Literacy, Legacy & the Power of Storytelling with Deema Al Alami

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Marhawa and welcome back to Siddhi Stories, where we amplify the voices and celebrate the achievements of Palestinian women. I'm your host, Leila, and today I have the absolute pleasure of sitting down with someone whose work has been a beacon of light in the world of literacy, education, and advocacy, Dima Daalami. Dima, welcome to Siddi Stories. I'm so honored to have you here. How are you today? Thank you so much for having me. Alhamdulillah.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

I'm very good. And I'm so excited to do this.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

So we always love starting the episode off with a city-inspired question. And since you are a lover of books, I thought this question would be fitting for you. Is there a poem, a book, or even an A of the Quran that reminds you of one of your cities?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Honestly, it's every single story in the book, 48 Stories of Exile from Palestine, you know? And the funny thing is, this is a book I produced, but I actually did not include my grandparents' story, which is crazy, you know, or my teta's story, because although she was forcefully exiled from Palestine, and the whole book is about exiled stories, um, but I saw my Teta in every single story uh that was included, the four to eight of them. And maybe that's why I did not include her story. I don't know. You know, everyone asks me, like whenever people interview me, interview me about the book, they're like, Did you include your grandparents' story? And I'm like, no. And I actually don't have a good answer. Like, why? I I don't even know why. But I feel like I just wanted to create space for other people to share their stories, but I don't feel too bad about it because I literally saw Teta in every single story that was shared. And I think that's that's the only answer I have for you, Sarah.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Yeah, I think that's so special. I think even though the stories of exile exiling is so harsh and just such a traumatic thing that everyone went through, it was really a universal emotion and feeling and connection and story to Palestinians, and now we've seen across the Arab world. So you couldn't expect each person's family members to have a similar story. I'm glad to be able to give you a space for you to be able to share your Siddhi stories, inshallah, later on in the podcast as well. I would love for everyone to kind of get to know you a little bit better. Um, aside from you know the work that you do. We're gonna get into that in in a little bit, but for who you are as a person and what your background is, if you can share a little bit about who you are.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

So I'm uh half Iraqi, my mom is pure Iraqi, Kurdish Iraqi, and my father is of Palestinian origins, he's Palestinian, but I grew up in Jordan. Um, I grew up there, I went to school there, then I did my bachelor's in Lebanon in education. So we have you and I are kind of in a similar field. And then I did my master's in the UK in London after, you know, a couple of years working as an English program teacher in Jordan. And then I fell in love and I moved to Dubai, and Dubai is now for the past uh 11 years. What I'm certain of is that I'm 100% Arab, you know. My mom is Iraqi, my dad's Palestinian, I grew up in Jordan, I'm very connected to Lebanon, you know. So, and now in the UAE. So I say I'm 100% uh Arab. And and that's something that I kind of struggle with. Like sometimes I don't feel I'm Palestinian enough, I don't feel I'm Iraqi enough, I don't feel I'm Jordanian enough. It's always like this crisis. So the easiest thing to say for me is I'm 100% Arab.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

I love that. I love that. And I think I think you're going to see a lot more of kind of now with this generation, a lot more of them being able to resonate with that statement. Actually, my husband, he he's pal his mom is Palestinian and bestly grew up in Kuwait, and then his dad is Iraqi, and then also then lived in Kuwait. My husband moved to Chicago as a kid. The Chicago community is a very heavily Palestinian community, and so the fact that his dad wasn't Palestinian, he kind of felt third. He felt even within an Arab community, he felt like not Palestinian enough for that community. So it's so interesting to see that. I love that though, how you're 100% Arab. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Yeah, that's just the easy way, easiest way to say it. And I I make sure that if, especially in a place like Dubai where it's very multinational in work settings, when I present myself, I'm like, I'm 100% Arab. Just to make it clear for everyone here. And yeah, it's for me, it's empowering when you say that, you know. I'm just comfortable in being Arab and I'm proud of it. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

That's fantastic. And your heritage is a beautiful blend of Iraqi and Palestinian roots. Both cultures are so deeply rooted in storytelling, whether through oral history and poetry and literature. How have both cultures influenced your storytelling and perspective on literature?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

