Categories
Press Editor's Picks 40 Women to Watch

Want to make The Tempest 40 Women to Watch List? 2020 nominations are now open!

Nominations for The Tempest’s 2020 40 Women to Watch List are now open. 

Every year, we honor women who are making an impact on the world at large, their industries and communities. Founders, activists, writers, policy-makers, filmmakers, influencers—they’re all here. It’s an impressive club. The Tempest is built on the belief that women and nonbinary people from every corner of the world should be able to tell their own stories and own their impact and legacies. We especially love featuring people who may have just begun on their journeys – journeys with potential to create real change.

Last year’s honorees included up-and-coming comedians like Jenny Yang and Fatima Dhowre, who are making space for all of us in predominantly-male comedic spaces. Past honorees also include United States Artists’ Deana Haggag, AccessNow‘s Maayan Ziv, poet Jasmin Kaur, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen. These honorees were just a few from thousands of nominations that we received – nominations that you submitted.

Every year, we work through thousands of nominations, submitted by people like you. Through a careful process, these nominations serve as the first step for our team working on the annual list. Think you or someone you know should join the ranks of the 40 Women to Watch? Please complete this online nomination form for our 2020 Global List.

Here’s some helpful information about the process.

Which countries and regions are covered?

Incredible women from all over the globe are eligible to be nominated. Citizenship does not matter, instead please apply to the region where the nominees (and their business) are most prominent.

Can nonbinary or genderfluid people be nominated? 

Absolutely. We acknowledge that people who experience or have experienced the world as women come in many gender expressions and we are open to nominations of nonbinary and genderfluid individuals.

How do we create the list?

It’s a multi-step process. Through open nominations, recommendations by past List-makers, organizations, and influencers, and reporting by The Tempest editorial team, we assemble thousands of candidates. Next, The Tempest team will narrow down the list, looking carefully for women who are rising stars, tackling new challenges and making a difference in the world and their communities. Finally, our founder and co-founder, Laila Alawa and Mashal Waqar, review the list and green-light it for publication.

What are you looking for in the nomination?

Our team takes a fully holistic approach as we evaluate each nomination. There’s no one metric that is key for making it on the list – but it helps if you include all of the most impressive attributes that put the candidate’s best foot forward.

What are the 10 categories?

For the 2020 list, there are 10 categories: Activism, Art & Design, Beauty & Fashion, Content Creator, Entrepreneurship, Media & Literature, Music & Entertainment, Politics & Policy, Sports, STEM & Finance.

What if I’m not sure what category to pick?

Most people could fall under a number of categories. Take some time and try and identify which industry your nominee is most prominently impacting. For example, even though an Artist could qualify for a number of categories, you should pick Art & Design. Don’t worry if you feel like you made the wrong choice. Our editors review all the nominations and make the final call.

What if a company or organization has more than one founder?

Yes, two women co-founders of one organization can be nominated together. When nominating, be sure to include all names of your co-founders or partners. If you don’t, we may not consider them. Note: if they aren’t women, they aren’t eligible, but you still are.

What is the deadline for submissions?

Our nominations will close in November 2019.

Who owns the nominations?

Once you hit submit, the nomination becomes the property of The Tempest. We may choose to use the contents of your nomination for the purpose of advertising, marketing, promotion, and publicizing the 40 Women to Watch List. Contact information will remain internal.

More questions? Please email womentowatch@thetempest.co.

Categories
Editor's Picks Reproductive Rights Gender Policy Inequality

Alabama’s attack on our bodies is terrifying, but ignoring it is even worse

I’m mad, and I’m exhausted because reproductive rights are always under attack.

For years it has felt like every month there is a new abortion horror story to fight and mourn. In the last month, bills in several U.S. states have sought to seriously infringe on the right to an abortion. It feels like the tide is turning against abortion access in my home country, and that scares me.

Every time a new law is passed, or I hear the story of a woman risking it all to get an abortion, I am emotionally devastated.

Seven years ago, I had an abortion, and I have been phone-banking, protesting, and sharing my story ever since. Seven years is a drop in the bucket compared to the activists who have been tirelessly working for decades. But at only 29, I’m really fucking tired of mincing words, looking out for people’s feelings and openly discussing my very private reproductive history to try to get folks to care.

This is not about me. I will always have access to abortion. I live in a country with good access. I have a family with resources, a passport, and all the trappings of privilege.

This is about everyone.

The people who will suffer the most when access to abortion is restricted, are the poor, the young and other marginalized folks who cannot afford the time or money to get treatment anywhere else. If an anti-choice politician’s mistress, wife or partner becomes inconveniently or God-forbid violently pregnant, they can afford to leave to get the healthcare they need.

Restricting or eliminating abortion access is inhumane. Not only does it devalue the lives of women and all people who can get pregnant, but it also devalues the futures of those at the margins of society.

Access to birth control leads to fewer abortions, but the same (conservative Christian) religiously-informed morality that drives people to outlaw abortion also results in reduced access to sex education and birth control. That kind of hypocrisy does not stem from logic, but delusions about the immorality of sex.

I get it. Abortion isn’t nice to think about in the specifics.

I have been in a Planned Parenthood, have gone through the emotional and physical experience of an abortion, and I know about it as well as anyone. But as a society, we don’t get to force people to complete pregnancies because the process of terminating is a bummer.

In Northern Ireland, Brazil, theUnited States, El Salvador, Egypt — and so many other places — women are suffering, imprisoned or dying.

