd, the anonymous playwright of You Bury Me, sits down with Shams Hanieh to explore what it means to grow up as an adolescent, to find love and lust for the first time, amidst the rubble of a politically turbulent city like Cairo during its protests.

RESISTANCE, ARTS & CULTUREAZEEMA -March 27, 2023play, playwright, egyptian, egypt, cairo, woman, queer

Hannah Khalil’s demonstration of the uniquely feminine power of oral storytelling

The Palestinian-Irish playwright tells AZEEMA why she wanted to reimagine A Thousand and One Nights from the female perspective, whilst explaining her career-long devotion to subverting the notions of a ‘meek’ Arab woman and redefining the her place onstage.

ARTS & CULTUREAZEEMA -January 4, 2023play, theatre, palestine, ireland, playwright, Feminism, arab, storytelling

An Iraqi-British playwright's exercise in teasing out inner turmoil through humour

Digital Editor Dalia Al-Dujaili sits down with playwright Jasmine Naziha Jones to discuss why she wrote an absurd tragic-comedic play for the Iraqi diaspora; at once a deeply personal experience, and a publicly political act of resistance to the narrative around the country’s history of conflict and colonialism.