So my Bibi, Bibi is what you call a teta in the Iraqi dialect. So I grew up with my BB. Bibi lived with us all all her life, Alaira Hama. And she and my mom were always like so well read. They always had books with them. There was there she was always reading, especially my Bibi, like a novel. And my dad was always reading a newspaper. But I feel like a turning point, I grew up loving children's books. Like I remember, you know, I still remember like author visits since I was like in grade one or something. That's so cute. I remember them and like I I knew I always knew I was gonna do something with children's books. But I feel like a turning point for me was after the war on Iraq, uh 2003, I believe, and then this genocide, I came to this realization that from both cultures and both sides of my identity, my ethnic identity, mainstream media always unfortunately truly, truly turning turn us into numbers. So I remember my mom's relatives flying in from Baghdad, and I remember their personal stories of pain, of torture, of imprisonment, and advocacy was so embedded in my mom's side of the family. My grandfather was assassinated by the Saddam regime. So they were real people with real stories, you know. They would they would come and as a child, you know, like obviously they never sat me down to hear these horrific things, but I'd be passing by the living room or the kitchen, and I would hear them talking about these stories. My mom, my grandfather was assassinated two months after she got married. Um, you know, and my grandma loved him. He was a famous Iraqi uh artist and doctor and advocate, and people would always talk about him. But then war on Iraq happened in 2003, the invasion, and all I could see in the news were like the Iraqi children were affected by the white phosphorus pit. We were all of a sudden turned into numbers. And and I remember I was at university, it was such a confusing thing for me to hear these real stories of pain and torture and imprisonment, whether it's from the Saddam regime or the colonizing invasion by the US, you know, in guised in like, oh, we're coming to free you. And then this genocide on Gaza, the same thing was happening. You know, okay, 10,000 orphan children, I don't know how many amputees, 30,000 people's homes were destroyed. It killed me. It's like, wait, from both sides, my ancestors, my relatives, my extended family, they're real people with real stories, with real love stories, with real professions and hobbies and passions. Like, why are you kind of literally do dehumanizing them into numbers? And this is where kind of the power of storytelling in my case came in. And the first book I ever published was called Min Balad Usmo Falastin from a country called Palestine. I co-authored it with uh my colleague Muna Abudeye, and uh this idea came to me when in uh in the war on Gaza 2021, I believe, okay, and I was feeling so frustrated, obviously, so angry. I now have two boys, and I for my boys what I wish for them. I want them to fall in love with Palestine first. I want them to fall in love with the beauty of Palestine, with the food, with the culture, with the people, with the dress, with everything. Because I truly believe if we fall in love with something, we can advocate for it and we can protect it and we can fight for it maybe in a different way that might yield better results. So this is how kind of storytelling and like who am I from both ends, you know, uh came to be.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that. I think we can get a better picture on who you are. So was there a particular moment from when you went to educator to author? How did kind of that shift happen?

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yeah, so I think I'll give 100% credit to like postpartum depression. So I had I had my son uh Hazat in like 2017, and I'm a vet I'm a doer, to be honest. Like, I love working, I love to do lists. This is how I kind of feel alive. And then all of a sudden I gave birth and I'm like, huh, maternity leave. And I have this little thing who I obviously ordered but I remember like three months into it, I was so depressed. I was crying all the time. I was so lost. I'm like, what did I do to myself? What did I do to my life? Like, all I do now is like write how much milk formula he's drinking, how many diapers I changed, and I'm like, what is this? Like, my brain is gonna explode. And I remember, and I always say this: I was watching Game of Thrones with my husband, season three, and he's like, like, there must be something that's making you happy. We have this beautiful blessing, and his experience is different.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Totally different. They don't have the hormones that you know, they don't have their whole world rocked like how we have. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

And he's like, Yanni, there must be something that you're enjoying with Hazar. So I'm like, it's the only thing is actually when I read with him. So he's like, I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna do something with it. So we were watching the episode. I went online, I went to stock images, pile of books, put it as a profile picture on Instagram, called my account all the books that you'll read, because I I I used to love all the places you'll go by Dr. Seuss. And I started sharing the books that I read with Haza: Arabic books and English books and how to nurture readers from a very young age, especially for the Arab community. How can we kind of integrate and instill the love of reading from a very young age? And that's how it started. I did that for a couple of years, and I'm like, okay, I'm ready to write my own book. And actually, the first book I wanted to write was about body safety in Arabic, because it's a topic that not a lot of Arab families or the Arab culture you know speak about. Although we all know that sexual abuse happens across all cultures, all religions, all backgrounds, all finance, socioeconomic backgrounds. I started writing this book with again Munab Day, but then the war on Gaza 2021 happened, one of the wars, kind of pivoted, and I'm like, wait, wait, wait, we need to put that on hold. Let's write a book about Palestine. And this is where, and then I wrote a book about Palestine, and then we published it and the body safety book, and both alhamdulillah did really, really, really well. And then I was unable to balance between my full-time job, which was I used to work in an education company uh from nine to five, and doing all of this online became too much. So in 2022, I resigned from my full-time job, and I dedicated my life to my the work I do online.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah, that's incredible that you were able to turn a dark point in your life into something so bright and even passion project into a full-time career, mashallah. That's incredible. And honestly, I could totally relate with that statement of postpartum. And my mom friends and I talk about this all the time of like, who are we now? What do we like? You forget. You just go through the motions of diapers and bottles, and you're like, but wait, who am I as a person, not as a mom? And that's kind of literally how this podcast came about as well. I had my baby six months ago, my third baby six months ago.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

And you know, Leila, I I'm not surprised because I noticed so many women actually come up or take the step towards their passion project project after they give birth. Because they get to the point where they're like, oh my god, like what did I do to my life? I need something back. I need to control. And I see beautiful projects coming up from women and mothers who just either had a baby or something like that, and it's like the initiator to these amazing projects.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Once I became a mother, I became super empowered. Like, yes, I was so overwhelmed, but it really fueled me with something like a greater drive, a greater initiative. And I found with each kid I felt more and more empowered.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

100%.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

So I can totally relate with that.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

It's uh it's like you know that meme on Instagram where it's like remind me again why why did I say I was exhausted pre-kids? Seriously, what I was in college living my life, and I used to I remember like, oh, I'm so tired. Seriously, what was exhausting me? I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Yeah, I have no idea. I would kill for a day where I could sleep in. Sleeping in now is like seven o'clock. So I would love a day where it's like nine o'clock. That would refresh me for months. But I would love to talk about your amazing book, 48 Stories of Exile from Folstein. Can you please share with everyone the gist of what it's about?

