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Dalia داليا

@dalia.aldu

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🇮🇶Author BABYLON, ALBION @saqibooks
@hikmairaq @the.roadtonowhere
Vogue, Guardian, NYTMagazine, The Face, Dazed, GQ, Aperture, Rolling Stone etc

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British-Iraqi writer, editor, and curator @dalia.aldu uses publishing to trace diaspora, memory, and inherited history. Through her platform The Road to Nowhere and her book Babylon, Albion, she documents SWANA lives across borders, building an evolving record of voices and identities often left out of the archive.

Featured on this year’s #DazedMENA100 list, Al-Dujaili approaches writing and curation as acts of preservation, connecting personal narrative with collective history. by @dalia.aldu

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5 months ago

@hikmairaq has officially launched in London with an event at @record28books, introducing a new research library focused on visual heritage and print material from Iraq and the wider Mesopotamian region. Founded by @dalia.aldu and supported by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, the platform offers an accessible resource for researchers, designers, students, and anyone exploring the histories of Babylon, Sumer, Assyria, and Akkad.

Inspired by Baghdad’s Bayt Al-Hikma, HIKMA functions as both an online platform and a roving research library. More than an archive, it positions itself as an active reclamation of regional authorship—challenging reductive Western narratives and opening new pathways for research and creative work❤️

❗️Launch Event: 11 December 6:00-9:00 pm ❗️

Discover the library at hikmairaq.com

🗓️On display until: 12-14 December

📍@record28books, London

Photo: @hikmairaq by @dalia.aldu

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7 months ago

I can’t believe I’m finally – officially – announcing that my debut book ‘Babylon, Albion’ will be published by @saqibooks on 8th May. This beautiful proof is the best birthday present I could receive! The hardback book is now available for pre-order at the link in my bio.

This book started as a piece of experimental creative writing three years ago. It was then published as a short essay by @acvmagazine (thank you Connor), after which I was lucky enough to bring it to the attention of Lynn and Elizabeth at Saqi. I am so grateful that they found something honest in the work. What a rush it is to bring something like this to life – it has taken so many forms. I’ve spent the last year trying to keep this news quiet, writing and researching as I juggle a full-time job, freelance work and a life – though some of you close to me have had to endure my last-minute cancellations and my disappearance for days on end to hide in the library; I’m grateful for your patience. It’s been the most rewarding, exhausting and thrilling year of my life and I sincerely hope I get the chance to keep doing it again and again. I’ve been a writer since I could hold a pencil between my fingers and have always dreamed of becoming published – I am so humbled that the opportunity arose much sooner than I ever imagined. Although it is the most terrifying thing to let such a personal work like this go into the world, I feel very ready to let it take on a life of its own, beyond me.

Babylon, Albion is a book asking us to reimagine what it means to belong in your land and to a land. I hope you love reading it as much as I loved writing it. by @dalia.aldu

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a year ago

It’s PAPERBACK PUBLICATION DAY for Babylon, Albion! This book has taken me on such a beautiful journey over the past year and I couldn’t be more grateful 🤍🇮🇶 BUY THE PAPERBACK at the link in bio!!! 🔗🫂 more exciting book news coming later this year…📚 by @dalia.aldu

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16 days ago

Melting in a heatwave… 🍦🕯️ taken in Paris by @dalia.aldu

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18 days ago

Babylon, Albion in T MENA: The New York Times Style Magazine, May print issue! @tmagazine.me 🎀 Thank you @bysarahamdan and team for the kind words! Dream come true 💭 Paperback out 9th July via @saqibooks, preorder at the link in bio 📚🔗 by @dalia.aldu

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19 days ago

If you thought you had seen the last of the Italy outfit posts, you were mistaken 🍦 by @dalia.aldu

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23 days ago

JUNE MAXXING in no particular order! Literally the craziest month I’ve had in years 🌀 Very exhausted + very grateful ~ I’ll be offline now for a month bye bye ✏️💭

1-3: Celebrating a gorgeous debut show from @skyeajones, doing a panel talk for @the.roadtonowhere with Skye and her mumma Aida 🌵 with @samsoesamsoe

4-5: AND celebrating @zeeeeeea’s beautiful debut show at @axelarigato with a reading from Babylon Albion 🐚!!

6-7: @the.roadtonowhere volume 4 launch x @jumpman23!!! @jumbipeckham with the magnificent @debahekmat @nateagbetu @__hannahlim__ @linda_from_accounting 🍾

8-9: The Iraqi Italian love birds finally had their dream wedding in Ischia @yousifduj @virginiadivaio, officiated by @vdivaio and I! 💍

10-11: @hikmairaq’s first Paris pop up with the most beautiful @fromjihan 🎀

12-13: @hikmairaq and @thewanawal’s first collaboration during PFW 🇫🇷 with @precious.trust

14: Being cute with @miista 👠

15-16: @the.roadtonowhere and @mulierismagazine’s collab pop up celebrating our new issues, featuring a beautiful talk by @margotpurgues @evarhuseyni and Amandine Nana at @pablotshirtfactory marché 💃🏾

17-18: An honour to speak with @sinanantoon about Notes from a Lost Country with @saqibooks 🇮🇶 at @arabbritishcentre

19: and finally, checked into my residency at @chateaudelavigny for July 🕯️ by @dalia.aldu

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24 days ago

Such a privilege to be asked to contribute to @officemagazine’s new LOVE issue ❤️ I wrote about @hikmairaq and its archives, Creative Space Beirut @creativespacebeirut, @nolcollective, about @evarhuseyni’s WANAWAL, and the restorative role of creativity during times of extreme loss and grief in the region — read the full story in the new issue 📚 L O V E to @simonrasmussen and @leandaheler for inviting me 🎀 by @dalia.aldu

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a month ago

My version of camouflage 🪨🌵 by @dalia.aldu

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a month ago

Beautiful love 💍 taken in Ischia, Italy by @dalia.aldu

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a month ago

HIKMA x WANAWAL Reading Room in Paris! 🇫🇷

On Saturday 27th June, HIKMA and WANAWAL will takeover @precious.trust’s space and display a variety of books, magazine’s and journals from our respective library collections on Kurdistan and Iraq, for visitors to flick through, read, study and embrace ✨

We encourage dialogue across the region, between archives and materials, and through complex histories 📚

12-6pm

Can’t wait to see you all!

Design: @romaisabs taken in Paris, France by @dalia.aldu

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a month ago