Mashal Waqar is the COO and Co-founder of The Tempest. She's a startup mentor, accessibility advocate, and LOTR fanatic. She was awarded "Young Leader of the Year" award at the 19th Global WIL Economic Forum. She has been mentioned in over 20 international and regional publications. When she's not trying to be productive, she's usually recording covers off Youtube karaokes.
[Image description: Real Fouz with gorgeous eyebrows] via Elle Arabia
Dark and heavy eyebrows are all the rage these days and they automatically enhance your look. Whether you’re going for a toned-down everyday look or an intense bold look, darks brows definitely give you that extra ‘oomph’ factor. I absolutely LOVE thick/dark/messy heavy eyebrows and although I have Desi genes to thank for already having dark eyebrows, the heavier the better, right?
Thanks to our makeup haven producers, anyone who has and hasn’t been blessed with heavy brows can get brow kits and fill them in. A not-so-quick trip to Sephora can land you in the midst of a brow-crisis, especially if you don’t want to break the bank.
Benefit’s Ka-Brow! a waterproof, cream-gel brow colour with the brush
This really depends on your eyebrow and hair color.
I prefer ashy/taupe browns for my brows and what I’ve noticed is neutral dark browns work best with people who have dark hair and warmer browns work better for redheads. Something like the shade on the extreme right from this ELF palette would be perfect!
If you have a brow kit, then there’s nothing better than that, but, since this is a DIY, a dark eyeshadow works fine with Vaseline.
Side note: two of my personal favorites are the Benefit Brow Kit (Ka-Brow) or the ELF one if you’re looking for a more affordable version. The Benefit changed my brow game completely, and I love love LOVE IT!!
You can use a regular angled brush or a thicker one. The only difference is a regular one gives a sleeker look, whereas you need to be a bit more careful with a thicker brush because it can give you a messier look.
Now dab the angled brush with vaseline into the eyeshadow. I use a VS darker brown for my brows, but really the shade you pick is up to you. Experiment with a few shades so you can figure out which shade works best for you. Don’t experiment right before a major event. Makeup is art, and art takes time and practice. Always safer to go with something you’ve tried, but, that’s just my 2 cents.
Fast-forward to 3:11 -3:28 for the good parts.
Step 4: Shape your brows
via Giphy
Smudge the color on your hand to test it first.
Next, shape the bottom and top of your brows, almost like you’re drawing an outline for the shape you want them in. Using the angled brush, make small strokes replicating the direction of your brow hair, and fill them out. Start from the outer corners and build it up to the start of the brows.
Step 5: Fill them in
Source: Giphy
This is the fun part because you’re essentially coloring within the outline you did in the previous step.
This lasts for a good few hours.
PRO TIP: use the eyelash wand to brush the brows at the end and to make them look more natural.
Source: Elle
Bonus tip: To make your eyes pop, use a white or slightly golden but shimmery eyeshadow for the inner corner of your eyes.
via Giphy
Use a highlighter below the arch of your brow, where your brow bone is, to set the look.
This method is a great alternative to buying an actual brow kit. But the only downside is, it won’t last as long in comparison to a brow shade. You will have to touch up or redo your brows, repeating the same process after a couple of hours.
If you’re okay with that, though, then definitely try it out.
Slay on! You’re ready to take on the world with brows to kill for.
Regardless of the field you’re working in, if you’re connected to the internet, you realize the importance of good graphic design. From websites and projects, to emails and social media, almost all aspects of information need some form of graphics to make them more appealing. I’m not a pro at Adobe Photoshop, and because I couldn’t devote enough time to learn it, at a time of dire need, my search for good graphic-design tools led me to canva.com, an online website that’s too good for words.
Not all of us are Photoshop experts, and if you’re not too familiar with complex editing tools Canva is the perfect solution. It allows you to create beautiful high-quality graphics with an incredibly simple user interface. I originally started using it to create images, but overtime I’ve come to rely on it for all sorts of documents on it. I swear by this tool because of how much of a lifesaver it’s been for me, on multiple occasions.
Canva recently released their iPhone app, which makes it all the more easier to use. The best part about Canva is that you can create social media posts that are platform-specific. These folks have everything covered, that means Twitter posts, Facebook cover photos, Tumblr graphics, Instagram posts and even Pinterest posts. You can create all sorts of visually appealing documents on Canva. And, by all I literally mean all. Prepare yourself for astounding presentations, magazine covers, and resumes, marketing materials such as flyers, menus, posters, business cards, brochures, and even event invitations and email headers!
I don’t want to to sound like an over-enthusiastic salesperson, but it’s just how great Canva is. Maybe they should consider making me an ambassador. Just sayin’.
I’m going to start with a step-by-step guide on creating your first image through the Canva website. If you’ve never used Canva, don’t worry, this is a literal, step-by-step how-to guide.