SPEAKER_02 13:02

This book is so dear and near to my heart, Yanni. And and I don't know, I don't even know where to start with this book. But as with everyone else, during this horrific, horrific genocide, I was feeling absolutely devastated, crippled by emotion, uh depressed, uh disappointed, angry. I I froze. As I told you, I'm I'm a doer, but for like a month, I could not function. Yeah. Then I saw a video um by Salah Jafarawi, one of these amazing reporters in Gaza, reporting live. He's a young man. He happened to report from a hospital, and in the hospital, there was this really old lady called Hajj Hadia, who was born in 1946 or something in Tul Karim. She was she had a scar on her face, she was injured, her arm was wrapped in something, and there was a bombing next to her house. And he was talking to her, and oh my god, this Hajj, this Tata, full of energy, full of love, full of passion for her country, for her people. She had beautiful blue eyes. You know, like the sea, like stunning. She was wearing this Palestinian taupe, and I was just mesmerized, you know. I'm like, oh my god. And there was a beautiful interaction between her and Saleh and this other guy, and she couldn't really hear well. And like, although she's injured, she was there laughing with them, and they're like kind of flirting with her in a cute way, like her eyes are beautiful, you know, like hyping her up, yeah. You're beautiful, like it was so cute, it was so heartwarming. And then he asked her, What do you have with you? And she took two things with her when she evacuated her house. She took her ID and a picture of the stone oven that she's been baking on for the past 60, 70 years. Okay. Oh my god. Yeah. And then he holds the ID and he reads her ID. And he's like, What? Wait, you're born in 1946, even before this occupying state was formed. And then you're in Tulkarim. She's like, Yes, of course, I was born before them. And I will die on this land, and I'm here to stay, and no one's gonna and obviously goosebumps now. I'm gonna cry saying this. Yeah, I'm feeling the emotion. So I'm like, and I looked at her, I'm like, wait, wait, wait. When I'm sitting in Dubai in the comfort of my own home with all the privileges alhamdulillah in the world, I'm safe, my children are safe, my parents are safe, and I'm unable to do something. Yet this Theta, this Hajj, has all the energy and power and love and dedication for her land. I'm like, no, no, no, I cannot, I'm doing something. So that was the moment that I decided to do something. And then I was invited a couple of weeks later to this TV interview. Talk about the book, and I spoke about the book, and I actually said this story about Hajjihadia. And then if you ever go on TV interviews when there's an ad, you just sit and chat with the reporter while the ad is going on, and then you go back on air. So while we're off air, the reporter was like, But you know, you need to say Allah Yarhamma. And I'm like, What? Why? And she was like, You don't know. Apparently, she as an old woman, it's so hard to change people's behaviors at this age. So every day at 2 p.m., she would go outside her house and she would drink her tea. She had a small chair, she would put the stickant to shy, like a typical Palestinian, drink her tea. And she was doing that, despite the fact that there were there's a genocide. And unfortunately, an IOF soldier, sniper, you know, shot her in the head and killed her. And I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

How did you even carry on with the interview?

SPEAKER_02 16:30

That moment refueled my like de commitment to to make something out of this experience. And I decided actually to to dedicate the book, uh, 48 Stories of Exile from Palestine to Hajjah. She's in the book. Uh, a beautiful, very talented illustrator, Amaya Fidawi, Lebanese illustrator, illustrated her exactly as she came out on the video with Dr. with the Salah Jafarawi. I I reached out to my amazing Instagram community. Um, I need someone from her family. I need to get kind of consent to dedicate the book to her. And within seconds, someone connected me with her nephew who went and visited her right before the genocide, and he shared videos of her, and it made me realize that so many people who were born pre-Nekba, pre-1948, unfortunately, are either going and stayed in Palestine and also were forcefully exiled, are gonna pass very soon. And if we not hold on to their stories, if we don't document their stories, if we don't keep track of all of that, it's going to be unfortunately alay alhammid, it's gonna be buried with them, and no one will know.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Dima, I'm literally getting emotional hearing you talk because this story hits so close to home. That's literally exactly where this whole podcast came about, was because I lost both of my grandmothers in the span of two years, and I was always the grandchild that was always asking them questions, always wanting to hear about their life. I was so intentional about that. And I had the idea before one of them passed away. And I always was like, no, when I go back to New Jersey, I'm gonna record her, I'm gonna sit down and record her. And she passed away after this past September. But when she passed away, she was my last living grandparent. And so the realization of I will never hear those stories ever again. And there's so many other stories that have not been told really hit me. And I'm sure everyone else has those same experiences. And so I would really love to highlight that. And so when hearing you talk about the book, I'm like getting so emotional because it came from the same place, and it just goes to show you, like, as Palestinians and as like Arabs who have experienced like displacement and refugeeness, it's just it's a story that like hits every person's home. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Absolutely. And and honestly, oh, first thank you for sharing this, Allah. And I'm sure they're looking down, feeling so proud of what you're doing. And I have to say, I usually research heavily what podcast I go on, and you know, I was sold by the name of your podcast. Like you know, yeah, city stories. I'm like sold, you know, I didn't even research you. I didn't, you know. I think if there's one takeaway like for the listeners, it's no longer kind of an option, it's not a choice to sit with your grandparents or your parents and ask them about their their story, their exile story. It's it's it's our duty, it's the least we could do for them. And that's not only for Palestinians. Unfortunately, so many Arabs in the Levant specifically, we've experienced dictatorship, exile, occupation, colonization. Every single one of us has the responsibility of documenting these stories. And it doesn't mean you need to do a book, Belags. I'm not saying that, not at all. That's exhausting, that takes a lot of time, but have it somewhere, you know, like document it in your own like family notes, like just for your own family history.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Exactly. Because one day we will use this, and one day you are going to come to that crossroad where you might need to share these stories with your great-grandchildren. And a lot of the stories in 48 stories of exile from Palestine, the book, what's beautiful is some people shared the stories of their parents, others shared their the stories of their grandparents, and others shared their stories of their great-grandparents, and they're all connected to the land, and they're all written in the most not human, in the realest way possible. And and I think that's that's the most precious thing that we can kind of give back to our ancestors and grandparents and parents who did everything, everything in their power to keep us alive, to give us the best education, to, you know, and you know, so so yeah, I I feel like we just owe it to them.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Yes, totally. We are we are very aligned on this topic. But can you touch upon a little bit deeper? Like, what was the process of collecting these stories?

