Shahd Al-Janabi, Co-founder and Co-Editor

Shahd is a researcher and traveller with an obsession for kayaking and observing humans. She listens to obscure music (bebop), reads faux-pretentious books (Salinger), argues about history and politics (which Arab doesn’t?), and zaps brains – her one true calling. Shahd is also notorious for dragging unsuspecting friends into ‘dangerous’ adventures – she lists amongst her numerous achievements the time she convinced a friend that walking around Chicago in a blizzard, despite frostbite warnings, is a reasonable way to explore the city. Shahd is a co-editor of Sajjeling and can be found on Instagram at shahdtron.

Miran Hosny, Co-founder and Co-Editor

Miran is a lawyer, radio producer and freelance journalist presently based in Sydney. Notorious for her obsession with cutlery, she lists amongst her crowning achievements the time she ate a quiche with knife and fork whilst driving. Miran once turned a rant about Arab Aunties into a short story long enough to get published in Westside Journal, and she produced and presented The Y Factor on community radio for fun. She is a co-editor at Sajjeling and tweets sporadically at miranhosny.

Mehal Krayem, Co-founder and Copy Editor

Mehal is a PhD survivor, freelance writer, and status-quo-disruptor by day and froyo connoisseur by night. Her research interests lie in pop culture, religion, and gender. When she’s not reminding students why the social sciences are a totally legitimate field that ought to be taken very seriously, she’s drowning her postgrad woes in mafroukeh or chocolate…quite often both. Mehal knows it’s only a matter of time before Nadine Labaki writes a feature film inspired by her brilliance…if only she’d reconsider the restraining order. Her thoughts on life, love and all things philosophical and cultural can be found at mehalkrayem.wordpress.com, or you can follow her on Twitter at mehalkrayem.

Mostafa Rachwani, Co-founder

Mostafa is a law and communications graduate who is passionate about cinema, traditional Islam, and charcoal chicken. Unlike most people in the Lebanese community, he does not have a sprawling family, nor does he own a pair of trackies. He is obsessed with halawet el jibn and funny cat videos.

Jennine Abdul Khalik, Co-founder

Jennine is a Palestinian-Australian journalism and law student from Sydney. She is a writer and an aspiring documentarian and filmmaker. Jennine loves travel, language, loud music, politics, design, and films with subtitles. When she isn’t freelancing, interning somewhere, or keeping busy with personal and community projects, she is rescuing herself from strange situations and strange people, having deep-and-meaningfuls, and championing Palestine, feminism, and freethinking. Jennine also blogs at thelowercasearab.net. She shares some of her thoughts on Twitter at jennineak.