Survival, Spirituality & Success: Lubna’s Journey of Resilience

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Marhaban, welcome back to Sith these stories, the podcast where we amplify and highlight the achievements of Palestinian women. I'm your host, Layla, and today I'm thrilled to introduce Lubna, the brilliant entrepreneur behind Nuru's gourmet crackers. She has turned her passion for flavor and tradition into a delicious brand that's winning hearts and taste buds everywhere. Lubna, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Well, hello, Marhaba. Habibis. I always say habibis. Thank you for having me, Leila. Thank you for the mic. Um, I feel like it's important to amplify our voices.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yes. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Oh, I see that you have your kehua in hand. It's pretty funny that you do so because our icebreaker is actually always starting off with a Siddhi-inspired question. Did she prefer kehua or shay? And if she was shy, did she prefer it with nana or metamiya?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

I I have fond memories of both Tetas and Alhamdulillah. So my paternal uh grandmother, she prefers Shay. And did and so did my maternal mom. I think the coffee comes from college days here. So yes, I am drinking coffee right now. It's my coffee time.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Now let's take it back to where it all began. Can you share a bit about your background?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

So I am Palestinian-Brazilian. Both parents are Palestinians. I'm first-generation Brazilian. My grandfather um migrated to Brazil in 61, 1961. Um, my my father uh was 10 years old when he went to Brazil. Uh so he practically grew up uh in in Brazil, and then uh it was time for me for him to get married, and he went back to Jordan to pick to pick a bride. My grandparents were both adamant that he would marry Arab Muslim. Uh so he went um and brought her to Brazil. I always say it's uh East meets west, combination of uh both beautiful cultures, and Brazil has always been very welcoming. I think it's the um the commonality of both cultures being friendly, family-oriented, you know, we're loud and we're happy, you know, contrary to what other people would, you know, would like us to be stereotyped as. So we fit right in. We both like eating, so we get groups like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Both have great food. So then what was that transition like to the States? When did your parents come to the States?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

So it's interesting because we never ask those questions and until I started playing with food, right? And from food, you you start asking other questions, and then it it jumps into wait a minute, this is a cultural uh history lesson in itself. So I found out that through speaking to my parents, I learned that the mission was when UNRWA was present in the Palestinian territories, uh, UNRWA's mission was also to get displaced Palestinians a place to go. So it was not an easy move to be moved out of Palestine. Uh but it you had no choice. You were persecuted, and uh, it was not an easy transition. But UNRWA facilitated most of that. When people would talk amongst each other, the aim was eventually we would make it to North America, because North America back then had a reputation of being the future, the new world, all this prosperity. So Arabs, I feel like, especially Palestinians that went to South America, even though they ended up being very successful, the aim was also to move further north. Like if you made it to North America, you've made it in life, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah, that that was a very common like path to go from Falstein to South America and then like work your way up to North America.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Right. That was uh the aim. My my father's side of the family always had that in their mind. Once one family started moving, everybody just followed suit. And it was like, oh, you know, Islam is already over there in New York. Let's go check it out, you know. Um, we're not gonna stay here. You would find like a lot of Arabs still living as if they were in Philistine 1948, 1950. Their mindset was like, um, we're gonna go back. Don't worry about it. You don't need to mingle because we're gonna go back. You know what I mean? Some still had the keys. My father's side of the family always had that in their head. Uh, we are just here until next year, or till five years from now, until you guys go to college.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

What was your father's side of the family from?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

My father's side of the family is from Mesra Garbiye, which is right. It's called Qadr Ramallah. He was living between Berize and Mizra. My mom is from Minad. Yeah. And her family transition was to Jordan, to Muchayim uh Jebel, you know, for Jebal Hussein. And um uh her father, Allah Hamul, was an CD Hammu. He was in the military, was a guard. Um, so he was he has more of a horror history. Look, he was he was demanded to leave because he had um a gun pointed at him in front of his family and his front of his kids, so he had no choice but to migrate to Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Yeah. So your mom's family went to Jordan and then your dad's family went to Brazil and then America. Where in America did they first come to?

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Uh New York. Currently New York. I I got here in 1990 and we we settled in Jackson Heights, Queens. Not a place that many people would. A lot of people are like, why didn't you come to Brooklyn? I was like, I don't know, I'm I'm a Queens girl.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, there's a big beef. I'm from the East Coast too. I'm originally from New Jersey. I live in Chicago now, but so yeah, I'm familiar with the beef between the boroughs. It's incredible how our family histories and villages stay with us even across generations and miles. Can you share how your upbringing influenced the path that you've taken in your career with Lulu's Gourmet crackers?