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Okay, so as I mentioned, I have an amazing Instagram community. So one of those days I just wrote a post and I'm like, tell me where your grandparents are from and how were they were exiled. Then so many people, it was like thousands or hundreds of people wrote their stories, and I'm like, you know what? People want to share. People want to say these things. So I decided to make it a bit more formal and I did this form where I asked people to share their names, write their exile story, and I just put it up as a story. Here's a link. I'm thinking of a project, I still don't know what it is, but if you have an exile story, please share it. And so many people shared their stories, and that's when I knew I'm like, oh my God, I'm gonna write a book about these exile stories. Because although, as we mentioned in the beginning, they're the same as in at the end they were exiled, but they're different people, you know? They're there's the affluent people, there's the people who were not that affluent maybe financially. There are the people who end up in freaking Brazil and others who end up in Lebanon and Syria. Like we are such, we're not the same people. We ha we share experiences, but we're so unique as individuals. Okay, halas. I'm gonna write the story. I got the form, I got all of these stories. Best then I'm like, oops. Some people wrote 200 words, other people were very factual. Other people were very poetic and emotional in their writing. Other people just like two lines. My dad was here, he was exiled from here. And that's where I brought in my co-producer Nahla. Oh, I need help because I need to filter these hundreds and hundreds of stories and select 48 of them that A reflect the complexity of the Palestinian narrative when it comes to religion. We have Christians, we have Muslims, and we also have Jews. You know, we lived together back then. We also want to reflect the socioeconomic backgrounds. A lot of people say, oh, a lot of the Palestinians were businessmen and traders, but a lot of them also faced hardships and they were like farmers. And farmers and you know. So that, and two, I wanted to cover kind of a geographical uh, you know, I, you know, composition of Palestine, you know, from main cities, from villages that have been completely erased, and so on. So this is what we did, and also showed the different generations, you know, because listening to someone who he was personally exiled, we have Dr. Rasim, who he was personally exiled, and he remembers. So he wrote his own story, you know. And then we have others who have been exiled way before or way later, sharing the different time frames, 48, 67, until today. There are stories of people who were exiled in in the 80s and 90s because it was no longer livable where they lived, you know. So this is how it started, and then I I again reached out to my amazing community, and unlike the book, Min Bela Dusma Philistine was a purely Palestinian-produced book. Everyone who worked on it was Palestinian. But what I love about 48 Stories of Exile from Palestine, we had over 80 people work on this project and over 16 ethnicities. We had the Irish, the American, the Saudi, the Kuwaiti, the Jordanian, the Palestinian, the Syrian, the Lebanese, Indians, Pakistani. And some of them came in as proofreaders, others as editors, as illustrators. There are 13 unique illustrations in the book, 48 Stories of Exile from Palestine, of every city, and every story starts in the same way. For example, this is the story of my grandfather, Ziddu Khalil. The story is there. At the bottom, it says it's signed off written by Dima, the great granddaughter of Ziddu Khalil, for example, you know, and that's how we brought them all together. And I always say every story is anywhere between 200 to maximum 800 words. So it's a coffee table uh book. You pick it up, you can read one story, and then just leave it behind, and then read after two months another story. It's very accessible, it's not kind of difficult or lengthy, lengthy.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah, I can't wait to get my hands on one of them. Um, I know I've been keeping up with you a little bit, and last time I saw that you said there was only like a certain amount left, like uh copies left. So I want to get one of those copies.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

So I want to tell your listeners this this book was a community project, and alhamdulillah, until now, I never work on a project for Palestine, a book, and I take any money or profit off of it. So the 48 Stories of Exile from Palestine is 100% a every person who worked on it worked pro bono, the illustrators, the editors, the graph designers. Because I want to work with people who align in my thinking. This is not for me. This is a book, inshallah, that will change perceptions and minds, and and it's like a gift for our ancestors, you know? And what I did with the books, we uh we printed 5,000 copies, and there were two people who want to remain anonymous. They they paid for the cost of printing. And I gifted the 5,000 copies to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund. So they own the book, okay? And the only thing that I told them is that A, you have to sell the book for $48 because I want to honor every family that share their story with $1. So $1 for every family. And at the same time, when you collect the $48 from the readers, the $48 have to go to support Palestinian, orphaned, and amputated children in Gaza. So so far, Palestinian Children's Relief Fund collected over approximately, I think, $190,000 from book sales. I think they have less than 900 copies left. So please buy the book from 48stories.com. When you buy the book, the $48 will go straight to PCRF. And whatever you pay for the shipping, which could be $20, just think of it as this is the price you're paying for the book. But the $48, they're going straight to PCRF to support orphaned and amputated children in Raza.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Yeah, mashallah, that's amazing. And I I'll be sure to put the link in the description. I just love that you were able to really just take an initiative and be that doer that takes action to make a long-lasting impact, mashallah. What impact do you hope that these narratives have on both Palestinian and non-Palestinian readers?