1. Go to canva.com and sign up for an account. (It’s completely free.)
2. You can use your free account or upgrade to a premium account (which obviously has more features). I’ve been using Canva for about a year now, and I personally haven’t felt the need to upgrade my account.
3. This one’s also optional: Download the app on your phone and login or continue using it on your browser.
Upgrading to premium: yay or nay?
There are already a bunch of good tutorials on Canva’s Design School. Here are 30 lessons to help you get started on learning how to design.
The amount of time you invest into learning and mastering graphic designing solely depends on you. You can learn some pretty cool stuff on Canva’s Design School tutorials. It’s neatly arranged into subsections with “Getting Started” for absolute beginners that progress on to Fonts, Color, Images, Backgrounds, Shapes and Icons, Layout, Branding, and ultimately Advanced Tips and Skills in Action.
Canva’s Design School
Practice does make perfect, but everyone has time constraints and so I’ll get on with the next few steps on creating your bad-ass image. You can start by choosing one of loads of templates for Canva:
Canva’s Design Templates
Or, alternatively, you can click on “Create a design” when you sign-in to your account.
I’m going to create a Facebook post for this article. You can pick from any of the design templates, and get started. The same rules apply to all of them.
After selecting the document or post type, select a template from the left sidebar. Click on Layouts and select the one you want. Everything on this image will be customizable, so you can change it according to how you want. I’ve picked this simple template for sharing quotes.
Click on the text to modify it. You can change the font type, font size, and color from the small menu-bar that will pop-up when you click on the text.
A general rule of thumb is to opt for a serif and a san-serif font for contrast. As an example, I’m going to take a quote from this Tempest article and replace the text on the image with my selected text. You can type it up or just copy-paste it. [upto to you, but, really who doesn’t want to save that extra 10 seconds by pressing cmd-C and cmd-V]
I’m keeping the fonts as they are, but I’m going to change the colors of the quotation marks and the yellow rectangle. Select the rectangle until a different bar appears on clicking it.
Test out the colors, till you find the one you want. If you want to pick a color that’s different from the default palette, click on the “+” under document colors.
Pick the color you want, or add a hex code for the color. Once you’ve selected the color you want, click anywhere else. Click on the rectangle again and click on the color option, you should be able to see the color/s added to the document colors next to the previous default colors.
To be consistent, change the color of the quotation mark by clicking on it, next select the color option.
Click on the color you want next.
Next, to replace the background image, you’ll have to upload the image first. Click on uploads and select “Upload your own images.”
Go to the folder with the image and select your image for the background.
When the image is uploaded, it should appear under the “Upload your own images” icon on the left side-bar.
Drag the image from the side-bar to the actual image you’re editing.
The previous background image and overlays are still on the image. So delete them by clicking on the black rectangle and clicking on the trash icon in the small menubar at the bottom Readjust the image you just dragged by clicking and dragging to the left (to the left of the color black icon)
Delete all the other irrelevant images in the background (You can see slight hints to the right).
Click and drag your custom image from the uploads sidebar again if you’re having trouble with the overlay images.
Change the transparency by clicking on the image, and selecting downwards arrow from the image menu. Vary the transparency from “Transparency” feature.
Enlarge the image by clicking and dragging the circles in the corners on all sides till your image is large enough. Don’t worry if you can’t see your text, we’ll take care of it in the next step.
Click on the option where it says “Back” on the small menubar (to the left of the trash icon).
You should be able to see one the quotation marks. Keep clicking Back till you can see all the text. The small blue circles in the corner specify the layer it’s on.
To fix the image and to make the text more noticeable, we can add more elements to the image. Click on “Elements” on the left sidebar. and click on Shapes.
Drag a shape from the sidebar to the image you’re editing.
Now change the transparency and color from the mini menubar at the bottom. Since the font- color is white, I’ve changed the square’s color to a black to contrast with the text.
I changed the transparency to around 52, and after adjusting it keep clicking “Back” till the font is above the shape. That adds more contrast between the white text and the background.
Now readjust the size of the shape by extending the circles on the corner till you’re content with how it looks.
If you want to compare a few different variations, click on the copy icon to the right of the image (the rectangles below the number “1”).
This will duplicate the image, and you can try a different variation of the same image to the copy of the image below it.
When you’ve finalized on the image you want, you can delete the unwanted versions of the image by clicking on the trash icon that’s right below the copy icon on that image. Finally, download your image by clicking on Download in the top right corner.
[Image description: A collage of two women, one is wearing a turban and her head is resting on her hand in a pose and she's wearing a printed long-sleeve shirt with flapper sleeves, the other woman is wearing a full-sleeve navy shirt.] Via Verona Collection
Let’s talk about a timeless industry that has been making big strides quietly: that’s right, *cue drum roll* the modest fashion industry.
Worth over $240 billion globally, modest fashion is one of the fastest-growing industries. According to recent predictions, Muslim consumer clothing spend is expected to reach $368 billion by 2021, which could be a 51% increase since 2015. Yet, sadly, that market is often ignored by mass media and by most of the fashion industry. That’s not to say there isn’t progress. Recently, Vogue Arabia celebrated champions of modest fashion by featuring 3 hijabi models on its cover.