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah, so I I feel like we my generation are buffers of our parents' pain, our grandparents' narratives and stories. I think I'm Generation X, you know, the 70s and 80s. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We were that transitional phase, the transitional generation. I feel like the all that came to life for me when I started dealing again with food. Because it started with like, let me just make something different, right? For my kids. And then it started becoming uh a mission. Like I'm an ambassador of what exactly, right? Like my parents' pain, my grandparents' uh displacement. What am I selling here? Am I just selling a product to make money? But who's gonna tell everybody else the stories that we have to say? If it peruse into my my Instagram, I wanted to tell stories. Like I didn't just want to like sell a product just for the profit of it, although it wouldn't be wrong, but I wanted to be represented. Like I I often think about the foods and the days and the time that our grandparents had to cook. Because no matter what, somebody gotta eat. The kids have to eat, the husband has to eat, right? Like, so you're migrating to a new country, you've just been displaced, and now what? What are we gonna eat? I could only imagine when they went to Brazil, they they encountered feijão, right? Like black beans. That's not part of our Palestinian culture. So they had to improvise a lot of times. I was like, let's make feijun black beans, but let's add kamoon fi, you know, because when we make food, we put kemun, that's right. Improvising constantly. And then I feel we're like, okay, we need to say something. Uh our grandparents and parents will would tell us, don't do it. We we still had the leftover residue of Ibn Haram, right? But this following generation that, you know, that we see today, they're not taking no for and for an answer. So if you combine all of that together, it's a beautiful moment to be alive, right? Because we've been praying for this moment. My daughter is so proud to be Palestinian, so proud to go with a Palestinian t-shirt on, and so is my son. So it has nothing to do with how we grew up, right? If anything, I wanted to be anything but I'd be a Palestinian because I didn't fit the narrative. I didn't fit what the the standard beauty, as past generations have come here.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

They've just been so scared, filled with fear of being rejected or not getting a job, and really wanting to make a better life for their kids. And they didn't know how to have culture and that at the same time. Whereas, yeah, like you said, our the next generations can come and it's so funny. We're not going backwards, we're going forward, but we're using our tradition of the past to like move us forward and like move us that way.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

And perhaps for for some of us in my generation, it's a little bit late, but this following generation, they want they want facts, they want and I feel that having representation helps a lot.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah. You touched a lot upon storytelling and preserving culture, like when you found out about food and mixing food, and especially you coming from two different cultures. Can you share a little bit about how you are choosing with your business to preserve Palestinian culture?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Sure. So with with the crackers, like, you know, I was in a severe depression mode, postpartum, single mom, and I just wanted to make something practical for my kids. And so when we go to the park, it's easy to lunch on. Yeah. So it started with that idea, you know, and then I started posting on Snapchat, and then it took off from there. My friends start asking, are you selling this? What is that? What are you doing? I didn't know like people were interested. But I I started selling and then it became a canapul from there. That's also when I realized a year into it, I realized, okay, what do I want to do? Because I feel I feel that with every entrepreneur, you come to that question, what is your aim? Okay, I do a photo shoot with uh a sawbond. Okay, great, that looks nice, but then uh do you have a product? Do you have a company? Do you have a mission? So my mission became um, I I want to do this for single moms. I want to do this for people who battle other trials in life. I I battled cancer twice, you know. So it's not an easy course to take. And uh, with each cracker, I felt that I had a story and then I put my heart in it. I wanted people to taste that. Like this is the kind of flavors that I grew up with. And it shouldn't be limited to just me. It's like knowledge, right? Once you know something, it would be extremely selfish of you if you do not share that knowledge. So I I always looked at this is art, this is an inspiration, and it's all from God, alhamdulillah, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:51

