Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 7
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan In Color

7500 miles from our native 

Ann Arbor campus lies the 
Pakistani city of Karachi, a 
metropolis renowned for its 
linguistic, ethnic and reli-
gious diversity. Just 750 miles 
from Karachi exists Lahore, 
the next largest Pakistani city 
notable for its social liberal-
ism, high level of educational 
quality and literary works. 
Despite these positive quali-
ties, for years, sexual assault 
has not recieved the enforce-
ment nor the attention it 
requires in these Pakistani 
cities –– until now. 

On Friday, Sept. 4, a 5-year-

old girl named Marwah was 
kidnapped from a local shop, 
sexually assaulted, hit on the 
head and then set alight, ulti-
mately left in a heap of gar-
bage found two days later. In 
a similarly unfortunate inci-
dent, this past Wednesday, 
Sept. 9, a woman, roughly in 
her 30s, was dragged from her 
vehicle which was stopped on 
the highway, held at gunpoint, 
attacked, robbed and sexually 
assaulted multiple times in 
front of her two young chil-
dren. The two separate inci-
dents have sparked immense 
protesting across Pakistan, 
focusing attention on the con-
spicuous, toxic rape culture 
and years of government inac-
tion.

In the wake of these recent 

sexual assaults, the Lahore 
police chief, Muhammad Umar 
Sheikh, added fuel to the fire 
across the greater community 
––asking why the woman had 
not checked whether she had 
enough gas before embarking 
on her journey and why she 
had been traveling so late at 
night without an adult male 
accompanying 
her. 
While 

already enraged, Pakistanis 
now rage, utilizing Sheikh’s 
words as an example of what 
is widely considered charac-

teristic of Pakistani officials’ 
negligence 
toward 
sexual 

assault and a deeply embedded 
masculinity within Pakistani 
culture.

The protests in Pakistan 

along with the allegations lev-
eled by the Twitter account 
“Assaulters at UMich” this 
past 
summer 
prompt 
the 

question –– what is the link 
between masculinity and rape 
culture across two seeming-
ly unconnected parts of the 
globe?

Rape culture is perpetuated 

immensely by gender norms 
which men and women con-
tinue to validate, from objecti-
fying women to viewing them 
as sexual objects, all justified 
through phrases like “boys 
will be boys” in both munici-
pal areas.

However, 
more 
subtle 

microaggressions, like victim-
blaming such as in the recent 
cases in Pakistan, are at most 
to blame for minimizing the 
real impacts of sexual assault. 
Devalidating the survivor’s 
story in spite of overwhelming 
evidence instead of condemn-
ing the actions of the perpetra-
tor has become commonplace. 
This must be reversed in order 
to begin addressing the notion 
of justice for survivors. 

While it is very important 

to acknowledge and address 
sexual assault against male 
survivors, the onus is primar-
ily on men, who most directly 
wield the benefits of the patri-
archy and thus have most 
contributed to rape culture, 
to confront their own values, 
beliefs and behaviors, and 
address those of other men, 
particularly when it comes to 
sexual attitudes. University 
policies must focus on edu-
cating men as the primary 
method to reducing trends 
of sexual assault on campus-
es. When we analyze events 
internationally, we must be 
willing to use the same lens 
to understand, acknowledge 
and rectify similar patterns 

The Arab diaspora is one of 

the most widespread diaspo-
ras in the world — there are 
20 million Arab immigrants 
living in nearly every corner 
of the globe. With such a large 
immigrant population, the Mid-
dle East/North Africa region 
has proportionally more citi-
zens in its diaspora than most 
regions. Regardless of the dis-
tance between people of Arab 
descent, they face a common 
struggle: the struggle to retain 
their cultural identity and pre-
serve their heritage while living 
among non-Arabs. 