On another celebratory note, major retailer ASOS just bagged a massive win: its partnership with Verona Collection, titled “The Modest Edit,” just went live.
The Tempest spoke with the founders of Verona Collection in an exclusive interview.
Verona Collection was co-founded by Lisa Vogl and Alaa Ammuss, who later hired Hassan Mawji, a UK native, to serve as the company’s director. Alaa and Lisa, both hijabis themselves, found it difficult to find modest, fashionable, and affordable clothing. In addition to filling their own needs, Verona seeks to help make women feel confident and proud of who they are and how they choose to dress.
Image description: Verona Collections 3 Founders: Lisa Vogl, Alaa Amuuss, and Hassan Mawji
“When I was working in the corporate world I realized my talents would be better suited for a creative environment. In 2010 I quit my job to move to Florida and pursue photography at Daytona State College. During the early stages of my career in photography, I discovered the modest fashion industry.
“From there, I began working with modest fashion brand, magazines, and bloggers across the globe but found that modest fashion was hard to find and difficult to afford right here at home. So from there Alaa and I partnered up in 2015 to launch Verona Collection in an effort to make modest fashion more accessible,” recalls Vogl.
[Image Description: Three women dressed in the new line pose for the photo.] via LongRoom.comWhat has kept Vogl and her team going, even when times get tough? According to Vogl, it’s their passion to make Verona successful. That has kept them going through all the ups and downs of running a business. She elaborates, “At times, we feel defeated, but we have a strong bond within our company to keep each other motivated and persevere. I’ve learned that every time we fail it’s not the end-all, it’s just a learning experience that can help us grow and become better. ”
As with any startup, there are hiccups on the road.
Vogl explains the challenges they faced along the way: “As a business entering a major retailer, we had to really take a hard look at how we operated. It forced us to improve ourselves in order to compete with major brands. We have a long ways to go but we are continuously improving ourselves.”
“Our partnership with ASOS makes a big milestone for Verona and the modest fashion industry – we’ve carefully curated this collection with ASOS and we’re excited about the opportunities this opens up,” says Mawji in a press release.
[Image Description: Woman stands in a Verona x ASOS piece.] via ASOS.comSo what advice does Vogl have for folks who want to take the plunge and pursue their passion?
“It’s important that you first do all your research,” notes Vogl. “You often want to jump in headfirst, but if you don’t create a strong foundation in the beginning, you’ll be cleaning up the mess later. We made plenty of mistakes but thankfully we’ve learned from them and now focusing on growing our brand every day.”
With that in mind, The Modest Edit is one to definitely check out. It carries twenty-five items, including hijabs, tops, dresses, jumpsuits, coats, and trousers in a range of fun prints and cuts.
Photo Taken by Verne Ho. Image Description: A woman is sitting crouched on a pink floor, with her head touching her knees. Her arms are folder below her legs, and her hair is covering her face.
I’ve started feeling like I’m not good enough. I just feel really sad.
It’s not just loneliness- to be clear, I haven’t isolated myself. I could be with my closest friends, and all of a sudden, start feeling gloomy. Today it happened while I was in a cafe, and as my friends were discussing their senior design project, I felt a heavy anchor of sadness.
My stomach starts hurting, and my throat feels like it’s constricting. I have a lot of thoughts I want to push out, but I can’t. I’m not going to make it. I’m a failure. I’m not really good at anything. Where am I heading, with my life? Am I fit for the startup world? Will I be able to successfully close the fundraising round? Will I make it?
Nothing seems to happen fast enough, and the only thing that’s flying at a pace I can’t keep up with, is time.
Time enough to answer all my emails, to send out proposals, to meet leads and clients, to close deals, to start new projects, to finalize projects, to check-in with different departments. It feels like there’s not enough time.
But there’s a lot of work to do.
I don’t know if I can make it, to the end of the year, quarter, month, and sometimes even day. At times like these, the only thing that keeps me going is one step. I need to take one step at a time. Sometimes that one step is getting through 5 more minutes. 5 and 5, till I get through an hour. Then another, then another.
Not every episode is this bad, sometimes it’s easier to get through. Sometimes, it’s a lot worse. At the lows, I’m thankful for the people that make up my support system. It’s sometimes easier to word out all my feelings of uneasiness and anxiety, and why I feel like everything is going wrong. Other times, it’s not as simple.
Some episodes I start reminiscing, and spiral down a path of should-haves, could-haves, and what-ifs. Those are the weaker moments. I know there’s no other path I would rather have chosen, but sometimes I do wish someone had told me what entrepreneurship would be like, in the most raw and unfiltered way. I know every entrepreneur’s path is different, but I had no idea what was coming my way when I entered this ecosystem.
