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.