So just really empowering when you have something for yourself and you do something by yourself, for yourself, for your kids. Yeah, it really fuels you to kind of keep going.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Absolutely. I could toot my own horn. However, I feel that just the way Allah has given me that gift, right? I felt that it would be too selfish of myself to just keep it for myself. Nothing is from me. It's all from God. This isn't, I feel like it's a mission. Why am I doing this? It's a very it's a very hard job. It's not something, okay, I'm just gonna spread the the dough and and that's it. Physically demanding, but I can't give it up. I can't give up until I see the mission completed.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, I feel like you being so mission-oriented and dedicated is just a testament to our past generations, especially our grandmothers. They all like came with a mission in mind and they were all super dedicated and strong and resilient.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Imagine how many times they had to get up and cook, and when they didn't feel like cooking, that they had to. I think about it like, okay, the msechhan, there I made a crackers out of the honorary msechan, the most traditional Palestinian dish. So imagine if they had given up on that mission of feeding. How would those dishes make their way to South America, for instance? If I show you geographically, where is my city in Brazil? It's like the end of the world. How, how, you know, like how did how did they think of let me bring Zata with me, let me bring uh spices, uh, Libharat Mahum? How did they think of that when they they're packing to move transit clinic?

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Wow. Yeah, I never even thought of that. That's a very unique, interesting thing to think of.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

What did they put in their luggage, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Yeah. Even though it is such a common transition that I see a lot of families have from going from Philosophic into South America, I never thought of that. That's such a unique way of thinking of it. What did they literally put in their luggage? I think of a food wise time. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

It's like, did they put, you know, that's I'm sure they put that. Because as far as I remember, my memory, I remember smelling that, eating it. Imagine if they had given up and said, we're here to fully uh acclimate, fully associate, fully integrate with the culture, and we're not gonna make msachan, we're not gonna make waterwane. And grew up eating both the cuisine, which I feel so lucky and honored. So that's probably where I get all my my pounce.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Always be eating. I mean, hey, when you have two of the best cultures for food, why not? Amazing. Yeah, why not? Oh, so you touched upon this a little bit, but one of the things we focus on here at Sithi Stories is celebrating the connections between generations. How has your family been a part of this journey with Ludwig Crackers?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

My family has been part of it from day one. Obviously, my father, my biggest critic, um traditional Arab dad. I didn't know that he had that side. It was like a surprise. I was like, aren't you Brazilian somehow? Aren't you like living in the West all those years? From day one, he was like, should be dick field shirle, you should take care of your kids. Your kids need you. I was like, Yeah, but when I make it, aren't you eating from it? You're doing this for your kids though. That's the larger picture. I'm like, my kids are taking care of what I started doing in my own precious time. But when they were sleeping, instead of me going to sleep with them, I would stay up and and bake. That was my therapy. So I was fine with that. But he was concerned because he didn't see how we can get paid for the things we do for our own family. And I always say, Hanal, I think of my teta Khadija Alair Hamha, that's his mom, Alaira, who lived with us for a long time in Brazil. I think how they used to cook day in, day out, day in, day out, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they had to cook, and nobody would say thank you. Nobody would say salmide, or nobody would pay them. So, my for my father, that concept of getting paid for actually, you know, making a snack, you're not even putting a charouf on the table. Like, what do you do, wait? You just all this sugar and all this work, and all you're putting me is a cracker. How many do I need to eat to satisf to be satisfied? So I'm like, okay, you don't get it. But it's okay. My mom, on the other hand, but a cala fiya should be like, She's not your demographic. No. However, once you conquer that demographic, that's your success. So that for me is when I said, you know what, I don't care what my generation have to say. If they don't get it, don't get it. I don't care if I'm not yet everywhere. But my father said, Allah daliki, you know what? Khaliq Allahadah. And and then at first he was like, but khaliqi, just do uh the zatr. And then I start making other flavors, and he loves the cheese one, the parmesan one. And he was like, you know what? Let's just keep on this one. Every time I would make another flavor, he would say, just make this one. Don't make the other ones. Now he's my number one um fan. I love that. He helps me. He gives me ideas. I always tell he's my my my tester. So what do you say? Good is like, you know? And my mom from day one, uh but a colour, she always had my back. Your mom saw television from right away. He was like, please somebody get paid for cooking or doing something. Sometimes when you have a gathering and you see all those women with so much knowledge in their fingers of cooking, and it's hard for them to take criticism because they're like, I have 50 years under my belt cooking. I have 25 years in the kitchen, and nobody ever probably said San Mideki. Not ever, but you know, not enough. Not enough.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Every successful journey has key people who shape it along the way. Like you're saying, like your dad and your mom. Our podcast is called Sati Stories because they tend to hold so much wisdom and inspiration. Can you tell us a little bit about your grandmothers and how they inspired you? It could be personal or it could be about your business, whatever you feel to share.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Yeah, so my my paternal grandmother, um, I would I don't know if she knew she was a perfectionist, but for in my in my eyes, perhaps she was. She grew up mainly in Birzit. Her best friend was a Christian lady. So they have beautiful stories of that, like how when Tito used to make Whatadawali, her friend, Christian friend Sua, Dalil Hamha, would do the Kusa and they would share. Tietah always told me um to be kind. I never forget that about her. She would see me fighting with my cousins or my sister, my siblings, and she always used to call me on the side and say, Lubnah, always keep your heart white. You know, khalli albek abyod. No matter what you do, no matter what people do to you, diamond khalli al-bek abyyad. So I'm like, okay, I grew up being like that. And at one point I hated it because people just like take advantage of good people no matter what. Unfortunately, you know. But as I'm getting older and as I'm turning half a century old soon, inshaAllah, I feel that you know what? This is perhaps a better kid that I keep looking younger because I don't when I go to sleep, my heart is clean. I don't want anybody, anything, alhamdulillah. That's one thing that I always think of Sidti from my father's side. From my mom's side, I didn't live too too many years with her. But I I remember her being in the kitchen, and I I would watch her cutting cucumbers, you know, uh dicing cucumbers, uh the tomato, all by hand. Even her dawali would be by hand. I was like, Sidti, how do you do it? She's like, when you grow up, I'll teach you. Alet Hamhat. She got married young, she had kids young, and that's the way life was then, you know, and moving from country to country, uh, city to city. She had mashallah nine kids. Wow, mashallah. Aletham. Yeah. She had nine kids, and she was like a petite lady, but she was strong. I get my resilience from my mom's side for sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Can you touch upon that? What was it about her that, you know, gave you that resilience? And where did you have to kind of show that resilience?