It’s also the same naivety I see when I’m at startup events with students pitching startup ideas. They’re so hopeful and convinced they’re going to change the world, or their industry, or that their solution is the best damn one in the market. The confidence is great, and I absolutely love seeing it, but if it was that simple, every other person in the world would have “made” it, quite literally. Based on which article you read, 60% and90% of all startups fail. There’s a higher chance of failure than success, and yet we’re all still so optimistic that we will inevitably make it to the success stat.
Entrepreneurship is a tricky road. I’m often asked to speak about my personal journey as an entrepreneur and why more students should consider it as a career path right after university. That’s where I’m wary- because I don’t want to paint an ideal image, when the reality is so far from it. I don’t want to discourage anyone (hell, I chose this for myself), but I worry about giving the wrong impression. There is a reason you see more older entrepreneurs than younger ones, especially in this region. Not everyone can afford to have a startup, when they’re right out of college. And, while there are increasingly growing resources and initiatives to encourage and build out young entrepreneurs, more often than not, there is a long long way ahead. If you want a lot of comfort and financial security, the startup life is not for you. It’s as simple as that.
Most folks glorify the “hustle”, and the “grind.”
Most people romanticize the successful fundraising rounds, and exits. They don’t talk about the breakdowns and the panic attacks. They don’t talk about the rejections in the first phase, the criticism in the second, and the years leading up to the “overnight” success.
Not as much as they need to.
They talk about starving entrepreneurs and tell you to “do what you got to do.”
But, don’t talk enough about how to survive.
Each narrative you read has probably been changed a few times (lo and behold PR), to make it seem like a gorgeous roadmap, where each failure was a milestone to success.
That’s why I’ve built a subconscious filter to bullshit, hypocrisy, the buzzwords, and the pretense.
And in the midst of it all there’s the mental battles with myself; imposter syndrome- a curse I wouldn’t wish on anyone in the world.
We are so blessed. This past week, on March 11th, history happened. Twitter user @JITXA posted the following tweet creating the hashtag #FinePeopleFromIndia
Image has text on top of The Tempest purple branding: How to tell someone you like them. Below it, a girl and a guy are looking at each other smiling. They are sitting next to each other in a classroom table. There is a Macbook open in front of the guy and heart icons next to him on the screen.
It was great to have conversations with so many individuals who were either working in diversity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives or keen to learn about them.
The 19th edition of the Global WIL Economic Forum took place last week. Being part of the event was such a profound experience- the venue was bustling with energy and the event brought together so many amazing women. I’ve covered countless conferences and forums in my past 5 years in Dubai, but I can easily say the WIL Forum ranks as one of my favorites.
This was also the perfect chance for us to get some career advice, from four incredibly accomplished boss ladies. In an increasingly competitive landscape, most graduates and seniors have the same worries- especially as they get graduation inches closer- getting a job, tackling fears, accepting the “right” job.
That’s exactly why we’ve got some incredible career advice for you!
Who we spoke to:
Charlotte Chedeville, Dawn Metcalfe, Donna Benton, and Michaela Alexis
Why they’re amazing:
Charlotte Chedeville is the Senior Project Manager of the Global WIL Economic Forum and does a lot of behind-the-scenes magic. In 2016, she was awarded by UN Women Canada as a Young Leader for Outstanding Contribution to Women’s Empowerment. Since then, she has developed projects from the ground to promote inclusion and equal opportunities, and recently joined Professors Without Borders, a not-for-profit organization focused on providing higher education opportunities for the youth in the developing world.
Dawn Metcalfe is the founder of Dubai based PDSi, which helps individuals and teams get even better at what they do, and has worked with business leaders around the world to change the way they see the world, their behavior and their impact on others. She is an executive coach, facilitator, trainer and leadership advisor, and her insights and straight-talking approach have kept her constantly in demand from large multinationals and government entities, across the Middle East, over the last 10 years. Dawn’s latest project, HardTalk, is an innovative programme designed to help people get better at having the difficult conversations needed for success.
Donna Benton is the founder and chairman of The Entertainer, she started the Entertainer in 2001 after identifying a market need for both providing consumers with dining incentives and enabling restaurants to reach new customers. Donna worked alone to build the business from the ground up, from managing corporate legalities, recruiting merchants, to doing door to door for sales. She’s grown the company from scratch to having a portfolio that includes 39 products, providing offers across 18 destinations in 14 countries and drives over US$ 1.3 Billion dollars into the global economy every year.
Michaela Alexis is the President of Grade A Digital, a Social Media and Personal Branding Agency in Ottawa, and has thrived in the content marketing community, successfully managing over 100 brands in the past 7 years. She’s also a Linkedin influencer and frequently writes about her experiences; she recently started a revolutionary #letsgethonest campaign and was able to get millions of people to share their struggles and be brutally honest about their experiences on Linkedin.
What’s your career advice for those graduating?