SPEAKER_02 26:34

To start with the Palestinian readers is I hope the stories give them hope. And I hope beyond the stories themselves, but actually this project, it reminds every single Palestinian that you can advocate, you can contribute, you can, whether it's in music, in dance, in cooking, in podcasts, in anything you're good at, do something center Palestine in anything you're doing because it will make a difference. So that's what I hope for Palestinians. For non-Palestinians, and I hope your listeners are primarily in the US. Yeah, it's mainly US and Canada. Amazing. So all of the US and Canada listeners, I'm relying on you as much as I am like honored and I'm grateful for every single Palestinian in the Arab region who bought this book. I usually write in Arabic. I never thought I'd write in English. English is not even my first language. This is the first time I write in English. It's a 30,000-word book. The whole point was I want to use this book as a way to, again, transform mindset and change perception and show them what the truth is. So I need people actually in the West, in Canada, in the US, to be willing to buy this book, to make that investment where, like, okay, $38 is for charity, $25 is, you know, for the cost of the shipping and so on. Just make that investment and then gift the book to your like neighbor, John or Amanda or Karen, or on Teachers Day, like gift the this book to your teachers. This is the only way they'll understand our view, our truth, our history, because they hear things. You know, I see all of this mainstream media in the US and what they say, but they need to hear from our voices.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

And that's the only thing I ask of your listeners is please buy the book. Again, I don't make money. You know, you get an invoice from PCRF. No one, not the authors, not the illustrators, not the proofreaders, no one got paid. This is a community project. But what I care about is for it to reach people in the US, in the West, who do not know enough about this. Or if they're interested a bit, this book can kind of, inshallah, push them to learn more.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Yeah, really humanize that connection. Yeah, I mean, like my plan was to buy a book for myself and then buy a book for my library, actually, and then give it to them on Arab Heritage Month in April so that they can have it within their library. My library is usually pretty good about it, but I don't think I've ever seen a book like yours in their library. I usually see like children's books or political books, you know? Okay. And so I would really love to give them a book that tells our stories in just like such a humanizing way.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

That's amazing. Thank you. I'd be honored if you do that. And I know someone in Canada who did that in one of the public libraries, and I absolutely love that. And I always tell people group with your friends, obviously, lower the shipping costs, and think of libraries, think of teachers, universities to use this as a resource, inshallah. That's the dream.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Yeah, yeah, inshallah. And so our Siddis were the original storytellers, they were the treasure chest of stories and the guardians of our history. So I'd love to ask you to share a little bit about your Siddhis.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Okay, so it's so funny because I told you my my maternal grandma Bibi and my maternal grandma Teta in Palestinian. So both of them actually shaped my life in different ways. More so my maternal, who's Iraqi, but they're so different. Because my maternal Bibi, she was a pediatrician. Uh, she set up the first cerebral cerebral palsy foundation in Jordan. She came to Iraq, she left everything behind. She was also forcefully, you know, exiled, you know, uh for different reasons. What year was that in? That was in the 70s, uh late 70s.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Oh, wow, sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Late 70s. So she came to Jordan and she's like, wait, where are all the children who have CP and where are, you know, the handicapped, where are they? I don't see them. And she realized culturally in Jordan they would stay at home. Or so she's like, we need to do something. And she set up the first cerebral policy foundation in Jordan, and then she opened up schools. And she inspires me a lot because she could have easily been like, oh, sulking, oh, I left everything in Idah. And she had to integrate into the Jordanian society. She always inspires me to this day of what she had achieved and how she was able to reframe her mindset about the pain that she experienced, her losing her husband, living in exile, all of that. And she did something with such a beautiful social impact that's lasting till now. She passed away a couple of years ago, and it's still all this running, the foundation is running. And my Bibi only had two kids, my mom and her and my uncle. But my Tata is a Palestinian Teta who I think got married at the age of 16. She had nine kids, she made the best food.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

She's like the stereotypical textbook Palestinian grandmother. And then your BB was like totally the stereotypical Araqi woman. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Yeah, so completely different. Like, and and Teta Haifa Ir Hama, you know, like she she she would like Tlimal Ayla, like she'd bring everyone together, we'd have the Friday lunches, and she would cook, and everyone, like everyone misses her food till this day. Just the best memories. And both of them, maybe they never sat me down and told me stories, but I saw the story of their life. And the story of their life is what shaped me, you know, and I took a bit of both worlds. I value the family unit so much, and that's probably from my Teta Haifa, and bringing people together and inviting people and introducing people to others, like this sense of community. And from Bibi is having anything you do have a social impact, make a difference. So I'm just honored, Anjat, and I feel so blessed that I was born into both of their families, and I had such an extreme different teta's on both Annas.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

That's so special. And caring a little bit more about your teta and your baby, it can really show where you got your personality from. We don't really sit down and think about it. We just assume that we get a lot of our traits from our parents or from our friends, but our our grandmothers and our grandparents played such a vital role in that. How did your teta or your bivi, if you could you could say about both or either or kind of show their love? What was the way that they expressed their love to you? Taita was definitely food.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

Teta Haifa was definitely food, like bringing us together. And she like was excessive with the tomb and with the garlic, you know, and the onions and oh yummy, like I'm drooling now. Like Teta was that, and like Allah you're dale, you know, like these these kind of flowery sayings. Exactly, exactly. You know, the poetic arabi stuff. Bibi is the person who I'd sit and do homework with. Actually, she did most of my homework and she did most of my essays. She's just like an intellectual. I show off with my BB truly because you know, she had such a hard life, such a hard life. And I saw that despite everything she went through, how can you go through all this pain but still be able to make so many people's lives so much better? And that's just something that really, really touched me and really shaped me. And I'm forever grateful, obviously, for both of them.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Yeah, it sounds like she didn't just live, she fully thrived even after all that pain. MashaAllah did it for that. Um, that's amazing. And so, what's a story from your teta or your baby that has left a lasting impact on you?