SPEAKER_00 18:50

So I I I'm a twice breast cancer survivor. Well inhamdulh. And the first time I didn't have kids, so it's different. But the second time when I had kids, is it hits a little harder because now you're like, I have responsibilities other than just myself. And both times my mom was just um a military soldier next to me. I don't know if that was her, it's her way of coping with the difficulties. So my mom, my mom's resilience and military upbringing kind of helped me because she would snap me right out of depression. You know, she's like, shit the helix, that's it. You're not even sick. Don't even put in your head that you're sick. Like, yeah, but the doctor's telling me that I have, yeah. Yeah. I have the state for it. She'll be like, no, you're not. Now, this lady herself had been through many challenges. We had a big car accident when we were little and she almost died herself. Uh a lot of you. So she overcame her own difficulties many, many times, physical difficulties, uh, health difficulties. I think her mindset helped her, but I never understood how my mom made it, right? Until I got sick and I was under her care. She was like, nope, you're not sick. I'm not gonna let you feel down for one minute. She's like, you can do it. Come on, get up. Your kids are calling. It's sometimes it was too much, but then looking back now, alhamdulillah that I'm healthy, I'm like, all right, I got it. You know? Her tough love really works. Oh, her tough love really works. I get that and I appreciate that. I feel like the go-go mode sometimes it works, the tough love works, because once you start seeing a bigger vision, you understand. When then you compare yourself to other parables, right? Like other circumstances, like Sayyidina Muhammad, how he had to overcome his obstacles. And I'm a disciple of his life, Alhamdulillah. That has changed me, being his disciple. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yeah, I think that's like one of the best ways to live your life. I mean, alhamdulillah, we have a written guide on the best way to live your life through hadith and through the Quran.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Honestly, Layla, you know, we read books, we read articles, and ever since I I started studying uh the hadith, this the Sira Sayyidina Muhammad, I cannot speak enough about it because it's uh it's a life-changing. The more you study, the more you fall in love, the more you like, oh my God, how can I become one-third of that? How can I at least you know be touched by that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Was that like kind of spiritual awakening after you got cancer? Or when did that happen?