My privilege has left me with a kind of survivor’s guilt, knowing the life I have would not exist if I didn’t have access to abortion. People are facing criminal charges for miscarriages and seeking unsafe back-alley abortions, and yet the laws keep coming. It makes me sick.

The anti-abortion movement is not about loving life.

Instead, it is couched in paternalism and societal hatred of half of the world’s population. It is about contempt for the poor and the working-class, along with the fear of sexuality that is not privileged, cisgender, and male. You can wrap up this hatred in a shiny, tearful “save the babies” package but that does not change what this is—a clear trampling of reproductive rights.

 

If you’re as mad as me, you can do your part to protect abortion access. In the United States, you can volunteer with or donate to your local abortion fund, Planned Parenthood, or NARAL. Internationally, Marie Stopes International and IPAS, are doing important work.  

Categories
Love + Sex Love

Bohemian Rhapsody made me cry, and not in a good way

Note on word usage: Throughout this article, I use the word bisexual. It is a word widely used to identify people who are attracted to genders the same as their own as well as different. Pansexual is another word to describe fluid sexuality and the usage of one or the other is a matter of personal preference.
Bisexual erasure is not benign. It destroys people, it marginalizes bisexuals of all genders, but the harm it does to men is particularly profound. The stigma for women tends to be focused around the image of the slut, the untrustworthy interloper but outright erasure seems to affect men even more. It is a heartbreaking mix of homophobia and bi erasure – men who come out as bi risk losing so much especially if they are with women. Women and feminine presenting folks are, generally speaking, allowed more room to be sexually fluid. Bisexuality in its feminine form is fetishized, which is a horrible thing, but in its masculine form, it is all too often seen as repulsive. Homophobic stereotypes around men are so strong, and bisexual men are subject to them in equal measure. Imagine, bi men’s identities are often erased as soon as they come out and on top of it, they are subject to homophobia. It’s no wonder so many bisexual men stay in the closet for so long.
When Bohemian Rhapsody, the film about Freddie Mercury’s life came out in 2018, I prayed that it would begin a much-needed conversation about bisexuality. Freddie, as he made very clear in his lifetime was bisexual. Yes, I’m used to people calling him gay because the fact is people don’t give a shit about bisexuals but this film was going to fix that. It did not. I think the thing that hurt the most was seeing Rami Malek, who plays Freddie in the film refer to him as gay while accepting an Oscar for the role. A man who played Freddie, who embodied his love for Mary Austin as well as his sexual and romantic attraction to men and his beautiful queerness managed to deny the legend his identity. I put off watching the film, I was not ready. When I finally gave in, I openly wept because it’s such a beautiful portrayal of a complex, queer, bisexual man and it seems everyone but my own community failed to see it. Freddie was brave and true to himself, he was punished for being bisexual, he was punished for being labeled as gay and it breaks my heart.
I want to hold Freddie’s face in my hands, tell him he’s loved and he is seen. People like me and Freddie Mercury represent 50% of people who identify as LGBTQ, but you wouldn’t know it if you weren’t bisexual. Neither sexuality nor humanity fit into a binary. This world is filled not just with men and women, not just gay and straight and failure to acknowledge those of us in the middle is at this point, purposeful. We deserve better, so we will keep shouting. We will keep claiming our icons and correcting revisionist history.
Categories
Health Care Love Life Stories

To the mothers who chose to wait

I have the best mom, and that’s one of the reasons I want to be a mother myself.

More than anything, I want to pass that love forward.

As mother’s day draws near though, I am not only thinking about her but about my own strange experience of motherhood. In the summer of 2012, my birth control failed and two weeks after a tumultuous breakup I found myself pregnant in a city where I barely knew anyone. My mother was three hours away by bus, my father was in Afghanistan, my ex was refusing to speak to me, and I had all of two friends in Philadelphia.

I found out unceremoniously: I had gone to the hospital with stomach pains and, while in the ER, a nurse opened the curtain around my bed and said, “You’re pregnant.” 

Those two words made my world fall apart.

I was in a daze from the morphine. I had no idea what to do. My mind raced.

I was still a university student, I didn’t have a dime in the bank, and I was pretty sure my parents weren’t down with abortion. But then again, they’d never talked about it.

After what felt like an eternity, a doctor came into the room and told me that the pain and vomiting were likely an overreaction to morning sickness and they would discharge me immediately. It felt wrong, but I didn’t want to question a doctor, so I went home.

I was in excruciating pain for days after, until I finally broke down and tried to get a public bus to the hospital. I was so delirious that a fellow passenger removed me from the bus and brought me to the hospital herself.

She was the first in a series of nameless women I will always love for what they did for me.

When I arrived, I was nearly triaged back to the waiting room – until I mentioned I was pregnant.

I don’t remember getting up to the tenth floor, but when the pain subsided, I was in the most peaceful hospital ward I had ever been in. Everyone was smiling, the nurses and doctors were taking my pain seriously, and maybe it was in my head, but I swear there was soothing music playing the whole time.

That’s when a nurse with a big smile and a hijab walked to my bedside and said,

“How are you feeling, mama?”

My heart skipped a beat. I knew I couldn’t have this baby, but word sent me to a place I wasn’t ready for: Motherhood.

I learned I had appendicitis and required surgery right away.

I called my mother, who did not yet know I was pregnant and was scheduled for life-saving surgery early the next morning. Now, until you have waited for your historically conservative mother to meet you in the maternity ward of a hospital, secretly pregnant and single, you do not know the meaning of the word, anxiety. It didn’t take long for her to realize what was happening, and through my tears, I had the sweetest realization: My mother was on my side.