Find your tribe, and understand that you have a story regardless of how fresh you are on the job market or whether you’re just starting out or whether you’re working as a barista. If you want to be a marketing executive it doesn’t matter where you are – use what you have right now; we all have perspectives that are unique and valuable and necessary.
The reason that I’ve been sharing my voice as a millennial is that others were talking for millennials and about how to engage with them in the workforce. So I jumped in and say here is my perspective, and we all have those perspectives. So never worry about being too fresh or being at the beginning of your journey. If anything it’s a blessing to be at the beginning of your journey, because now you have an opportunity to show people the process of what it’s like to succeed and fail in the challenges that you have to overcome. -Michaela Alexis
The truth is, most fresh graduates don’t really know what they want to do. Except for the few who graduated in very specialized fields, most of us go out of university with no real specialty, only having had limited exposure to the job market and the many, many jobs that exist. And that’s okay. Don’t stress out thinking your first job should be the one. Instead, explore opportunities and go where your instinct takes you.
Another thing is that when you’re a job seeker – especially in the early stages of your career – the mindset usually is: “There are thousands of wanna-be consultants/secretaries/nurses. I need them more than they need me, and I will do whatever it takes to get the job.” While this might indeed get you an offer, it could cost you a lot more: being unhappy at work can have major repercussions on your health, it can hinder your personal and professional growth, and even affect your confidence and self-worth.
When I first graduated, I did exactly what my parents and my teachers had taught me: I wasn’t too ‘picky’, I had to get a foot in the door and prove myself. That might have been the right thing to do back then but, as time went by, I continued to approach each new opportunity the same way. But salary is not everything, and finding yourself in the wrong place is a painful experience – which is why my foremost advice to young graduates is to remember that you are interviewing the employer as much as the employer is interviewing you. Not only will this help you find the right place for you to thrive, but you will also gain respect from serious organizations for not being so ‘desperate’. – Charlotte Chedeville
How do you maintain work-life balance and still give your mental health enough time and attention?
It is unreasonable to expect, the same work-life balance throughout your whole career. If you are ambitious then you will have to work harder and that may involve long hours. But, if you have to differentiate yourself I don’t think it is in terms of how hard you work, it is about the results that you get and those results are more and more likely to be results of getting other people to use them.
A leader is somebody who has to get other people to do things in order for that leader to obtain their vision. Relationships. Be nice, play nice with other people. That does not mean sucking up to them or letting people get away with stuff- it means not to bend the rules. Don’t treat others as you would want to be treated, treat others as they would like to be treated.
How you are willing to behave in order to be seen as respectful is very very different. The platinum rule is you have to go into other people’s heads and work out what it is that they need in order to see you in the way you want to be seen. – Dawn Metcalfe
A healthy work-life balance is a key to long-term happiness – but it’s your job to ensure that it is healthy and that you’re happy with where you are. Remember that balance is fluid and priorities will change at different stages – e.g. you have to work harder to get a promotion and focus on your personal life when you have your first child.
Find your daily or weekly rituals that are for you – for me it’s exercise. My morning run on the beach is for me – not my businesses or my kids. But a happy me equals a happy mum/boss. And finally, try not to compare yourself to others. Be a leader, not a follower. – Donna Benton
Advice on dealing with nerves before meetings or interviews?
Everyone gets nervous about meetings when you start out, but it gets better with practice so throw yourself into it and learn something from each one. Do your homework and be as prepared as you can. It’s critical to really know what you’re talking about – and to appear confident, even if you’re not.
And always be presentable and look the part – first impressions really do count. – Donna Benton
If you can picture that emotion you can get a grip on it- the more accurately, the more gradual you can get and the more of a grip you can get. Just saying to yourself I am feeling nervous is a start and it will help. Doing the whole deep breathing thing helps too.
You need to acknowledge the emotion that it is a reasonable thing to feel, it is perfectly reasonable to feel nervous before you go into a meeting or an interview. Everybody in that room has been there, everybody in that room wants you to do well. The fact that you are in the room means that you have a right to be there. So grab that chance and make the most of it. If you never do anything then you can never screw up. – Dawn Metcalfe
There are multiple times when we’re presented with different opportunities, so how do we make a critical decision that we will not regret later?
I have what I call my personal commandments written down in all my notebooks, and they’re just truths that I live by. I use those commandments for every single decision that I make. And, it’s allowed me to never have any regrets because I know that I’m always being honest and truthful to my values and what I hold true. So I think that when it comes to looking at different opportunities really asking yourself am I doing X because I should be or I feel like I should be or am I doing X because it really seems like a great opportunity and it’s going to fulfill me. It’s exactly what I’m looking for. We get very caught up in titles and work. But really, at the end of the day, a large salary isn’t going to fulfill you, it’s not going to make you excited to get out of bed in the morning. It’s not going to make you not dread Sunday nights and having to go back to work the next day. – Michaela Alexis
Job hunting can be frustrating in terms of timelines, so what do we do when professionally, things don’t seem to be happening fast enough?