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah, so but a calafire. I have great friends, mashallah. And one friend sent me a link for Yasser Qadis, Sirat uh Prophet Muhammad. So I I know you will appreciate this. So subhanAllah, when I bake, I listen to lectures. It took me two years to finish that lecture because it's a hundred and plus episodes and each episode is one hour.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

I know the exact sirah you're talking about. I love that sira. Yeah, I'm st I still haven't finished the full thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

No, I finished because you know, I bake so much. I've been like listen to it and crying and making dua. It baking for me is a spiritual because. If I'm not listening to the Quran first while I'm baking and listening to my lectures, or I'm like make doing my tasbih, saying alhamdulillah, sending my salams. So, you know, for me, I love that because I'm being very productive. So it's my tongue being productive, my my mind being productive, my hands being productive. Well, alhamdulillah. So that is a life-changing knowledge that I highly recommend to everybody.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Yeah. I do the same thing. Since you have such a passion for cooking and food, we often associate the smell of certain dishes with family and comfort. Is there a meal or recipe that once you smell it or once you hear about it, kind of instantly takes you back to your grandmother's kitchen? You know what I'm gonna say, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Zata.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

I knew that one for you. I was like, it's either gonna be Zata or Sumak, one of the No, Zata for sure.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Zata reminds me um when my teta led uh Aleit Hama, Led Hama, she would come and go to Amman, visit her her other children, and then come to Brazil. And you know, that you know, we're we'd have people come over from overseas here and there, um, and they would bring the goods. So the luggage, as you know, is like 20 luggages, and all those luggages had food in them. Because why why are you coming to the end of the world, right? Without food. Zatad was my thing. I I I would be like, like uh I smell it, I smell it, and they'll be like, if the hushunat, you know, like open the luggage when I when I have Zatad. And um, I remember eating, you know, straight out of the bag with a spoon, no zit, no nothing. And now that I bake with it, I have other flavors, but when I bake with Zatad, it's home. I can't even describe what is home, what is home for me. I don't even know if it's in Brazil or in Philistine. I don't know what is it about baking with Zata that takes me home.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

And it's not a specific location, it's a feeling, it's like a smell. Yeah, it's not a specific location.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

It's funny because one day I was baking and the whole house smelled like Zatar, and my father comes to the kitchen and he's like, you know what? Um I woke up because of the smell of Zatar. And that reminded me of my childhood. That for me, till today, is the best moment in this whole trajectory because I I could never I never knew I'll connect with my father's childhood through Zatar. It's such a gift to give to love. Oh my god, Layla. And now I know for sure I am connecting with my children's childhood through Zaatar. Because they wake up and they smell Zaatar. If you tell me, like, what how do you smell like? I smell like Zatar.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

That reminds me of my own grandmothers. Like you said, when they were traveling and they get the whole suitcase, and the second they open up that suitcase, it's just a flood of smell zatab. That was like the overpowering smell. And then even for days afterwards, anything that she was wearing in the suitcase smelled like that. When you go through customs, are you bringing any food?

SPEAKER_00 24:56

No. I don't know how they ask us. Like, can't you smell it?

SPEAKER_01 25:00

I love that. It's always so beautiful to hear our cities stories and how they continue to guide us. They yeah. They were truly the threads of our Palestini identity and heritage that taught us how to be strong and resilient and all about our culture and traditions. Is there an overwhelming tradition or one specific tradition that you really want to pass on to your kids that you learned from your cities?

SPEAKER_00 25:24

So many. Definitely how to, you know, always be kind, do good. I remember one time I was taking tatriz classes. When she would like, let me see your job, like let me see Tatrizik. And she automatically will flip it to see how well done it was in the back. And I was like, Oh my god, I'll never get a pass. She's like, And it's like, Where? How? It's done. The front it looks so beautiful. She's like, no. You have when you present something, you gotta think that people see it with their eyes. So that always transmitted to my food as well. Because God forbid, we put up a platter of hummus on the table and they didn't have any garnish on it. That was taken right back to the kitchen. Don't think that you're gonna say you're gonna hear thank you or something. Because she always said it, right? So when I did my crackers, I always I know she's 100% happy. But I feel her. I feel both of my grandmothers with me. If you look at the crackers in itself, and I hope it never changes, they all have art in it, you know what I mean? Like it's pleasing to the eye, and that's I think that's part of the success why people like it also, because it shows how much I respect them as a, you know, as a business person. Look, you're eating something gourmet and you're not being cheated out with cheap ingredients, and it's the presentation. So I think of my grandmother, if they were alive to see the packaging, the look, the whole thing, and then what people have to say about it, I'm sure they would be very, very proud.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Even if you didn't set out to do it inspired by your grandma, they are just like within everything that we do because they're the ones that passed on those traditions, passed on that culture, passed on that food.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