Right then, we had to get my appendix out before it killed me, but we talked about what I would do after, and she was completely supportive. She admitted she hadn’t really thought about it, but her willingness to be okay with my choice meant everything.

The next few weeks were a blur.

I got out of surgery and would have to wait three more weeks until I could have the abortion. I wanted to be at home with my mother, but my parents lived in Virginia and getting an abortion there was complicated and difficult. My only option was to stay in Philadelphia.

When you’ve made the decision to get an abortion, there is an overwhelming sense of urgency. You want it done and over with. Every minute you spend pregnant is strange, emotional, confusing and heartbreaking. I sat on my couch for weeks. In the end, I waited for a month and during that time, I felt unexpectedly like a mother.

The days melted one into another.

I slowly wandered my neighborhood carrying a secret in my womb. Pregnancy surprised me and destroyed all of my preconceptions.  I knew the tiny soon-to-be baby inside of me was biologically little more than a rough sketch of human life, but I loved them.

With every breath, I felt the presence of this child that did not yet fully exist and which I knew never would.

Every day, I spoke to them. I explained that I loved them but couldn’t be the mother they would need. I fell asleep with my hands over my bandages, sending vibrations of adoration.

Despite all of this, I was never unsure of my choice.

The time passed and I went to Planned Parenthood with my friend and started the process of getting an abortion. The law required me to have an ultrasound to see my fetus and then sent me to “counseling” to make sure I actually wanted an abortion.  

I powered through.

I wasn’t able to be put into twilight sleep for surgical abortion since the clinic was fully booked. I would be awake, which scared me, but I was ready to be strong.

The room was sterile, I met a doctor and a lovely young volunteer who smiled at me and said she was there to hold my hand. I lay down on the paper-lined bed, and he put the cold forceps inside of me. The pain of dilation was intense.

I held onto that woman’s hand like my life depended on it. I don’t know who she was, but I love her for being there for me.

After what felt like forever, the vacuum began to roar. I clenched my teeth. I tried to stay strong. Afterward, I sat up and saw my thighs were covered in blood. I wasn’t ready for that- it looked like something out of a slasher film.

The doctor said it was normal.

I sat in the recovery room, cramping and listening to my iPod. I wasn’t mourning. I was grateful. Abortion isn’t easy, and it doesn’t come without a cost, but because of my abortion, I can have the life I do.

I will choose when I have children, and on the days when I get sad about the decision I made so many years ago, my husband looks at me and tells me what I know to be true: That baby is going to come back to me eventually. I love the child I never had.

I know now that it’s possible to love something more than anything in the universe, the love of a mother is incomparable and I tasted it.

To mothers of children who never were, to the mothers who chose to wait: Happy Mother’s Day.

Our stories aren’t told, and I want to be open about what it’s like to not regret your abortion, but still, have learned motherly love from the experience of pregnancy.

Categories
Culture Life

Look to art history for hope after the Notre Dame fire

When my husband came to tell me that it looked like Notre Dame’s precious stained glass windows would be lost in the blaze consuming the cathedral earlier tonight, I started to cry. I thought of them standing over Paris since the 13th century, surviving war and ruin time and time again. I remember poring over the rose windows’ intricacies in the first Art History class of my degree. The pain ran deep and it surprised me. I Googled to find out the status of the windows and became frustrated when I could not get an immediate answer. Then I took a step back.

What was I doing freaking out over windows? There were so many people fighting that fire, breathing the smoke to save the artwork within and crying because preservation of Notre Dame is their life’s work. There are people for whom this is a symbol of national pride. There are firefighters and first responders on the ground who are no doubt putting their lives at risk to save this icon of Gothic art and architecture. They are the ones I should have been worrying about.

The interior of the Notre Dame cathedral before the fire.
[Image description: The interior of the Notre Dame cathedral before the fire.] © 2018 Pedro Szekely, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio
Throughout history, we have lost great buildings, pieces of art, even whole cities. Notre Dame has survived destruction before, and the difference between then and now is the vital fields of art history, museum and restoration studies, and archaeology. I will never see the Library of Alexandria, nor many of the pieces of art looted by the Nazis during World War II, but future generations will no doubt have access to what is lost in the Notre Dame fire.

I may have left my Art History studies behind when I graduated from university, but the field is still close to my heart. I know for a fact that art historians will be there when the dust has settled and the smoke has dissipated. There will be a dynamic, creative rebirth. Right now, that’s what I am holding fast to. Never before in history have we been more able to study, understand and interact with art that that is not physically accessible. From my dorm room in Maryland, I had access to some of the world’s greatest landmarks and collections, big and small on my computer via the Google Arts and Culture project. I know nothing can replace the experience of standing inside a cathedral as maroon-tinted light filters through the ancient, impossibly intricate stained glass, but there will be so much more life for this building and for those windows.

The art that is not swallowed up in the fire will be rescued and lovingly restored. It will see the (metaphorical) light of day again. The building will again be rebuilt; it will be slow, but the build will be more accurate than what could have been done before. The exact space with all its history cannot be replicated, but its stories can and will be shared. Museums around the world are exploring the potential of holograms, augmented reality, immersive experiences and the democratization of places that were once only for the elite. I think maybe I’m supposed to feel more hopeless; maybe my degree should have taught me that nothing can replace the feeling of standing in front of art. Instead, I am buoyed by hope.

Still, I can’t help thinking about the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. After its destruction at the hands of Daesh, I did not feel the same hope. 