SPEAKER_02 33:30

I remember more from my tetah, and unfortunately, I was never able to ask her specifically, you know, about the details. But I remember she told me when they when they were forcefully exiled. I still remember how she said that as they were walking and crossing into Jordan on foot, um, people were finding the the Ish Ishir al-Batih, uh, the peel. People were so thirsty that they would find the the batih that's already eaten and they would just start sucking on the white part just because they're through thirsty. And I just remembered that part of her story and as a child, and I think about it till this day. What who gives the right to any human to do that to another human? To get people, children to do that to us. How can you get to the point where you allow humans to do that? You know, hungry, thirsty. This sense of injustice was like instilled in me, and I have a very strong sense of justice, whether it's about the Palestinians, whether it's about Iraqs, whether it's about it's a random person in the street. I feel like my sense of justice stems a lot from Taita Haifa's experience in life and what she went through.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Yeah. Um, you didn't include her story in the book. Um, would you be comfortable sharing a little bit about what that story was?

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Yeah, to be honest, the thing is I don't really know the details of the story. I asked my dad a couple of times, and all I know is that both my grandparents are from the same family. They're not because they're not related, but they're like distant cousins from different okay, there's no shame in that game. They're all my family name is very known in Palestine, Al Alemi. And naturally, when people ask you, like naturally they say, Oh, you're alam il-uz or lid al Gaze. Judah was from Lid Al Uts and Taito was from Gazeh. But they didn't know each other, I think. I don't know how they met. I know that Taito got married really young, 16, 17, because she had nine, nine kids. And they they had good businesses in Palestine, in different parts of, you know, in catering, in airport. And then 48 happened, and this is where kind of everything changed for them, and they had to start their life in Jordan. I know again bits and pieces of how they exiled. I did not do that investigation investigation because she passed away, unfortunately. And my dad was born in Jordan two years after they were exiled. So my dad was born in Salt, in Jordan, and he was not born in Pazan because he's one of the youngest of the nine siblings. So unfortunately, I don't know that story and I don't know all the details of it. My only reference is my dad, and my dad just knows from when he was born.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And you know what I find so common is that after the fact, they don't really talk about their own experience that much. They talk about kind of everyone as a collective whole, but like not their own story. It's like a trauma coping technique that's a defense mechanism.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

And you know, I visited Palestine, alhamdulillah, twice as part of uh a basketball team. And sadly, sadly, sadly, I don't remember anything of those trips. Anything. I just remember two things, literally. It was the first time we crossed Jordan over the I just said, what a bridge. And I remember the first time I saw an IOF soldier. We were in the bus, he came in and he asked for passports, but I remember I saw his rifle hitting the the back of the seat in front of me, and I just looked up at his face. That's the only thing I remember. Then I remember into going wanting to go to Masjid al-Aqsa as the basketball team. We were we went to Baitlaham and Ramallah and l'ut and we were going into Masjid al-Aqsa, and I was a tomboy, I was dressed up in my basketball kind of outfit or in a private school, so we may have spoken in English, I don't know. And the the IOFs they were standing, they wouldn't let people in, and he's like, You're not Muslim, he told me, so you can't go in. So I'm like, you know, I am Muslim, and my teacher was telling him she is Muslim, let her in. They tell you like to prove that you're Muslim, because apparently non-Muslims are not allowed in the they don't allow non-Muslims to go into the mosque. And I remember I had to recite it, and then he let me in. So for me, although my dream now is to go to Palestine, sometimes I forget. People ask me, Did you go to Palestine? I say no. But I actually I've been twice, but I don't remember anything.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

My brain It's a trauma response. Yeah. It's not a good idea. Yeah, because getting in and getting out is literally so traumatic that we lock it out. SubhanAllah. Yeah, and inshaAllah, we could all go to a free-fall state where we could enjoy it and not have to worry about that because yeah, we totally blocked it out.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

I was so stressed throughout that that trip that I can't find any photos. I don't remember anything. I don't remember where we ate, I don't remember what we did. I don't, I literally don't remember anything. Just again, so I'm just empathizing with our grandparents, with our parents have probably experienced something so horrific. I do believe them when they say, like maybe I didn't know. But again, that should not demotivate us from trying to reach out to our parents and understand and our our grandparents and so on.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Yeah, totally. So if you had to write a children's book inspired by your own family's traditions, what would that look like? My gosh.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