Absolutely. And like now we have a mission, right? Like uh we we all saw for the past 15 months, right? What's happening right in front of our eyes. So we can't deny it. We can't say, oh, this is a thing of the past. Still happening. Just now we have like a platform to see it on and view it on. Right. And so there are dishes that are were dying before this. My mom made my mom is from the lid and they're known for kishak. Oh, no way. I didn't know that. Yeah. So I I actually have in my highlight of the whole process of the kish. My mom lined at the Leban, curating it, and then cooking it. At first, I when I was younger, I was like, please do not even make this in front of me because I'm not gonna eat it. And now I'm like, when you're gonna make it. So it's now more than ever, I feel like we all have a mission. It's not just one one person, one chef. People are stealing us as we breathe. We have people that have never been mentioned in any publication because they're Palestinians. But yet you you have somebody else who is not Palestinian flipping a Maclube and gets all the accolades. I have a big problem with that. That bothers me a lot. And I'm always the one that tells my friends, like, and you're not gonna say anything? I'm gonna say something, you know? And I probably that's why I keep getting shadow banned and blocked, you know. But I don't care because I I want to see my sisters receiving their flowers within our lifetime. We didn't see our moms, perhaps. We didn't see our grandmothers, but I want to see my sisters, and especially us Palestinians. I'd like to see my sisters shining.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

I'm here for um Yeah, touching upon that, you brought up the sense of community and wanting to see your sisters and brothers shine and going about doing things to make sure that Palestinian women get their accolades and receive their flowers. So, how how would you say the community feedback has been or support has been for your business?

SPEAKER_00 29:11

So I I believe that uh that you are a bowl of energy, right? You put that energy out there, and sometimes you're not gonna find that support. Like going back to like how my father, right, like he didn't support me, but eventually, because of your behavior, because of your character, because of the way you're you go about life, you inspire people. And then you become the change that you wanna see. Everything is relevant, everything is connected, we are connected, we are bowl of energy. Uh, you put out good out there, good will come to you. And it doesn't mean like bad is not gonna happen, but you if bad comes, it's easier to shield yourself from it. Because you know, you have so much good, you have so much love. So who cares you get a scratch from bad? You know what I mean? That's how I look at it.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Yeah, and I mean you have such a positive like outlook on life, and your energy, your ball of energy that you present is so positive, mashallah.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

That's with gr well that is only from God. Everything that I have, I'm a product of dua. Uh so for me, I connected my art with my faith. So I start with bismillah and I always end with alhamdulillah. And it's it's hard to disconnect me from that. Yeah you know?

SPEAKER_01 30:30

Yeah, that's a core of like your being. And life, as you know, is just a personal growth and a personal journey that we take. You've shared upon a lot of challenges that you face in your life, like being a single mom and going through cancer. How were you able to kind of overcome those challenges? Or do you feel like you've overcome them?

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Yeah, like for me, I always said the best thing that ever happened to me was having cancer because it woke me up. It woke me up. I was dormant, I was not I was not in this path. I always said I'm a born-again Muslim. And alhamdulillah, I I feel that I'm ready for anything that Allah puts in my path. I've been tried, I've been tried with my health, I've been tried with finances, I've been tried with love. So I feel like uh we are all in this dunya for a reason. It's momentarily. Uh I'm at today when I look at my life and reflect, I see I want to go to the end result, right? Our our main goal is to make it to the to the next level. And that's where I'm aiming. Inshallah. So for now, I'm good. Like, you know, go on. Like, let's say, you know, I don't want I'm not trying to bring more trials. No, no, no. I'm to left for everything. But I feel like, you know what? I have nothing to lose. They're like, what are you gonna do? You can't. This is what this is what we witnessed in Gazda. How can you defeat people that fear Allah, that have Allah with the I'm a competition for myself because I I mirror myself from the past. You know what obstacles? Everything is overcome when you have your health, which is a blessing, everything else, it's doable. You've you can figure it out. Now it doesn't have to be perfect. Allah is not asking us to be perfect. No, we just want us to show up.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Yeah. Yeah, no, your your perspective is so refreshing and so motivating. With this podcast, like you talked about giving people their flowers. This whole podcast is to literally give Palestinian women their flowers and celebrate their achievements. We talked a little bit about your challenges and kind of how you overcome those. Can you please share with us some of your biggest highlights?

