Naomi Joshi sits with US-based Punjabi artists Shivy Galtere and Tori Mumtaz exploring themes of motherhood, grief and love through their collaborative photo project titled ‘Mother’.
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Following her debut Coachella performance that drew global attention, Palestinian-Chilean artist Elyanna sat down with Deputy Editor Sunayah Arshad, reflecting on the life-changing decision her parents made in moving from Nazareth, Palestine to LA. Having overcome the challenge of singing Arabic in America, the talented artist is on the cusp of taking her cultural sounds to the global stage and isn’t going to stop until she gets there.
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Zumrad Mirzalieva’s project photographing the Sartaroshxona’s of Uzbekistan aims to challenge the existing gender dichotomy by exploring whether the cultural dynamics in Sartaroshxona's are similar to those in female-only beauty parlours.
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Following her group exhibition in Dubai, the Lebanese artist tells Digital Editor Dalia Al-Dujaili how she utilises the comic book style to relay political messages and how resettling in America has given her a different approach to her usual work.
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To celebrate the Converse x Liverpool F.C. partnership, AZEEMA spent a day with HerGameToo director and ambassador, Roopa Vyas, in Liverpool to learn about how the beautiful game informs her evergreen creativity and vibrant career prospects, as well as her affinities with the city’s football ancestry as a lifelong fan.
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The Palestinian-Irish actress tells AZEEMA about her new BBC documentary "The Holy Land and Us," and how founding the Arab Film Club has allowed her to challenge Arab stereotypes on screen.
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Palestinian artist manager Christina Hazboun and musician Haya Zaatry share personal recollections and pensive reflections on touring Haya's debut album "Rahawan" in Palestine during a year full of colonial violence in an effort to tell the stories of music, women and borderless geographies.
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The Algerian-French vocalist tells AZEEMA how trips to the motherland informed the way she makes music, whilst her French upbringing provides her with enough genre-contrast to conclude in a rich and effervescent musical identity which she continues to evolve today.
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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.
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Sara Hussain sits down with actress Alina Khan, the protagonist in Joyland – a tale of hardship and heartbreak which, despite receiving a ten minute ovation at Cannes Film Festival, was partly banned in Pakistan. Alina opens up about the struggles of the Pakistani trans community, the barriers she’s faced with acting and what this film truly means to her.
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Writer Maya Campbell sits down for a conversation with artist Lakwena Maciver, whose work has been shown at the Tate, Somerset House and the Southbank Centre and more. She tells AZEEMA about her new show, ‘A green and pleasant land (HA-HA)’, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
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The German rapper sat with AZEEMA’s Larena Amin in Berlin, the pair naturally got to breaking down Kurdish European-ism, being your own artist, and generational learnings.
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From resistance to ruptured identities, we speak to Dina Amer on her debut film ‘You Resemble Me’; a beautiful, tragic and cathartic re-telling of a true story about Hasnaa Aït Boulahcen, the French-Moroccan woman who was implicated in the Paris Attacks of 2015.
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With the help of photographer Jasmine Engel-Malone, Ceren Yilmaz Dogan reminisces on a Turkish childhood spent both in awe of Oryantal belly dancing and told to be ashamed of it. Taking inspiration from the aesthetics of these traditional belly dancers, the creative team paired up to reassert the power and beauty of a dance which has been historically mocked, sidelined and exoticised.
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Writer Rand Al-Hadethi digs into Lara Chahine’s latest mixed-media project scrutinising women’s body politics within her home country, Lebanon, and the wider SWANA region, through personal archival imagery and street photography.
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We sat down with South Korean filmmaker Sung-A Yoon to learn more about her recent film Overseas which documents the plight, will and toil of Filipino female migrant workers, often working throughout the Arab region, as writer Thea Sun explores the filmmakers wider body of work.
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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.
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Following the first edition of Oasis: Into the Wild, a two-day festival set against the tranquil backdrop of Dakhla, Editors Sunayah Arshad and Evar Hussayni caught up with its founder Marjana Jaidi. Touching on Marjana’s passion for festivals and the birth of her baby, Oasis, they took a step away from the festival madness to appreciate everything she’s built so far.
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Living a life straddling many worlds and resisting multiple expectations, Anoushka Shankar tells AZEEMA how she has led a musical life pushing against exoticisation and how she remains committed the global fight against gendered violence.
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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.
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