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Anya Leily's avatar

i literally teared up from reading this...

im a first generation american (my family is from iran) so many of these references really hit home for me - the mint tea, cardamom pastries, and noisy uncles. we need these pieces of our culture to remind us of home, and to remind us that america doesnt belong to one people or race. here's to embracing our cultures and beautiful heritage in countries that may not welcome us ♥️

amal rasheed's avatar

cheers to that, always! thank you for reading and commenting, and may we keep embracing both the similarities and differences of our cultures.

Anya Leily's avatar

hi amal, i recently wrote an essay on some of the same themes - thinking about how we build community and friendship in diaspora 🤍 would love to hear your thoughts if you have the chance to read!!

https://open.substack.com/pub/towardbecoming/p/on-friendship-as-resilience?r=1lprsq&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

amal rasheed's avatar

thank you for sharing! i'll give it a read!

tinygiant's avatar

this post is really beautiful.

The only thing more powerful than hate is love and the only thing more beautiful than being different is being accepted.

The diversity of cultures that exist is our strength and I'm really hoping more people will start recognising that.

Hope we'll get the share cardamom pastries one day!

amal rasheed's avatar

thank you so much for reading and for writing back, here’s to the hope that one day everyone will realize that there is beauty in being different!

°.⋆'s avatar

you write so well, i loved reading this. the analogy made is so interesting and real. gives a lot to reflect on

laymoona's avatar

oh my this was such a beautiful read. perfectly captured the essence of diaspora

rana.'s avatar

i haven’t read such a beautifully articulated article in such a long time, thank you !

amal rasheed's avatar

that is so sweet of you to say 💕

Vanessa Terschluse's avatar

"leisure, of community, of embracing differences while discovering similarities" to me was exactly what stood out from Benito's performance. In a context where we, 'the other' continue to be dehumanised, making space for our joy, celebrating our cultural differences is so important.

"To be human we must be different, but to be American we must all be the same? " Incredibly powerful!

This was such a beautiful read, thank you so much <3

amal rasheed's avatar

thank you so much for reading, and for this reflection 💌

Sofaraway's avatar

It's crazy to me that the US has the nerve to bomb all these countries and then send their army to kidnap the refugees that THEY created like what??

Sofaraway's avatar

I am too latina okay(I'm born in india,live in the middle east)

zainab ⋆⭒˚🪐's avatar

I absolutely loved this! subscribed 🤍

amal rasheed's avatar

thank you for being here 🫂💕

yazzie's avatar

this was beautiful and resonated so so well with me- I felt like I was back in Morocco reading the first part! the sense of family and community you created with the description of the senses was amazing. Additionally some really interesting and significant topics brought up. We shouldn't be divided by hate. I can't imagine the tension of living in America right now.

amal rasheed's avatar

thank you 💌 i appreciate you reading, and im so happy you resonated :')

美良陽瑠's avatar

this was a beautiful read, and shows how the language of resistance speaks to all

amal rasheed's avatar

the language of resistance, I love that. thank you for reading and writing back <3

Maya Abd Rabbou's avatar

a harsh reality that is so beautifully said mA ☝🏻