Nothing ever happens fast enough. Things take longer. Again, if your job search involves throwing CVs randomly at people, I get 60 CVs a week minimum saying “Dear sir, please find attached…” Nothing like “Dear Dawn I read your …” you have to give people a reason to help you. And there is just so much out there in the world and like you said the competition is so high but if you don’t give people a reason to help you then why would they? Someone else will come along and be nice. – Dawn Metcalfe
There’s no way around it. You have to prove yourself at all stages of your career. You don’t just get respect – you have to earn it. As I said before you have to be prepared to work hard. By that, I don’t mean work extremely late or for hours on end, but work effectively, conscientiously and always strive to excel. And always be a team player. Never utter the words, “it’s not in my job description.” – Donna Benton
Use LinkedIn, Twitter and other channels to share your interests, showcase your abilities and create connections. From the moment I started working and had a CV that counted more hobbies than months of experience until today, LinkedIn has opened so many doors – helping discover new ideas, meet potential employers and even connect with Ministers and celebrities. – Charlotte Chedeville
Recently, The Tempest had the opportunity to interview Haben Girma – an accessibility advocate, Obama’s Champion of Change, and Harvard Law School’s first deafblind graduate. As co-founder and CTO, I was able to snag the interview – and it was an incredible conversation.
Haben will also be speaking at Naseba Global WIL Economic Forum this October in Dubai. WIL is a true catalyst for change and because they connected us I was able to have a fascinating conversation with Haben that ultimately led to our pivot and commitment to accessibility. Before the actual call, we’d gone back and forth with a few emails- she sent me two links, which I think all journalists should read: a guide to producing positive disability stories and FAQs about her around accessibility, and general writing advice for journalists writing about people with disabilities.
Here’s how the call went: Haben’s friend would type what I was saying, and her keyboard was connected to a machine translator that would convert the text to Braille. She’d then respond with her voice.
I looked forward to the call because I’m also passionate about accessibility, although my previous work has been in Deaf-accessibility initiatives. I wanted to know more about Haben’s work, although just one article alone won’t do justice to her list of accolades. She’s worked as a lawyer in the DRA (Disability Rights Advocates), has given an Apple keynote on accessibility to developers, and even fought a case against Scribd, to make their content accessible.
“There are 1.3 billion people with disabilities in the world,” she told me.
“That’s a huge population, like almost the size of China, and a lot of companies completely ignore this population. But, it’s in our interest to think about this population and to think about what products we can build, or rather than having separate products, making our mainstream products accessible to everyone. There are guidelines online that teach people how to make websites accessible to blind readers, so blind people can access websites. Or, how to make videos accessible to Deaf people, like captioning on videos.”
I asked her how audio can be made accessible since the boom in podcasts has made them an indispensable part of current culture. She said, “What’s helpful is an audio transcript. Deaf individuals who want to hear the podcast will need to read a transcript. If I’m going to access a podcast, I need a transcript. Another thing to keep in mind is it helps your readership. When there’s more text associated with the content, it allows for more keyword searches. So people who are searching for that topic are more likely to find your podcast if there’s also a transcript with all the associated keywords. So it helps everyone, not just the deaf community.”
So, how could we then tackle stigmas that people have – questions that they’re afraid to ask people with disabilities?
“Fear causes people to lose so much. Lose potential knowledge, lose potential friends. I wish people would stop living in fear and start asking questions so that they can learn. I really appreciate when people ask questions out of a place of empathy a desire to understand,” and she can differentiate when people are trying to understand vs. when they’re asking a question and communicating pity by saying statements like: “Poor thing I would never survive if I was in your position.” or “Ungrateful, I don’t have your condition.”
“I can tell when something comes from pity versus the desire to understand. I’m always happy to answer questions and to teach people- that’s why I’m in this space of being a public speaker, a teacher, a lawyer. I’ve decided to choose this. Some people with disabilities don’t want to have to deal with educating the public, and it’s everyone’s own choice, not everyone should be an ambassador, it’s their personal choice whether to teach the community or not.”
I asked her about the changes she’s seen in terms of accessibility, and what corporations are doing. She said she’s definitely noticed a change and while she’s also doing a lot of work, she also tells me about other organizations who have been advocating for access for years, and how many changes have happened because of them. She mentioned Amazon’s Kindle books and how they weren’t originally accessible to the blind.
The NFB (National Federation of the Blind) advocated for Kindle books to become accessible. And eventually, Amazon changed its products to make them more accessible. “So now if I want to read a Kindle book, I can get any book on their store. It can be converted from speech to Braille.”
I asked her about her time at DRA – Girma worked for the DRA after school and she tells me was able to focus on things that interested her, like access to digital, and she elaborates on a case against Scribd, where DRA was representing the NFB, “Scribd insisted that they didn’t have to make their online services and digital library accessible. The judge ruled in our favor because the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to online businesses like Scribd. That was a huge victory, it was thrilling to be able to reach a landmark decision, to impact history and make a difference in our cultural history.”