This struggle is especially 

prevalent in the lives of Aus-
tralian siblings Rahma (17) and 
Adam (20) Elatrebi Soliman and 
their close friend who is practi-
cally family, Aisha Sellami (19). 
This Australian trio has cre-
ated the clothing brand, Soliela, 
which serves to unite all mem-
bers of the Arab diaspora and 
preserve the culture so many 
struggle to keep alive. Rahma 
and Adam are both of Egyptian 
descent and Aisha is of both 
Egyptian and Algerian descent. 
As the children of Arab immi-
grants living in a Western coun-
try, Rahma, Adam and Aisha 
have experienced the identity 
struggle many in the Arab dias-
pora face first hand.

I recently sat down (virtu-

ally) with creatives Aisha and 
Rahma to discuss the origins of 
their innovative clothing brand, 
their 
accomplishments 
with 

Soliela thus far and future goals 
they have for the brand. Here’s 
what they had to say about 
Soliela:

The Unconventional Start 

to Soliela

Aisha, Adam and Rahma 

have been interested in fashion 
and, more broadly, art for their 
entire lives. Rahma recalls her 
and Aisha growing up constant-
ly going to op shops (the Austra-
lian equivalent of thrift stores) 
where they were inspired by 
the generations of designs that 
existed in one setting. Through 
the op shops, Rahma says they 
were exposed to so much fash-
ion, and they began to appre-
ciate everyone’s unique style. 
Rahma expands on this saying, 
“Going to these op shops every-

day of my life, you get exposed 
to so much, and you’re able to 
appreciate what a grandma’s 
wearing and also what a home-
less person is wearing.” The 
non-mainstream 
styles 
that 

inspired Rahma and Aisha in 
their childhood are reflected 
in the uniqueness and objective 
beauty of their clothing designs.

In addition to their expo-

sure to art since youth, Rahma 
and Adam had wanted to make 
a brand for ages. In particular, 
through their visits to Egypt, 
they became obsessed with 
Egyptian fashion and the high-
ly regarded Egyptian cotton. 
Notably, Rahma and Adam were 
shocked to find that there was 
barely any Egyptian cotton in 
Egypt. This ironic scarcity of 
Egyptian cotton lingered in the 
back of their minds and would 
soon reappear with the creation 
of their brand as they focused 
mainly on using Egyptian cot-
ton for their pieces.

As for the actual creation of 

the brand, it was sparked by 
an unexpected event in which 
Rahma and Adam had to com-
bine their creative forces in 
order to sustain themselves 
while their mother was visiting 
Egypt. The story goes as such: 
Around four years ago Rahma 
and Adam’s mother went on a 
trip to Egypt and left them with 
enough money for the duration 
of her stay. When their mother’s 
trip was unfortunately extend-
ed due to the death of a family 
member in Egypt, Rahma and 
Adam ran out of money but did 
not want to stress their mother 
out anymore than she already 
was. Instead, they innovatively 
designed a T-shirt with the 
name “Soliela” on it (which pre-
viously was Adam’s instagram 
handle) and sold it to people in 
their school. This idea was a 
great hit as they profted around 
$2,000 from pre-orders alone. 
Due to the shocking success of 
their shirts, Rahma and Adam 
decided to turn their idea to 
an actual business, and thus, 
Soliela was born.

The Theme of Duality
As mentioned before, Soliela 

served to represent the dual 
essence of being of Arab descent 
and living in a non-Arab coun-
try. This representation is pri-
marily present in the derivation 
of the brand name. The first 
part of the brand name, “Soli,” 

is derived from the English 
spelling of Rahma and Adam’s 
last name, Soliman. The second 
half of the name “ela” is derived 
from the Egyptian street slang 
for the word boy, “يلا” (pro-
nounced, yela). The second half 
of the name also doubles as a 
reference to the other part of 
Rahma and Adam’s last name, 
Elatrebi. With these English 
and Arabic elements combined, 
the name of this brand is a per-
fect reflection of the purpose of 
Soliela as well as who the brand 
primarily caters to: Arabs living 

outside of the Middle East and 
North Africa.