SPEAKER_00 32:38

My biggest highlight, actually, when uh Rashida Tleb was sworn into office the first time, I managed to get her a package of crackers. And when she opened the package and saw that it was the Msefan flavor crackers, I think that put me on the map. That for me, I I think I can't ever forget her reaction and um how proud I was, you know, to have invested that energy and sticking to my gut and naming that cracker msefan. You know, I I had a lot of people saying, like, no, I think you should change the name of the flavors because people are not gonna say yeah. And I I stuck to it. I said, no, you know what? We're in different times now. It's time for people to know how to pronounce Lubna, you know, how to pronounce Muhammad, how to pronounce uh Mustafa. We're not gonna be Mikeis, we're not gonna be Lulu, although I'm still Lulu. We're here to stay, we're not going anywhere. My nose is not gonna get bit any smaller, my eyebrows are not gonna get any lighter, my hair is not gonna get any straighter. I'm me. And I want, I have accepted myself today fullhearted, and I don't want to change to fit the norm anymore. I don't want my crackers to change to fit the norm. And now when I go to the supermarkets to to deliver, I see that because of Lulu's crackers in the aisles, they have changed the flavors. Before when I used to drop off, it would be five companies selling plain bland crackers, right? And now all of a sudden you see different flavors olives and rosemary. I I think I feel somebody's trying Zata for the first time, you know, and I'm like, okay, I see, you know. So I I take that. I I know that I changed that. It's I'm just uh a me through Lulu's crackers, that change has started to show in the aisles of supermarkets today.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Food in general, especially Mediterranean, you always see Mediterranean, you're not really seeing anything so specific. So even when I am looking at a product or when I'm looking at a restaurant to go to for dinner, when I see Mediterranean, I get excited. But then I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I gotta like go to their website. I need to like dig in a little bit deeper to figure out, you know, who it is, where they're actually coming from. But I think with your crackers, you do such a good job of being bold and in your face of being like, these are my names. There's no second guessing. You know, these are Arab Palestinian crackers. And I love that. I love that you did that.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

You know, and this is exactly why why I do what I do for us, by us, to us. I want our kids to see this and say, like, it's something odd, it's so normal to have to have found that in the grocery stores now. Yeah. When we grew up, we didn't see that. I asked my parents, did you ever seen this? They're like, no. All right, then we have we have something big here, okay? Are you gonna help me or you know, just criticize me? So this is how I look at it. You get you can't see things in a personalized way, you gotta see objectively in the bigger picture.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Yeah, and now Zatar is such a big thing that you see it literally everywhere. And so by the time my kids go to school and they are with their Zatar Lebana sandwiches, I don't think anyone's gonna be making fun of them at that point. Nobody. Nobody.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

They actually they'll start stealing from them, like taking their letters from them.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Yeah. Yeah, but I think with what you're doing with Lulu's gourmet crackers, I think it really helps kind of that movement. And like you said, it's not just for yourself, it's for the whole community. It's clear that Lulu's gourmet crackers is not just a business, it's truly a labor of love and a tribute to your Palestinian heritage. What's next for Lulu's gourmet crackers and you?

SPEAKER_00 36:13

I wanna see how um how far we can go with this. I mean, I feel like I've not even scratched the surface yet. And it it's hard because as a single mom, once your kids, let's say it's the flu season, right? If they get sick, you're backed up for like another week. And people don't get it. Unless you are a single mom, I feel there should be less judging and more support, period. Uh so next, I definitely want to be everywhere. I I launched my website the end of October of 2023. And that website took me years to come to bring it to life, uh, that along with the logo. So I feel like I still not over that I have a website. For some people, you might be like, it's a given. You should have had a website from the get-go, but for small businesses, it's not. So that's where I want to go, you know, for bigger, better things, still keeping this, the quality of the product.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Looking back at everything we talked about today, if your city was here drinking tea with us, like sharing it on our conversation, what do you think she would be most proud of? The packaging. Because it's like all perfect and me and presenting the right thing.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

