AZEEMA DIGITAL
As this year’s Safar Film Festival gets underway, we speak to the award-winning Jordanian director on how she tried to epitomise Palestinian joy coupled with imposing social restrictions in her debut feature Farha, which tells the story of a little girl in 1948 Palestine who survives the Nakba and is concealed in a cupboard by her father to protect her from pending danger.
Read MoreNour Regaya shares her first experiences with the word 9a7ba (whore) as a young woman and meditates on its usage in the Middle East to suppress female sexuality throughout her upbringing. Through is inversion, Nour has learnt to empower herself by redefining what the word means to her.
Read MoreDania Quadri asks what the role of the brother, father and male cousin play in South Asian and Muslim households, exploring her own lived experiences with male family members and relationships which intend to be supportive but can lead to an instead oppressive alternative.
Read MoreAZEEMA presents ‘Losing Flowers For All Occasions’, an experimental film on climate change by Meetra Javed
Read More‘Silver is the metal of emotions— regulating our inner tides and enhancing the depth of our feelings.’ - Moroccan-Iranian Artist Camelia Chorsi introduces us to N9CRA and the deep ancestral traditions that surround metal work and adornment.
Read MoreDigital Editor Dalia Al-Dujaili sits down with the Bengali artist in her East London studio to chart her background in the NHS, using art as a form of PTSD remedy, and exploring how her neurodivergency has become her own superpower within her craft.
Read MoreRia Kakkad explains how it makes her feel to see South Asian women at the helm of the much beloved yet controversial British period drama. With nods to her own heritage, Ria explores the ways in which Shonda Rhimes achieves careful and considerate representation.
Read MoreMoroccan-Swedish Choreographer and Visual Artist Mona Namér takes us on a journey of metamorphosis, rebirth and escapism with her new short film, A Bath In My Mothers Womb. We talk to Mona about her inspirations and the experiences of making the film, unearthing her own traumas surrounding identity, mental health and healing.
Read MoreWith her “geek hat on”, the hilarious standup comedian and founder of Weapons of Mass Hilarity, took to an experiment whereby she tried to see if she’d have more luck reaching out to gig promoters with an English name.
Read MoreLondon-based Iraqi Photographer Reem N. Amin explores themes of the ancient Mesopotamian netherworld in a project inspired by Queen Puabi.
Read MoreIn this piece, Rojbîn explores the links between political resistance and the preservation of the Kurdish language whilst also reflecting on both the joys and troubles of learning to nurture and safeguard her Kurdish identity.
Read MoreNew York-based Photographer Ramshah Kanwal revisits her birth place, Pakistan, after 17 years. Sharing special moments with the women in her family, Ramshah discovers the generational gifts passed down to her. Here, she documents just some of those generational gifts.
Read MoreThrough styling evoking futurism and nods to heritage, Radhika Muthanna reminisces on childhood memories of Holi, explaining the history of the festival and the different Hindu traditions surrounding the spring-time celebration which take place in India.
Read MoreMaya Campbell visits first-time curator Destinie Paige at the launch of her new exhibition, Black Bxy Joy, which exercises a second-look at the Black experience and asks us to soak in the joy and tenderness of everyday Black life.
Read MoreDocumentary filmmaker Sonita Gale talks us through her reasons behind making her recent BAFTA-shortlisted film ‘Hostile’ and how her family’s migration from India to working-class white neighbourhoods in the North of England has inspired her wider creative and political work.
Read MoreIn this special long read, AZEEMA meets Reem and Sereen, two creatives who are changing the way Palestine is perceived through its art, fashion and culture. They share their experiences of living under Israeli occupation, how Western hegemony has seeped into their work, and how they began to root their work back into Palestinian heritage.
Read MoreNaina Humayoon shares an introspective account of her parents’ sacrifices and successes as immigrants, and how she is reimagining the desire to ‘hustle’ hard through her own life, questioning how she values herself against the measures of a capital-driven Western environment.
Read MoreSahar Esfandiari meets Sheyda, an inspiring Iranian small-business owner who took the tea rituals of her Persian heritage and grew it into a beautifully authentic brand, focusing on family, home, and exploring notions of displacement, whilst scrutinising the Western imperial tea industry.
Read More“Let’s start this with an apology to my mother.” In this tender exploration of the transition between girlhood and womanhood, Cairo-born photographer Alia Dessouki dictates the uniquely feminine evolution from the subject of innocence to the subject of the sexualised gaze through her childhood underwear.
Read MoreRavista talks us through her project Broken Englizh and how it started off as a personal enquiry into what it meant to ‘decolonise’ in one’s own life, which then grew into a collection of 26 first-person narratives.
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