This was also when Girma realized, “There’s more to advocacy than just lawsuits and I decided to make a switch and focus more on teaching. I wanted to help people do the right thing, so they don’t get sued.”
She continues, telling me something I didn’t know: “Apple is the most popular choice for people with disabilities…and they are doing more than any other company to make their products as accessible as possible.
The iPhone is the most popular smartphone amongst blind individuals- there’s a screen reader called VoiceOver on the iPhone, and it reads everything out loud on the screen from digital to braille.”
She continues, telling me about Tim Cook’s official statement about how accessibility is a priority at Apple: “It means so much to have the leadership of a company acknowledging and telling all employees that accessibility is a priority and a human right. I wish that more leaders of companies would come out and say to us that we’re going to prioritize this.”
This was the point in the conversation when I truly felt that as a co-founder I had the power to make this change happen at The Tempest. Learning from Haben and leaders in the disability/accessibility community like her is critically important for understanding the kind of revolutionary changes that we are aiming to make at The Tempest.
Accessibility isn’t a buzzword: something you can add on to your site or product and hope for the best. It’s a challenge, an ongoing mission that requires creativity, empathy, and commitment to building a world that works for everyone in it.
After all, inclusivity is the foundation on which The Tempest was built.
The Tempest is proud to be media partners with Naseba Global WIL Economic Forum. The WIL Forum is a catalyst for change by focusing on diversity and inclusion and leading efforts such as an inclusive internship project for this edition. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Four years ago, I was studying at a college in Texas, absolutely exhausted.
I remember walking out of my American History class after it had ended for the day, ending up at the campus Chili’s Grill. I was acing all of my courses, but I was just so tired. Everything was taking an emotional toll. I ordered my usual, a 4 Cheese pizza. Nothing else was halal there, and since I kept halal, the fact that I couldn’t eat anything except that pizza made my life miserable.
I called my mom and broke down. I couldn’t do this anymore.
I knew that in moving to America, culture shock would be natural – inevitable! -but that it would eventually pass. I’d enrolled in a Computer Science program, taking classes that I absolutely loved. It wasn’t until I was at school, in good ol’ Texas, that I came to a pretty big realization.
I’m a child of the Middle East, through and through.
I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. I should have been ecstatic about going to school in America, but I was so unhappy that I needed a way back to the Middle East.
Qatar was soon out of the question because the tuition was too high. The U.A.E. had two promising options: the Rochester Institute of Technology Dubai (RIT Dubai) and another, one that a few friends attended. When I looked into the second school, I found that U.S. credits usually weren’t transferable, which was a big issue for me. Why should I lose all the hard work I’d put in while I was in America?
I didn’t know anyone at RIT Dubai, but the more I looked into the school, the more it fascinated me. More than just the look and feel, the university also hit all the things I was looking for: incredible courses, affordable tuition, and solid accreditation. I was getting good vibes – so with that, I made up my mind.
First, of course, I had to tackle the big P word: parents.
It took a lot of back and forth before I could convince my parents around why I’d decided to abandon college in America (what about the American dream?) and opted to follow my heart to a university in Dubai.
It was simple. I didn’t just feel homesick – I felt foreign. It didn’t feel like home. How could I adequately explain to them that biryani wasn’t spicy unless it was home-made, that the shawarma I’d tried was a joke and the manakeesh? I don’t think I ever found good manakeesh in Texas. This may seem dramatic, but food is life for me, regardless of the situation.
Obviously, I didn’t focus on food to convince them.
I spoke to the academic advantages of RIT Dubai: how I wouldn’t be a number amongst hundreds of students because the class size was that much smaller. That’d mean I’d get a more personal class experience. On top of that, it was a branch of an American university, so my credits wouldn’t be wasted.
It made a lot of sense to my mom academically, but, at the end of the day, the safety sold her. Dubai is a safe city and RIT Dubai is a safe school. My mom had always been a bit reluctant about my decision to go to America, to begin with, even though she encouraged me to go – a decision I quickly regretted once I reached the opposite side of the Atlantic.
I had not been prepared for the racism that I felt in Texas, a reality that soon led me to realize that America was not the utopia I thought it’d be. It was a stark contrast to my life in the Middle East. Welcomed is a good adjective to describe life in the Middle East. I felt welcomed here.
I explained that I’d switch majors and enroll in the Computing Security program, and – thanks to the university’s opportunities – I’d have professional work experience before graduation.
Moreover, they even had a study abroad option for all majors, to study at the main campus in Rochester, NY or in Croatia for up to two semesters at the same tuition (an option most of my friends would later take up enthusiastically). My dad was a bit iffy at first, but once he checked out the details I’d introduced, he jumped on board.
