TONIGHT: dance with me for a good cause

A fundraiser for Gaza & Sudan + the best reccs from June

Hi friends,

June is my birthday month and I won’t stop banging on about it. I spent the week of in Ibiza with some friends, and I had the bestest time. As I shared in my caption on Instagram, never have I ever felt quite as conscious of what a blessing it is to be alive, and to be safe and healthy, with the ability and willingness to relate and self-actualise. The little me would be in AWE and disbelief of the woman I have become; that I am becoming, and that is my life’s biggest achievement, alhamdullilah.

I’m stretching out my birthday celebrations to join forces with my friend Ra’ed whose birthday is next week. He’s the co-founder of NGO Road to Freedom, who I’ve been working with so closely over these last months. We decided to use the opportunity to bring community together, and raise some funds for the work we have been doing to support our brothers and sisters in Palestine and Sudan.

We've got some incredible DJs donating their time, skills and vibes for a night of hip hop & rnb, mixed in with some Arabic sounds, and it feels like the most perfect of mashups. I’m a big believer that movement is medicine and joy is revolutionary, and I’m so I’m looking forward to getting to be in community.

If you’re in London, I hope that you can make it after the protest. Bring your pals, bring your keffiyeh’s, bring your energy for HURIYAH, with LOVE” (“Huriyah” translation in Arabic for “Freedom”) 

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June also saw Basma and I profiled for Okay Africa by Amuna Wagner, where we spoke about the launch of Zola, our new production company and community.

There are some super cute moments captured, including this, which Basma sent me the morning the article dropped, and which really sums up our vibe. It’s a good reminder of something which, between a holiday with my friends, to work and life with B, I’ve been blessed to experience a lot of over this past month: the life-changing, soul-strengthening impact of having good people around you.

“The synergy the two friends and business partners found with each other clearly resonates throughout our conversation. They make space for each other to speak, then interject and playfully dispute each other’s narratives, all the while sharing compliments and genuine appreciation for the other.

“Alya [Mooro] is all about self-actualization and self-growth, she is great with words and has a great mind,” says Khalifa. “I’m more on the business side. We’re different and don't have a lot of crossover business wise because there are elements we both look after very well,” she adds.

Since their first trip to Cairo, they have worked on multiple projects and built a far-reaching, long-term vision for Zola Studios. “When you’re aligned, it opens doors,” says Mooro. “The amount of opportunities that have come our way, Alhamdulilah. I’ve learned so much from working with Basma [Khalifa]. She really helped me to advocate for myself. Even just being in her presence makes me feel like I’ll also have my own back. When I have a little freakout, she reminds me to take a second and just breathe.” In turn, Khalifa learned from Mooro to be a more disciplined dreamer.

I also got to gush about one of my favourite books of the year, Daughters of the Nile, by Zahra Barri. For Harpers Bazaar Arabia, we spoke about why and how her book is a love letter to Egypt, how writing it has changed her, and more. Read the article here.

Paid subscribers also got some great insights from Zahra that didn’t make it into the piece, as well as some book picks from her; what she read in the process of researching for and writing her novel. I’ve added many of them to my own reading list!

Following the lives of three generations of women from the Bin-Khalid family, starting in Cairo in the 1940s and spanning Saudi Arabia, Iran and almost present-day London, Daughters of the Nile touches on themes of feminism, female friendship, shame, identity, and beyond in a powerful reclamation. Order it here.

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Now, onto the reccs!

In this instalment: the sexual awakening of a Muslim woman, young Jews who are sick of being lied to about Israel, the first TV adaptation that’s better than the book, and more…