The above photo is a design 

made by Aisha that references 
the duality of the brand name 
and 
purpose. 
This 
graphic 

includes different ways the 
brand can be written — fully 
in English as shown at the top, 
fully in Arabic as shown at the 
bottom of the graphic and a mix 
of the two as shown in the mid-
dle. The middle format is the 
main logo used for the brand.

Intended Audience
While it is clear that the main 

audience of the brand is mem-
bers of the Arab diaspora, Aisha 
explains that it is not exclu-
sively a brand for people of Arab 
descent. She expands on their 
audience with two categories: 
a primary audience and a sec-
ondary audience. The primary 
audience of their brand is Arabs 
— they are the people who the 
brand is for and about. Aisha 
says the ideal person wearing 
the brand is “that Arab kid liv-
ing in France who eats couscous 
at home and wears those coats 
and, I don’t know, steals cars at 
night and is stuck in between 
and is stuck growing up and 
that is who we want wearing 
the clothes. For that comfort on 
their journey.” Additionally, the 
secondary audience would be 
non-Arab people who enjoy the 
designs of the brand. For the 
secondary audience, the brand 
would become a way to change 
the narrative that Arabs are 
lucky to be in a Western coun-
try and that their home coun-
tries are rubbish. They want to 
change that narrative and dis-
play the beauty of the culture.

The Intersection of Fash-

ion and Politics

Similar to the unification 

of the Arab diaspora and the 
dual essence of the brand, 
Soliela 
frequently 
embodies 

the intersection of politics and 
fashion. They have released 
various pieces dedicated to cer-
tain political issues, figures and 
causes. 

Most 
recently, 
Soliela 

dropped a winter scarf with 
the traditional Palestinian kef-
fiyeh pattern. All proceeds 
from this scarf were donated 
to the Olive Kids foundation. 
On an Instagram post about 
this piece, Soliela wrote, “Due 
to what has been going on in 
Palestine for the past 72 years 
and the Annexation of Pales-
tine that will be taking place 
on the 1st of July 2020, we have 
decided to drop a winter scarf, 
with the Keffiyeh pattern. This 
traditional pattern worn by 

Palestinian farmers became a 
symbol of the Palestinian resis-
tance movement. 100% of the 
proceeds will be donated to @
olivekids, an Australian reg-
istered foundation that seeks 
to facilitate financial support, 
educational and medical assis-
tance to Palestinian children.” 
The scarf was a major success 
for Soliela, as it sold out in less 
than an hour with customers 
from all over the world. Below 

is a photo from their campaign 
for the Keffiyeh designed scarf:

In addition to using fashion to 

assist Arab countries suffering 
at the hands of Western forces, 
such as in the case of Palestine, 
Soliela also creates clothing to 
help alleviate issues between 
Arab countries. Most recently, 
Soliela released a graphic on 
their Instagram that depicts 
an animated soccer ball in the 
northern region of Africa. This 
graphic resembles the love of 
soccer throughout the Middle 
East and North Africa which is 
one thing that unites the North 
African countries Algeria and 
Egypt. Soliela creative Aisha 
intentionally incorporated soc-
cer into this design to reflect 
and encourage the unification 
of MENA countries. She con-
demns division and conflict 
between any Arab countries 
and chooses to embrace the 
similarities of the Arab world. 

The graphic for this cause is 
shown below:

The Future of Soliela
With all Rahma, Adam and 

Aisha have accomplished so far 
with their brand, they are still 
only in the early stages. Rahma 
hopes that after she graduates 
high school she will have more 
time and can put more effort 
into the brand, which will allow 
them to start releasing more 
consistent, larger clothing lines. 
In addition, Soliela creators 
hope to expand their brand 
beyond clothing and explore the 
world of design further.