I couldn’t have predicted just how amazing my experience would be for the next few years at the school. It was the perfect hybrid: a space to grow personally and professionally, in every sense of the word. The university gave me countless opportunities to push and develop my self, refusing to accept personal limitations and excuses for an answer.
Sometimes, we had to struggle for opportunities – other times, we were given them on a silver platter. It took some time for me to pinpoint exactly what I loved about the experience, but here goes.
My favorite part of the academic journey was hands down serving as a member of Student Government. As a part of the team, we were given a budget to improve campus life like we’d promised during the campaign. The way we did that was completely up to us – a concept foreign to my friends at other schools, both in the Middle East and abroad.
As someone who’d barely had an extracurricular life in high school, the on-campus engagement was a dream come true. More than anything, the experience profoundly impacted the way in which I approached my own limitations and reality, and – looking back, I wouldn’t change a single thing.
I had a strong support system throughout my time at RIT and made friends that are truly like family. I was able to drive my passion and ambition through the opportunities I was given. When I finally walked across the stage for graduation this past spring, my future was already laid out for me – and it wouldn’t have happened had I not made that fateful shift those years ago. Texas might just be a faint memory now, but my decision to take control of my education still rings true in my ears.
I’ve always heard people say that college is what really changes you. They weren’t wrong. All the pieces of my college life fit together as everything came full circle at my graduation: I got to represent the RIT Dubai campus as the UAE delegate at the RIT New York graduation and got to represent myself at the RIT Dubai graduation.
I got the best of both worlds: a ceremony in the U.S. and one in the UAE.
Four years ago, I made the best decision of my life.
IN
COLLABORATION
WITH
RIT Dubai and The Tempest are partnering to give you the best education of your life through fresh opportunities, incredible classes, and the ultimate education. Give yourself the degree you deserve by choosing to take your life head on.
We just can’t win, can we? You’ll undermine us in our moments of weakness and in our moments of strength. We just cannot win. You want to strip us of everything and play the role of Cinderella’s evil stepmom, and victim-shame when we refuse to.
Well, honey, it’s 20-freaking-17.
The incident started with Varnika Kundu, an Indian woman who accused an Indian politician’s son and his friends of stalking her, with a possible intent to kidnap, while she was driving home, in a detailed Facebook post. In response, the BJP politician asked why the victim was “allowed to stay out late.” In response, Indian women have taken over Twitter, tweeting pictures at midnight with the hashtag #AintYourCinderella.
Weddings are important occasions in almost every culture, but Desis elevate this occasion from a one-day event to what can easily go on to a 7-day occasion. We love weddings, we love dancing, and we absolutely love bhangra. All this comes in handy when the bride and the groom’s sides of the family have an epic dance-off in an event called “Mehndi” (translates to Henna). Here’s the ultimate Desi wedding 101 mix. Keep the tissues ready, it’ll be rukhsati time soon.
This song screams Desi weddings. It’s an incredibly feel-good song and gives the most positive vibes ever.
2. Kabira || Arijit Singh & Harshdeep Kaur (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani)
This Arijit Singh masterpiece is an all-time favorite of mine. It’s great to listen to, but it’s also perfect for every Desi wedding. This has 2 versions, and the Rekha Bhardwaj & Tochi Raina is great but Arijit’s version more fitting for a wedding.
3. Chitta Kukkar || Neha Kakkar and Gippy Grewal
This is probably the oldest Mehndi song. I’m pretty sure it’s been sung and danced on, when the first-ever Mehndi was held (whenever that was). Play this remix to pump it up or go with the classic, and watch the older ladies in the room bring the house down.
We’re going old-school with this track, because of course if it’s a Mehndi night, how can you not sing this?
5. Desi Thumka || Nouman Khalid ft. Osama Com Laude
Now we’re ready to pump it up, and I assure you this one is bound to get everyone on their feet. It’s just that catchy. It’s also an easier song to dance to because you can look up Mehndi dances and this one is definitely going to be there.
This is addictively catchy, and you’ll find yourself playing it in your head. Don’t be shocked if you can sing the stupid Honey Singh rap word-to-word; it happens to everyone, knowing lyrics to a song that annoys you,
Songs in movie weddings have a probability of definitely becoming actual wedding favorites. Add in signature dance steps, and bingo you’ll have people on wedding events doing the exact same steps, which is literally what Shakar Wandaan is.
This one’s more fast-paced, but it’s also great because when it plays, you’re going to want to dance to it even if you haven’t rehearsed for it with your fam/friends.
Slightly slower-paced, but still a pretty upbeat song. If you’re preparing for a Mehndi dance, you’re probably already watching the song video and trying to copy all the stops. ‘Nuff said.
There should be a limit on the number of times I can use the word catchy, but this is the last time, I swear. This is THE catchiest song ever, and it is absolutely perfect for a Bhangra. I’ve seen people who don’t even dance get up and get their Bhangra mode on with this one. Is a Desi wedding really complete without this song? [aka the real question that should keep you up at night].
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