[Image description: An avenue of classical columns before they were destroyed in Palmyra, Syria.] Via Wikimedia Commons
I feared too few people understood or respected the amount of priceless art and architecture that was lost. I am sure that impossibly large sums of money will soon be flowing toward the Notre Dame. Maybe it will be crowdfunded, and much will come from the government of France and other benefactors with deep pockets. They will understand and respect what was lost, not because it is any better than Palymra but because history has always prioritized Europe.

Palmyra will never see the kind of money and attention that Notre Dame will. I do not mean to lessen the loss, particularly for the people of France, but it needs to be said.

While museums have started to make themselves more accessible to people of all backgrounds, we must ask why money and innovation are so often put into preserving the Western Canon and we must advocate for that to change. I want to live in a world where the destruction of treasures in Paris and in Syria, in Tibet or in Rome receive not only similar attention but also resources. Until then, I will hold onto the hope that lurks behind the pain: that this is just one hard day in Notre Dame’s long history stretching back – and forward -in time.

Categories
Editor's Picks Skin Care Lookbook

What I really mean when I talk about skincare

Earlier this year one of my best friends moved to Cambodia.

Before she left, I stopped by to see her London office to say goodbye. We talked about a lot of things but what dominated the conversation was our current skincare routines. It wasn’t a shallow conversation; we weren’t avoiding talking about our feelings, we don’t struggle with that – it’s simply one of the ways we show each other we care. So many traditionally feminine interests are made out to be frivolous, but these conversations carry a subtle power.

When I recommend a facemask or a night cream what I’m saying is, “I love you and I want you to have something nice.” Skincare has nothing to do with your career or your boyfriend; it’s something private and something that makes you feel nourished and special.

Skincare has nothing to do with your career or your boyfriend.


When I think about the time I spent as a young girl with my friends having sleepovers, self-care always played a role. It did so because that’s what we saw in movies, that’s what was sold to us in the pages of American Girl Magazine, and we accepted that without question. We built a bond braiding each other’s hair and making facemasks from ingredients in the fridge.

Maybe we were playing directly into a patriarchal idea of what it meant to be a girl, but that’s how we formed a sisterhood.

Anyone who is raised or socialized as a woman will know what I’m talking about. Sisterhood is something that might have been exclusive to our gender at the time, but it is a concept we put into practice across genders as adults. We learned that we could trust our sisters with anything. As we grew up those bonds strengthened and some of our sisters became our brothers and our non-binary siblings. We pass along these rituals, knowing that skincare and self-care are not gendered.

Yes, we can all be soft, and care for each other.

This communal focus on skincare feels generational.


I love skincare because it feels divorced from the baggage of makeup that must be applied just so and announces itself to the world. It feels removed from the pain of exercise and health consciousness.

No workouts. No calories. Just creams.

Yes, there is an expectation that we must keep looking young and the skincare industry is also rife with misogyny, but that’s exactly what makes these conversations between friends so precious. I don’t recommend skincare products because I saw an ad, but because they have served me in some way. Talking about skincare feels intimate, maybe because our routines take place in the privacy of our bathrooms and bedside tables, early in the morning and late at night. Somehow, these rituals are about more than beauty or products.

This is exemplified in the success of the Forever 35 podcast. Two friends, Doree Shafrir and Kate Spencer, who “love to talk a lot about serums” host a podcast that somehow manages to sooth, enlighten and get to the heart of what matters.

At its core, it’s just two women who love each other talking about their dreams, struggles and, of course, their serums. Two women who work hard, who are no less intellectual for their love of skincare. The way they talk about moisturizers and facemasks seems to encompass everything that it means to be friends. This is an entry point into so many other important topics, including some life-changing education about hemorrhoids which people often suffer from in silence. Shafrir and Spencer have created a space in which self-care is neither stigmatized nor glamorized and the results are incredible. A glance at the Forever 35 Facebook community or its dozens of spinoffs reveals just how deeply it resonates.

This communal focus on skincare feels generational.

So many millennial and generation X women watched our mothers and grandmothers stress over wrinkles and skin cancer.  They used straightening combs or laid in the sun for months without protection. Now we are wearing our hair natural and religiously wearing SPF 50.

We learned that we could trust our sisters with anything.


We grew up with television shows about extreme plastic surgery. I remember one horrible horrible show called The Swan in which “ugly ducklings” competed each week as they received more and more surgery and treatments to become the most beautiful of all. I watched every episode when I was 13.

The 90s and the early 00s were a time of painful, violent beauty. Magazine covers featured heroin-chic models, it seemed the thinner you were and the more plastic surgery you had, the better. Skincare in the way that myself and my friends talk about it in 2019 is decidedly not. The focus is on simplicity, on natural remedies and moving away from the toxic.

Popular beauty podcasts like Forever 35 and Natch Beaut take a relaxed, funny approach. Today’s beauty culture is far from perfect, but there’s a gentleness to it that was not afforded to our mothers.

The world is not a gentle place, but the space between friends discussing their favorite facial oils is, and that is sacred.

We talk about skincare because we want to remind each other that, in the reckless whirl of life, news and social media, we must make space to protect and care for ourselves. When I ask a friend what their favorite moisturizer is, it is because I want to be sure they are taking the time to put it on at night, setting down their phone and their worries and caressing their skin.

I want to know they are treating themselves well because I love them.

Categories
Press Editor's Picks

Want to make The Tempest 40 Women to Watch List? Nominations for 2019 are now open!

Nominations for The Tempest’s 40 Women to Watch 2019 List are now open! Please note: all submissions must be in by November 15th, 2018 to qualify.