It would definitely be a blend of who am I as a Palestinian Iraqi growing up in Jordan, studying in Lebanon. So it would probably be centered around identity and ultimately showing that identity is fluid. I know some people say you need to define who you are and how you self-identify, but for me, when when when it's needed, I'm gonna step up as a Palestinian. When it's needed, I'm gonna step up as a Iraqi. When it's needed, I'm gonna step up as a Jordanian. And when it's needed, I'm gonna step up as a Lebanese, and when it's needed, I'm gonna step up as an Emirati. Like every country of those countries did something to me, escaped me, offered me a lot of privileges, you know, affected me, and I owe it to where I live. I love the land, the concept of a land, of Il-Belad. So if I can give to the UAE, I'll give to the UAE. If I can give to Jordan, I'll give to Jordan. I remember like I used to go in Jordan and like uh um demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Health because I wanted them to implement the non-smoking legislation, you know, because everyone smokes indoors. And some people say, yeah, but you're not originally Jordanian, why would you care? I'm like, no, but I I identify as Jordanian, you know, I grew up there and I would do that. And again, if the UAE asks of me, I need to speak up about something, I would do it. I genuinely feel if everyone does that for their countries, for the land that they're on, if they speak up for what matters or what's fair or the benefit of society as a community, I think we'd be in a much better place.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it it's clear that your resilience and your steadfastness and your passion really came from those lived experiences that you've had and as well as your grandparents. I would really love to talk about another uh initiative that you've created. You've helped create a transformative program called Mother to Author, which empowers mothers to write their own stories. How did you come up with this initiative? Was this another postpartum experience? Yeah. Your second kid.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Yeah, my second kid. Now, actually, uh this came to be because okay, so I had two successful experiences when I before I did this program with my books, Hadajis Milat al-Masni, Mimbaladsum Falestine. And I saw how much these books actually touched the lives of so many Arab families around the world. Literally around the world, like thousands and thousands of copies of Alhamdulillah. But then I realized I never thought I'd be an author, but I actually did it and did it really well. Why not get other Arabs to do that? Because I don't want to just consume content that's written in the West, that doesn't align with our values, that doesn't align with our culture, that doesn't align with us as a communal society, they're individualistic. Why don't we empower other people? Why don't we start creating and publishing and writing our own stories? What's more powerful than that? What's more powerful than you walking into a library and finding hundreds of books about friendship that are authored by Arab authors? And why not? So I decided to create this program. It's 11 modules, it's self-paced. Anyone can sign up whenever they want. I meet with all of you the last Monday of every month, and I am seeing the most incredible stories coming out of this program. Someone just recently wrote a book called Tatriz Wal Abjad. I will post it up. It's so cute. It's all about Palestinian Tatriz, but it's also teaching the letters. And both the the parent and the kids can enjoy it because you can Tatzi the like uh what's that? That's adorable. You could stitch. Yeah. My goal in life is to transform the Arabic literature available for children in the market. Let's just all figure out how to become best-selling authors. I'm happy to tell you everything from A to Z, how to do it, the title, the content, the characters, the publishing process, everything. And Yalla, let's do it collectively. Because again, I see so many people publishing self-publishing books, and the quality saraha is bad. And it just reinforces that Arabic books and Arab-authored books are of a lower quality. And it sorry, I'm gonna say it but it pisses me off. Because we have the resources, like you don't need to sign up to my program, but there are programs I believe out there. Go check them out, educate yourself, do the needed research, and then publish books because our children deserve to see themselves in children's books.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

And our children deserve also the same level of quality as well. Yeah. So this initiative is you really cultivating a mentorship program and a community as well. It's so amazing that you could be that for so many other people. But did you have a mentor? I suffered. And my And maybe that's why that's what made you want to give that back to other people.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

100% because you can't just Google how to publish a book. Every country is different. B, it depends on what you want out of your book and what path you want to take, self-publish or traditional publishing. And you can't just Google how to do that and then it gives you a step-by-step. No. So I'm like, Khalas, you know, I've done it. I tested it on three books. They were successful. Khalas, let me tell everyone how to do it and let's get really high quality children's books out in the in the market. Sadly, no, I didn't. And that's why it took us such a long, long, long, long time to get the Buddy Safety book published. It got rejected by like six pup six publishing houses before it got picked up by one. So I'm like, let me save you time and energy energy sadaha if that means you're gonna be writing more books.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Yeah, I mean, and kind of touching upon that topic. You said how the body safety book was getting rejected. Have you ever faced pushback, pushback, or resistance in your work and particularly when tackling sensitive or controversial? In children's books, like specifically.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Definitely, Min Balads Ma Philistine. Although a lot of people loved it, uh a lot of people hated a page uh that we wrote, page three, which is which says, I wanted to show for me, and this is how I personally grew up and I was taught, for me, there's a distinction between Judaism and Zionism, and I can make the distinction between both. So, this page, when we wrote it, so many people, although we sold thousands and a lot of people loved it and agreed with us, but I got attacked so much by a certain group of people. How can you say Jews and you're supporting Jews and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, all of that? And they destroyed me, and there was like this whole social media attack on me. I was messaging my dad every day. Look what she said. She's saying I'm normalizing and like I'm normal. And I'm like, what me? You know? I was so hurt, I was heartbroken, and they kept on bashing me and Adabas. I'm like, khalasi. And what's annoying is most people who hate on you, they've done nothing for Palestine. Wahayat Allah, they've done nothing for the cause. This book alone, the second edition, we just donated $16,000 to APN. It's an agriculture um uh entity that works in in Palestine, and we donated the money specifically to Gazza for agriculture. They uh were able to plant seven dunoms, seven acres of land in Razza now after the genocide with with food. And they it was able to generate 35,000 kilos of vegetables and fruits for Palestinians who are starving. Okay, so and as a Muslim, God doesn't tell me to hate the Yahud. It's a dyanisma we like it's a religion, it's a religion, we believe in it. And for me, in essence, if it is a proper religion, it does ask for for love and and acceptance and as Islam does. So I wrote what my truth is, and that's why when I write what my truth is, I'm okay with it. And also for 48 stories of exile, again, I went I was looking for charity organizations to donate the 5,000 copies to some uh organizations that are like, no, you use the word Zionist, we're not okay with that. You mentioned occupation that I'm like, Habibi, are you kidding me? Like, thank you very much. I'm trying to help you, but no, you're not the right organization for me then.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

You're not the right audience, yeah. So yeah. We tackled a little bit of the obstacles that you face, but what are the moments that kind of make you feel like this is all worth it?