Aside from the above men-

tioned goals, they have no spe-
cific vision for the future other 
than to have the brand be a con-
stant reflection of their ideas 
and creative growth. Rahma, 
Adam and Aisha hope that along 
the way, the reinforcement of 
Arab culture through Soliela 
will normalize Arabs loving 
their culture and reverse the 
stereotypes and misrepresenta-
tions that have been enforced 
throughout the Western world. 
Ultimately, in the words of 
Adam, they hope “Soliela will 
trigger the next Islamic Golden 
Age,” one in which Arab culture 

 Soliela: fashion as a revolution 

 NOOR MOUGHNI

MiC Columnist

Photo Courtesy of @Soliela, Instagram

Photo Courtesy of @Soliela, Instagram

Photo Courtesy of @Soliela, Instagram

Pictured above is a shot from a recent Soliela campaign in which two friends of 
Soliela creators react to getting hit by a slipper, or shibshib in Egyptian dialect. 

Photo Courtesy of @soliela on instagram

 AAKASH RAY

MiC Columnist

The global 

interconnectivity 
of the patriarchy

Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault.

YOUR WEEKLY

ARIES

Look after your emotional needs 
with some self-indulgence. Your 
favorite treats will help mitigate 
the visceral onslaught of the Aries 
Full Moon, which might otherwise 

find you struggling to 
comprehend your place 
in the world.

AQUARIUS

GEMENI

Socially, there could be 
disappointments this week, and 
you may feel particularly angry 
with a friend. With Venus arriving 
in your family zone, it’s a good 

idea to back away from 
social events for a few 
days to regain your 
bearings at home.
 

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

SCORPIO

CANCER

A crisis at work puts you on the 
spot, but you’ll feel surprisingly 
confident in the limelight once 
you’re forced into it. Venus gives 
you extra charm and persuasive 

power, so you should 
find it relatively easy to 
lead from the front.

TAURUS

Venus’ arrival in your dating zone 
is fantastic news if you’re looking 
for love. However, the Full Moon 
warns against pretending to be 
something you’re not. Go for 

honesty and frankness. 
Be yourself, because you 
have so much to offer.

VIRGO

PISCES

LIBRA
LEO

Venus arrives in your money zone, 
which can lead to extravagant 
spending, especially since you’re 
fond of a touch of luxury at all 
times. Be careful with your 

budget, though, because 
going into debt now 
could be painful later.

Read your weekly horoscopes from astrology.tv

Venus’ arrival in Virgo boosts your 
confidence no end and puts you in 
a great position for dating, job 
interviews, or any situation where 
you need to shine. It’s an intensely 

emotional Full Moon for 

some, but keep looking 
on the positive side.

The Full Moon shines from your 
love zone, so there could be a 
drama in your closest relationship. 
Relinquish the need to win; 
instead, try to remember that 

you’re both on the same 

side. Venus encourages 
you to spend plenty of 
time alone together.

Friendships are in the spotlight as 
Venus changes signs, and you can 
expect to find a great deal in 
common with new people this 
week. However, the Full Moon 

energies eat into your free 

time, so be prepared to be 

patient and flexible.

Venus moves into your career 
zone this week, helping you get 
ahead with the consent and 
approval of others. The Full Moon 
shines from your risk zone, 

however, so you’ll need 

to curb your impulsive 

edge a little. Step 
back from the brink

If you’re looking for love, look 
widely – there are hints of a 
foreign connection here with 
Venus moving into your travel 
zone. Meanwhile, the Full Moon 

illuminates a difficult 

family situation – 

where there’s a will to 
resolve it, there’s a 
way.

Venus fires up your passion zone 
now, but that means jealousy is 
also a factor. Try to give your 
sweetheart the same level of 
freedom you demand from them. 

There are issues of trust 

here, but better 
communication, aided 
by Venus, will help.

Venus arrives in your love zone, 
bringing sweet romance, gentle 
togetherness and a lot of 
companionship. The Full Moon is 
all about whether or not you have 
lived up to your values, but it 

seems that you have – 
so get set for a week of 
bliss.