Every year, we honor women who are making an impact on the world at large, their industries and communities. Founders, activists, writers, foodies, filmmakers, fashionistas—they’re all here. It’s an impressive club. The Tempest is built on the belief that women from every corner of the world should be able to tell their own stories and own their impact and legacies. This December, we’ll welcome to this dynamic group 40 new trailblazers from different spaces, countries, and lives for our third annual list.

Property of The Tempest, Inc.

Think you or someone you know should be honored on this list? Please fill out this nomination form for our 2019 Global List.

Here’s some helpful information about the process.

Which countries and regions are covered?

Incredible women from all over the globe are eligible to be nominated. Citizenship does not matter, instead please apply to the region where the nominees (and their business) are most prominent.

Can nonbinary or genderfluid people be nominated? 

Absolutely. We acknowledge that people who experience or have experienced the world as women come in many gender expressions and we are open to nominations of nonbinary and genderfluid individuals.

How do we create the list?

It’s a multi-step process. Through open nominations, recommendations by past List-makers, organizations, and influencers, and reporting by The Tempest editorial team, we assemble thousands of candidates. Next, The Tempest team will narrow down the list, looking carefully for women who are rising stars, tackling new challenges and making a difference in the world and their communities. Finally, our founder and co-founder, Laila Alawa and Mashal Waqar, review the list and green-light it for publication.

What are the categories?

Art & Style

Finance

Food & Drink

Gaming

Healthcare

Hollywood & Entertainment

Law & Policy

Media & Literature

Music

Science

Social Justice

Social Entrepreneurs

Sports

Tech

What if a company or organization has more than one founder?

Yes, two women co-founders of one organization can be nominated together. When nominating, be sure to include all names of your co-founders or partners. If you don’t, we may not consider them. Note: if they aren’t women, they aren’t eligible, but you still are.

Who owns the nominations?

Once you hit submit, the nomination becomes the property of The Tempest. We may choose to use the contents of your nomination for the purpose of advertising, marketing, promotion, and publicizing the 40 Women to Watch List.

More questions? Please email womentowatch@thetempest.co.

Categories
Startups Tech Money Career Advice Now + Beyond

10 female entrepreneurs who are changing the way things are done in the Arab World

Presented in partnership with Womena.

There’s a clear lack of funding in the startup ecosystem, with female founders getting only 2% of venture capital in 2017.

However, Womena is leveling the playing field by ensuring female entrepreneurs are supported so they can succeed.

One of their game-changing initiatives, the Womentum Accelerator program, is the first early-stage accelerator that focuses solely on female-led startups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Womentum graduated their first cohort, with a diverse portfolio covering everything from employee engagement and satisfaction to investment platforms and on-demand beauty services.

These female founders are taking over the world by creating regional and global waves.

1. Mennat Allah,  XPay, Egypt

Image description: The founders of XPay, a man and woman are standing together smiling.
Image description: The founders of XPay, a man and woman are standing together smiling.

Using blockchain technology to power a cashless community-powered family wallet?  The future of finance is here and Mennat Allah and her husband, Mohamed Abdelmottaleb, are implementing it in people’s everyday lives.

2. Amira Cheniour and Inès Hamida, Seabex, Tunisia

Image description: The six founders of Seabex, three women and three men doing funny poses for the camera.
Image description: The six founders of Seabex, three women and three men doing funny poses for the camera.

Seabex is a smart-automation and e-monitoring system that tracks environmental factors to help farmers make better decisions as well as automating things like turning irrigation systems on or off depending on what is needed. This will help farmers work smarter as well as helping the environment, proving that sustainability doesn’t have to be a limiting factor in developing agrarian economies.

3. Sarah Bacon, We Share Property, United Arab Emirates

Image description: The founders of WeShareProperty, a man in a blue shirt and a woman in a dark tank top.
Image description: The founders of WeShareProperty, a man in a blue shirt and a woman in a dark tank top.

We Share Property is an investment platform for the real estate industry to professionalize and streamline the experience of real estate investment making it more accessible to people than ever.

5. Romouz Sadeq, Mrayti, Jordan

Image description: The founders of Myrati, three men and three women crowd in to take a selfie together in a mirror.
Image description: The founding team of Mrayti, three men and three women crowd in to take a selfie together in a mirror.

A unique mobile salon for the Arab world where customers can book different services of their choosing, the salon features a booking system for stylists and artists that smoothly integrates with their calendars. It provides a mobile salon, allowing customers to access on-demand beauty and personal care.

6. Nouf Al Saleem, Mathaqi, Saudi Arabia 

Image description: The founder of Mathaqi, a woman wearing black with long, dark hair.
Image description: The co-founder of Mathaqi, a woman wearing black with long, dark hair.

Mathaqi‘s mission is to provide home-cooked meals from international cuisines delivered to users on demand. The company allows home cooks and small businesses to be able to provide a professional, deliverable product without taking the risk of setting up a business on their own.

7.  Houda Miroche, Zelij, Morocco

mage courtesy of Womena. Image description: The founder of Zelij, a woman in a white shirt and long dark hair speaks into a microphone in front of a crowd with the logo of her company behind her.
Image courtesy of Womena. Image description: The founder of Zelij, a woman in a white shirt and long dark hair speaks into a microphone in front of a crowd with the logo of her company behind her.

Zelij is working to turn plastic waste into sustainable building materials, such as eco-friendly paving stones and floor tiles made from plastic waste. Their Paveco product is made with 80% plastic waste and is comparable to standard paving.

8. Dara Alsulayman, Jaazi, Saudi Arabia/United Arab Emirates

Image description: The founder of Jaazi, a woman in a white shirt and blue blazer with long dark hair.
Image description: The founder of Jaazi, a woman in a white shirt and blue blazer with long dark hair.