SPEAKER_02 46:43

It's the moment anyone sends me a message that any of the books I authored or the programs I do or any kind of advocacy, if it touches them in any way, this is what I need when I see how these connections are impacting people positively.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

Yeah. And how do you feel parents and educators can nurture that?

SPEAKER_02 47:03

It's always having an open channel of communication, whether you're a parent, a teacher, our kids are exposed to everything online. I just hope that our children will talk to us when they see something that's inappropriate or something that does not align with our values or something that confuses them. And I hope we'll be able to create that safe space for them to come and say, Mom, I saw X, Y, and Z, or I'm curious about one, two, three, and they come to me rather than go to someone else. Inshallah, that's my dream.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Yeah, yeah. And I think you can honestly do that with books. If there's a topic that, you know, with my oldest, she's six and a half, and I kind of feel bad. Everything's like a guinea pig situation with her. I'm trying out so many things with her, and so when I feel overwhelmed by a topic or I'm nervous to figure out how to approach that topic with her, my go-to is books. A hundred percent. Read her a book and it kind of opens up that dialogue of communication. So, how has the landscape of diversity in children's literature evolved in the recent years? And what progress is there still to be made?

SPEAKER_02 48:05

I'm gonna talk about the Western books primarily, and I'm gonna I'm gonna generalize. At first I thought, wow, diversity and inclusion, wow, everyone's talking about compassion, empathy, acceptance. Wow, wow, wow. You know, they author a book and they publish it about Ramadan, amazing about Easter. And then after the genocide, I realized that this is all a lie, sadly, and it's all BS. I saw some of the most well-known authors who advocate about compassion and peace and love and hada. And I saw them either never mentioning anything about Palestinian children who have been slaughtered and killed and murdered and orphaned and amputated by this genocide, or they only reserved all of these sentiments towards only one group of children and not all children. And for me, that's the hypocrites. So this all fake diversity, inclusion, BS, like it is a lie, sadly. That is why it's our responsibility. We have two options. We just we can sit and be angry that it's a lie and just sit there and do nothing, or we can be proactive and start publishing our own books and writing our high-quality books and producing them and publishing them and responding to what our children need and accept that the life that our children are born into is not the life that we are born into. And as much as we want to nurture them as, you know, Arab with values and in some cases Muslims, if you're a Muslim, we have to accept the world they live in and we have to meet them halfway and we have to to draw them in with love and affection. So that's what I think is happening. And I feel like a lot of moms now, especially after the genocide, I actually re revived the mother-to-author program. Like it was just in the back burner over the past year because of everything. I focused on nothing but the 48 stories of exile from Palestine. But I just revived it because I realized how important it is. And I see how many mothers now are publishing and are writing, and it's our responsibility.

SPEAKER_00 49:52

Yeah, yeah, it's it's truly amazing to see how we could use our stories of the past to carry us forward. And it's it's so amazing that you're reviving that initiative again. This has been seriously such a rich and fruitful conversation. Um, I know so many listeners are parents and educators and book lovers, and they're gonna walk away with really valuable insights. And before we wrap up, where can people connect with you and support your work?

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Thank you so much first for having me. I'm really active, more active on Instagram, which is at Dima underscore al underscore alemi. You can find me there, you can DM me, and I would love to have you as part of my community. And Layla, thank you so much. This was so nice. Uh, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And uh thank you also for sharing yourself, your stories.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

Thank you. We do have one last question. So before we end, I always like to tie it back to how we started with our siptees. And so if your Teta was here today with us drinking Shay or your Bibi and listening in on our conversation, what would they be most proud of?

SPEAKER_02 50:52

Good question. I think that I'm not shying away from who I am. That's probably Teta Haifa. And BB is probably that everything I'm doing is having an impact on society. I think that would make her proud.

SPEAKER_00 51:04

I love that. Inshallah, I mean, I'm sure they're both very proud of you. And I'll make sure to remember to make da'aat for them during this blessed month. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing your story and your Siddhi's stories. It's always such a pleasure to see how they all tie into who you are as a person.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

Thank you so much, Daila. This was so much fun, and it's actually interesting. I think it's the first time I realized how much I was influenced by my tetas. So thank you for getting me, getting me to that point.

SPEAKER_00 51:35

Appreciate it. I love I love hearing that, and that has been a common occurrence throughout every podcast I record. At the end, when we're wrapping up, the guest is always like, Wow, I never realized that I got this and this and this from my grandma. And I'm like, wow, subhanAllah. But yeah, so I love that. Seriously, thank you so much, and Ramadan Kiri. Thank you for joining us and listening in on this genuine conversation with Demana Alemi. Her story and passion reminds us that storytelling is more than memory. It's resistance, healing, and a way to honor those who came before us. Every time we share our truths, we reclaim a piece of our history and build a bridge for the next generation. If today's conversation moved you, please share this episode with someone who believes in the power of stories. Let's keep our voices alive and our stories flowing across generations. You can find the links to Dima's work, her book 48 Stories of Exile from Palestine, and the Mother to Author program, all linked in the show notes. Please consider buying 48 Stories of Exile as it all goes to charity and continues to push our stories forward. If you want to know what we're up to, please follow our Instagram at cities.stories to keep up with us. Also, there's still time for you to submit your voicemails to Citties. You can go directly on our website and click the tab on the side that says voicemails for cities and record your own cities stories to be featured in our season finale. Until next time, keep sharing your cities stories.

SPEAKER_01 52:57

Ma'asalama, click on it, the grip of the fifth.