I think the packaging, it's mirrored after like a photo shoot that I had done with a beautiful thob that belongs to my my best friend's mom, Alairaham. It's a beautiful thob. And uh when I reached out to this artist to make me uh a logo, she grasped the whole idea. I look at the logo and I just love it. I feel like sometimes it's not even mine. It's beyond what I had projected. You know, when you have an idea, but then somebody delivers it to you and it's better than your idea? You're like, I had an idea, and then subhanAllah Barakallafiha. She's an amazing artist out in London, Krista. You start forming your community. Oh, and I'm surrounded by amazing, amazing, amazing uh sisters, amazing queens. And I'm all here for fixing each other's crown. There's a lot of space on the table for all of us.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Yeah, and sometimes if you don't already have that support system in place, you just kind of gotta build it one sister at a time, one friend at a time.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Yeah, so I'm um I'm a point in my life if I see a negativity. Um at one point I probably wanted to fix that negativity, but today I'm like, you know what? I need to cross the street. And it's okay. And you know what? You I really don't want to invest in negativity. You know, my objectives are set and I just want to get to that.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Yeah. I think that was like one of the things that you even said was something that your city taught you was to just be kind and have a clean heart and always start every day and end every night with a clean heart.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Yeah, it's it's so easy and it sounds so cliche, but to actually practice that, I'm gonna be 15 more. Okay, that took me this long to get that. And now I'm practicing. Now I'm actually applying what I'm I've learned all those 50 years. You know what I mean? So can I ask you if your teta would be is your tether alive?

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Actually, um, no. I lost my maternal grandmother a couple months ago, and then I lost my paternal grandmother the year before that. What do you think they would say if they see you doing this?

SPEAKER_00 39:21

You're gonna make me cry. I'm still not over both of them. I'm sorry. I know it's hard. So grief, grief doesn't get easier, it just gets bigger. Yeah. They're like the whole inspiration. I'm sure they'll be so proud of you.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

You're so sweet. Yes, no, I'm sure. What they would say today is I mean, both of my grandmothers were so incredibly strong in like their own way. One of them, my maternal grandmother. It's like she was a boss. She was a larger-than-life woman, matriarch of her whole family, community leader. And then my other grandma was strong in such a like soft way. She was a widow at 28 years old with six kids. So she had to be strong because she needed to survive and take care of her kids. So they were just both so strong in their own way. Strength just comes in so many different shapes and forms. And I think me trying to like find my own voice through this podcast is my own strength. And so I think they would just be proud of that. And I think I really connected with them over being Falsteini and like having that identity. And I just really want to like showcase that through this podcast. Hi guys, it's me. So at this point of the conversation, we had wrapped up the podcast, and Lubna and I were getting to know one another, just like chit-chatting, and little did I know that she actually knew my grandmother. This next part is a bonus clip for how small the world really is when you're Arab. You're talking about Halimah. Yeah, that's my city.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

Wallahi. Okay. When you said matriarch, I was like, can you be halimah? Well, subhanAllah. Oh my god, Layla. That is amazing. We loved that when I think of what I want to do or how I want to be, I want to become like Alhamha Siddhik. We remember when we first came to this country, Halima used to be like a tiny little spa. We've been going to her for years. And we kind of counted her. Allah Hamha.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

And she was very kind. Yeah, I know she did a lot for the community and especially a lot for people like still in full scene in the kaza. Oh. And wait until I tell my parents that. Oh my god. So cool. SubhanAllah. That's crazy. I know everyone knew my grandma. It's pretty, yeah, it's pretty amazing. Well, Lubna, thank you so much for sharing your story.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

Oh my god, I had such a good time.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

I'm glad they really appreciate it. Thank you, Linda.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

I appreciate you. You're such a queen. You're so sweet.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Yes, a wallah you are. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Siddhi's Stories, where we honor the voices and highlight the achievements of Palestinian women. Lumna's journey as a single mother, a two-time cancer survivor, and now the force behind Lulu's Crackers is nothing short of extraordinary. She reminds us how family and faith can carry us through life's toughest moments. Every part of her journey has been shaped by the people and traditions that came before her. Don't forget to support Lulu's Crackers. Behind every bite is a story of love, heritage, and perseverance. You can order directly through her new website, luluscrackers.com, and find them in select Middle Eastern stores on the East Coast. The link can be found in the description of this episode. If Lumna's stories resonated with you, share this episode with someone who needs a reminder that resilience and passion can turn challenges into purpose. Please leave us a rating and a review and connect with us on social media at sites.stories on Instagram. Until next time, stay rooted, stay resilient, and keep sharing your stories. Ma salama.