Meet the future: an employee engagement tool that looks to combat disengagement in the workplace using a perks and benefits marketplace and a pulse-survey tool. Jaazi is working to create a more empathetic work environment in the Middle East by opening up channels of communication and engagement between employees and employers.

9. Reham Elmasry and Ingi Naguib, Furnwish, Egypt

Image description: The founders of Furnwish, two men and two women stand in front of a blackboard.
Image description: The founders of Furnwish, two men and two women stand in front of a blackboard.

Using immersive augmented reality experience, Furnwish allows users to try out and see furniture in their own spaces, in real-time. This is the perfect fix to making sure users don’t invest in furniture or the hassle of bringing it home – only to find out it doesn’t fit the space as they may have expected.

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Editor's Picks Shopping Nails Lookbook

GIVEAWAY! + 10 matte liquid lipsticks you’ll love – & they’re made by a 16-year-old genius

Presented in partnership with Sweet Zeek.

 

When it comes to of-the-moment trends, there’s nothing in makeup quite as big as the liquid matte lip.

Need proof? Scroll through your Insta feed and take note of just how many of your favorite celebrity lip looks include a matte finish.

[bctt tweet=”When it comes to of-the-moment trends, there’s nothing in makeup quite as big as the liquid matte lip. Cue: #SweetZeek.” username=”wearethetempest”]

So when we discovered Sweet Zeek, we fell in love with the sixteen-year-old founder, Zenab Mir, because her personality and ethos shine through in every shade of matte lippie she creates. Naturally, we couldn’t help ourselves: we asked Zenab to tell us more about what inspired each of her halal, cruelty-free lipsticks.

Oh, and she’s also giving away the gorgeous matte lipsticks to three lucky winners – so here’s to snagging your fave color. I couldn’t resist: I’ve gathered up ten of the lipsticks that are totally irresistible.

Win a ?fire? matte lipstick to up your look!

You ready for this?

1. Not everything in life is planned, so Relative Theory is right on time.

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

This is a subtle but pretty shade with a great backstory.

“Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted that the space-time around Earth would be not only warped but also twisted by the planet’s rotation,” says Zenab. “The essence of this idea made me realize that not everything in life is linear or turns out how we planned. But no matter what twists life creates, it’s a beautiful process. And if we embrace it, we can be all be part of something special.”

Get the shade right here!

2. She’s All Laney is the ultimate ode to She’s All That. Transformation? Check.

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

A deep, autumnal pink She’s All Laney is the perfect feminine shade for the change of seasons. Zenab says it’s a reference to, “one of my favorite movies of all time, She’s All That. The main character Laney is someone I totally relate to- awkward, weird, and a social outcast. I’ll admit, I’d totally swoon over Freddy Prince Jr.”

Get the shade right here!

3. Milhouse Thrillhouse is for every diehard Simpsons‘ fan!

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

He might not be a style icon, but this color inspired by the iconic nerd, Milhouse is drop-dead gorgeous. For Zenab, he was an obvious choice: “I’m a huge Simpson’s fan and of course one of my favorite nerds of all time is Milhouse. He’s my nerd crush with those red glasses, blue hair, and flood pants!”

Get the shade right here!

4. We can all rock The Force, no matter what.

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

“When Obi-Wan Kenobi first told Luke Skywalker ‘It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together,'” Zenab told us that there was a time when her older sister told her something very similar, “We all have The Force inside us, and we just have to learn how to tap into it. It’s what makes us all unique and what gives us each our own special powers.” Yeah. Powerful.

Get the shade right here!

5. Are you about to lay down some truth? Lay down that Bazinga!

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

Zenab has a great story behind this beautiful coffee color. “Back in grade eight, a group of kids in my class always use to make fun of me. One day they had to do a presentation for the class on the greenhouse effect. When it was time for questions, I called them out on their diagram that showed how pollution was directly destroying the ozone layer. I was like, ‘Actually, it’s the chlorine from CFCs that steals an oxygen atom from the ozone molecule and then breaks down to release the same chlorine atom repeating the cycle. What are you… like, stupid?’ BAZINGA!”

[bctt tweet=”‘We all have The Force inside us, and we just have to learn how to tap into it. It’s what makes us all unique and what gives us each our own special powers.’ -Zenab of #SweetZeek” username=”wearethetempest”]

Get the shade right here!

 

Win a ?fire? matte lipstick to up your look!

 

6. You’re So DOS brings early computing back!

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

A brilliant, shimmery pink color, You’re So DOS is a reference to early computing. “I learned that long ago, before the time of Microsoft Windows and Apple, there was a thing called DOS (disk operating system) that needed to be loaded into every computer in order to begin operating it! Talk about ancient technology.”

Get the shade right here!

7. Ready to channel classic video games with Sephiroth?

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

The shimmery, bubblegum pink color in the collection is a reference to one of the most beloved and seminal video games of all time. “Every nerd has a favorite video game that they can play for hours. Mine is Final Fantasy VII. The main antagonist is Sephiroth who possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes. A master swordsman, he can create beams of energy by swinging his Masamune and cut through solid metal and concrete.”

Get the shade right here!

8. Poindexter isn’t for the faint of heart.

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

We love the moody, deep wine color of Poindexter almost as much as the heartwarming family story that inspired the name.

“My grandfather first came to Canada back in the late 1960s, and back then he used to wear those glasses that Malcolm X wore,” Zenab explains. “It turned out his classmates considered those to be quite nerdy and called him ‘Poindexter,’ which is slang for ‘nerd.’ Looks like being nerdy runs in my genes.”

