SWANA speaks

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#11: 'I am stateless, and I carry that with me wherever I go'
 • Parisa Hashempour
#3: "There's no such thing as cool music. What makes music cool is your connection to it"
 • Parisa Hashempour
#4: 'I'd always railed against the idea of tradition. But maybe tradition is the thing that holds you while you question it'
 • Parisa Hashempour
#5: 'A unique trauma accompanies being Armenian because the genocide is still denied by most of the world'
 • Parisa Hashempour
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#13: 'As Afghan women, we begin to fight within our family, then our workplace, then society'
Fereshta Abbasi on growing up with refugee status in Iran, how Kabul taught her to fight for her rights, and the indomitable women protesting the…
 • 
Parisa Hashempour
#12: 'White feminism created the myth that Muslim men are inherently more violent'
Shahed Ezaydi on the Muslim alt-right, white feminism and her upcoming book The Othered Woman
 • 
Parisa Hashempour
#11: 'I am stateless, and I carry that with me wherever I go'
Mona Kareem on writing oneself into existence, the problem with individualistic activism, and taking a proletariat approach to creating poetry.
 • 
Parisa Hashempour
#10: "Islam doesn’t speak, they speak for Islam."
Dr Ziba Mir-Hosseini on becoming an Islamic feminist, Iran's protest movement and a divorce that led to a rich anthropological career
 • 
Parisa Hashempour
#9: “What is grief if not love persevering?”
Film critic and author, Hanna Flint, on mixedness, movies as a healing balm, and why white men are the real tokens
 • 
Parisa Hashempour
#8: 'It's not okay to break into someone's home, kill them and take that house. Why do I have to explain that?'
Deana Hassanein on dealing with 'stupid men' online, what she learned from reaching burn out, and the songs you should add to your Spotify playlist
 • 
Parisa Hashempour
Some changes around here (and a big thank you, reader!)
A new schedule and additional posts
 • 
Parisa Hashempour
#7: 'I look for examples of queerness in Iran's 19th century Qajar dynasty'
Kasra Jalilipour on searching for queerness in Iran's Qajar dynasty, Christian sainthood, and what it means to be Iranian enough.
 • 
Parisa Hashempour
#6: How to help with earthquake relief efforts
A message of solidarity, resources, and a call to keep momentum going
 • 
Parisa Hashempour
SWANA speaks
SWANA speaks
South West Asian and North African diasporic thinkers, writers, movers and creators on what shapes their identity, influences, and ideas. SWANA speaks is a collation of conversations on life, work and identity, plus topical personal and guest essays.
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