Get the shade right here!

9. Whenever you feel like showing every bit of yourself, Urkel is here to help out.

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

A deep, dark chocolate color, Urkel is here for moments you want to make a statement. “Back in the 90s during the time of great family sitcoms, there was a particular show called Family Matters that starred one of the biggest nerds of all time: Steve Urkel. My friends have told me I sometimes snort-laugh like Urkel.”

Get the shade right here!

10. Clark Kent is here to help you shed those pesky fears.

@sweetzeek / Via instagram.com

Sometimes, a swipe of bright red lipstick is all you need to feel like you can take on the world. “The story of Superman has resonated a lot with me lately, especially after I launched my business. I feel that despite our outward appearances, there’s a hero inside all of us. Sometimes it takes a little courage to shed the fears and taunts of the outside world, and unleash the superhero inside.”

Get the shade right here!

 

Win a ?fire? matte lipstick to up your look!

Categories
Gender & Identity Life

How converting to Judaism is changing me in ways I never expected

Forget January, autumn always has been and always will be my personal new year.

Summer is slowing down, gently pulling back to reveal autumn and as I am every year, I am filled with energy, with the possibility and newness of the season. This is my second autumn since deciding to convert to Judaism and with that decision came a new lens with which to view my favorite time of year- the Jewish new year.

As I reach the end of the Hebrew month of Elul- a time of reflection and getting ready for the radical soul-baring renewal of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year), I’m grateful for a tradition that builds in time to prepare. Elul is like the final month before you go back to school when your only priority is to savor every moment of sun-drenched relaxation you can have.

Except with more Torah, if that’s your thing.

I adore the warmth and the bright vibration of early autumn. Growing up moving between countries, I would always arrive somewhere new in late August. My heart would flutter as the plane took off from Washington Dulles Airport and my eyes would dart wildly, even if it was the middle of the night, eager to take everything once we landed in a country I’d never seen before that would become my new home.

New languages, new schools, whole new universes vibrating with possibility were revealed to me during these autumns.

One of the first things that I fell in love with when I got serious about becoming Jewish was the Hebrew calendar.

It may sound strange, but I delighted in the new year coming in the autumn, and in the months changing with no regard for the wider world around me- just the moon. I’m not sure if people outside understand just how much of an agrarian, nature-focused tradition Judaism is.

The major holidays are defined by the growing season they fall in and which they historically celebrated. 

During the new year, the bounty of the late-summer harvest touches everything. Ripe round pomegranates and apples adorn Rosh Hashanah tables across the world and the weekly Challah, usually an oblong braided bread, is filled with fruit and honey and wrapped in a round boule, symbolizing the circular nature of time and the sweetness of new beginnings.

In autumn, I see G-d everywhere, in family and friends gathered around the table and the way the earth shifts around me.

I find myself enamored by pumpkins, apples, kale.

Federweisser, the partially fermented wine that is drunk here in Germany is sold by the liter and the season’s first wild game arrives at the market.

Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of a time of plenty, but after the new year, instead of jumping headfirst into new things, we turn solemn.

A week later, the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur arrives. In English, it’s sometimes called the Day of Atonement.

Yom Kippur is a twenty-five hour fast which most people spend in a synagogue, asking to be forgiven, reflecting, and committing to turn away from our missteps and course-correct in the new year. The fast can be grueling, but it puts the joyful abundance of autumn into perspective and makes the whole thing sweeter.

I have never left a New Year’s party feeling in any way energized, restored or prepared for a new year of challenges and joys. The first day of January feels arbitrary, another cold winter day in a long line of cold winter days.

It never meant anything to me and it probably never will, but that’s ok.

If you need me, I’ll be starting the new year, breaking bread and sharing wine with the people I love in September.

Categories
Fashion Lookbook

Margo from The Durrells is the style muse you didn’t know you needed

I started watching the ITV show, The Durrells because my animal-loving English spouse has been telling me about the books of Gerald Durrell for years and I wanted to learn more about the iconic children’s book author. As soon as the ITV period drama started, though, I was completely entranced by the beautiful, sun-drenched Greek scenery and the flawless 1930’s costumes. The show follows an English widow and her four children as they pack up and move to the Greek Island of Corfu in 1935. The story is delightful, the characters are charming and Margo Durrell, the only daughter is the runaway star. She’s both feminist and naive in that way that 15-year-old girls are. She’s a little clueless sometimes but always extremely earnest and her style…oh. my. God.  Her style is perfection.

The Durrell’s don’t have much money, so costume designer Charlotte Holditch dresses Margo has a small handful of garments that she re-wears often, combining them to create swoon-worthy but attainable style. Because I love you, I’ve searched for all the pieces you need to channel your own 1930’s, Greek island living looks a-la Margo.

 

1. High waisted bikini + blue sunglasses + printed robe

 

Image description: Margo, a pale curly haired redheaded teenager, lays in the sun in a blue knit bikini and round blue sunglasses.
The Durrells on ITV. Image description: Margo, a pale curly haired redheaded teenager, lays in the sun in a blue knit bikini and round blue sunglasses.

I am obsessed with Margo’s sunbathing look and I think I’ve finally decided to actually experiment with swimwear after owning the same black bikini for years…. I have no idea where to get a knit bikini this cute, maybe you can ask your grandma if she’s feeling ambitious. Even better, give it a go yourself! I found a vintage bikini knitting pattern for you and everything. Her patterned robe is glorious, too and I have resolved never to don a swimsuit without an adorable coordinating robe again.

Get the look:

2. Printed sundress + wide-brimmed hat + white lace-up shoes

 

I love the totally relaxed vibe of this. It would be a perfect outfit to go to the Farmer’s Market in, with the sensible shoes and straw hat. Plus, you could throw on a cardigan and switch the hat for a cloche for a perfect 1930’s inspired look for early fall. Also,  is it just me or is the fact that her shoes are a little beat-up and not perfectly white making the whole thing look better? When I see pristine white shoes, all I can think is “You must not get out much” and these are perfectly worn.

Get the look:

3. High-waisted shorts + crop top + round sunglasses

 

Image description: Margo, a young teenage girl with red curly hair is seen wearingdark round sunglasses, a blue patterened crop with a pair of high-waisted denim shorts.
Image description: Margo, a young teenage girl with red curly hair is seen wearing dark round sunglasses, a blue patterned crop with a pair of high-waisted denim shorts.

This might be my favorite look from the whole show. I am mesmerized by that top. I don’t wear crop tops and this has me researching vintage patterns. Paired with high-waisted, wide-leg denim shorts and round sunnies she looks like she’s been pulled from the streets of Brooklyn or Shoreditch during a heatwave. Be still my heart.

Get the look:

4. Peter Pan collar dress/top + printed scarf

 

Image description: Margo is seen from the shoulders up. She is wearing a bright multicolored striped shirt and is wearing a blue patterned scarf in her hair.
The Durrells on ITV. Image description: Margo is seen from the shoulders up. She is wearing a bright multicolored striped shirt and is wearing a blue patterned scarf in her hair.

I cannot get enough of Margo’s scarves, I am determined to bring back the silk scarf in hair look. Plus. the peter pan collar? When you are boldly print-mixing, it stops looking cutesy and is just so effortlessly cool. This is another look that can move seamlessly between seasons, with a change of colors you can take this into colder weather as well.

Get the look:

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Categories
World News Politics The World

This is what we lose when we take the European Union for granted

I stood silently staring down a corridor a kilometer long and buried deep underground.

Yellow incandescent lights buzzed softly, and the walls were damp.  My arm grazed my goosebumped thighs, and the air was dense with an intense, latent fear from 89 years ago. The French built this massive fortification –  the Maginot Line – to protect them from their German neighbors starting in 1929. It did not work, despite building all along their enormous border and only skipping the dense Ardennes forest. The Germans invaded through that forest and took control of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. For decades it has stood as a monument to human fallibility.

Down here, though, I am consumed not with the irony of this place but with the tragedy of living in a Europe that seems to have forgotten what it was like to have this much fear of your fellow man.

I am a bit of an outsider here in Europe.

I am an American whose relatives emigrated long before the World Wars rocked this continent and nearly destroyed it twice. That being said, I feel the weight of Europe’s history all the time. I live in Frankfurt, Germany – a few hours drive from the French border. This city is covered in stumbling stones in front of houses declaring the names of former residents who were deported and murdered in camps. It was all but razed by the British, and so it looks nothing at all like the picturesque streets of Prague or Paris. It can feel like Germany is preoccupied with course-correcting to make up for their slide into Nazism, their genocide and their campaign to obliterate and possess Europe.

That preoccupation gets a fair amount of flack, especially from the right-wing, but it’s always felt comforting to me. Our leaders and most of the people here are on high-alert –  extra sensitive to nationalism, fascism, and dangerous overreach if only because it has been a cultural norm for so long. I’m glad that in 2018 I still feel like the country I live in is acutely aware of what lead to the rise of Nazism and Fascism and what resulted from it.

That does not feel like it is the norm across the EU, though, and that is terrifying.

I am married to a wonderful British man, who came to Germany after five years in Japan for his dream job. Coming here to build a life was his birthright as a citizen of the EU, after years of visa anxiety in Japan, he was back home in Europe. Today, we are making plans to drive our things across France and into England before Brexit so we can be sure that we will have the right to move freely and build a life together in his home country, just as the EU promised us.

It hurts to know his country, the country our children will call home, has so easily forgotten the lesson of the Maginot Line.

In Italy, my friends are losing sleep and breaking down into tears as the most far-right, anti-EU government in memory has taken the reins and has begun to remind them all of their own collective nightmare, Mussolini.

Hungary has descended into far-right nationalism and embraced white supremacy, anti-LGBT policies and open advocacy of an authoritarian government. Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister who has overseen this move won a third term this past April. Poland’s government has been careening towards social and political conservatism. Germany and France have both seen a rise in the political prominence of far-right, racist and anti-EU parties and antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise. These examples are only an abbreviated description of what Europe is facing right now. Across this continent, people have forgotten the fear and forgotten just how much of a political miracle the EU is. Peace and cooperation in Europe were long thought to be an impossibility, but that reality has been within reach.

This imperfect union is a lifeline that many citizens, scholars and politicians thought was an impossibility, but it’s here, and it’s ours.

The European Union is a project in progress, but its value is clear. When governments and factions seek to revisit the horrific crimes of the previous century, there is a body that can prevent that – not with guns and ships – but with trade and influence and diplomacy.

The United States is exiting the world’s stage, no longer considered a leader in democracy and human rights. At this moment, the EU is more critical than ever. The Maginot Line has been relegated to history books. It is tucked away in the French countryside and has no place in public consciousness. Standing inside its chilly corridors, I could feel the Europe that I love letting go of the memory and lessons of the 20th century. 

I had goosebumps – not because I was cold, but because I was very, very scared.