Instagram story viewer> @yaldakesh> Tagged

Yalda | یلدا

@yaldakesh

1.1K

followers

1003

following

🤸🏾‍♀️ Don’t forget to play
✊🏽 @rememberwhomadethem
✊🏽 @saynotoshein
🍉 @antisweatshopagainstapartheid
✨ @by.yalda earrings
زن، زندگی، آزادی 🖤

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

3

0

“Textile production went from being a vital part of Gaza’s economy to one of its most fragile sections due to the ongoing genocide.” ~Yalda Kesh

Contributors and sustainable fashion activists @yaldakesh and @venetialamanna were in conversation last month discussing how we make fashion more sustainable in the face of genocide, war, and capitalism, particularly right now in Palestine where a once thriving textile industry has been left tattered.

Building better will require holding fast fashion accountable, supporting garment workers and their unions, and building global solidarity.

Check our pinned post for more of the conversation!

28

2

Presenting the second installment of our new series “In Conversation,” in which organisers and activists connect about what the work for better futures means, building movements, and keeping them sustainable.

In this conversation between sustainable fashion activists @yaldakesh and @venetialamanna, they explore the many ways fashion is entangled with politics and active genocides, like Palestine, and how we hold big fashion accountable.

Also don’t forget to check out @antisweatshopagainstapartheid @bds.movement

#alternativefutures #systemschange #transformativejustice #sustainablefashion

3

0

Last month, @yaldakesh attended a @writersmosaic event on Iranian women’s writing where there was a mutual insistence on the importance writing with honesty. This got her thinking - what happens to truth when war is carried through performances that feel complete on their own terms?

“Across platforms, I have seen how war is increasingly being mediated through AI-generated ‘women’ positioned close enough to power to feel real, but polished enough to remain untouchable. ‘Jessica Foster’, otherwise known as the MAGA ‘dream girl,’ appears online again and again, living a life that hovers somewhere between a noughties sorority film and front-line military fantasy. Videos of AI-generated Iranian women in uniform are being circulated widely, as soldiers and pilots, all striking and all cheering on the nation’s military. They speak in fluent English, addressing an audience beyond the country they appear to represent.

Watching them, I find myself caught between recognition and disbelief, unsure where that version of power is meant to come from.”

https://shado-mag.com/articles/opinion/war-in-the-age-of-performance/

🎨 @alexefrancis who says: “I used a lot of images of the AI influencers mentioned in the piece and situated the collage on a stage to give the idea of a dystopic performance.”

78

2

via @neushakarshenas writing for @baranda.balkon :

“What I can urge you to do though, is follow grassroots struggles where this has been affected, in Iran, in Rojava, in Lebanon, and more broadly. My previous short-form video with baranda has opened this dialogue with regards to emerging opposition forces in Iran. We need support. Because this is a critical time, and we can’t risk falling back into the hands of powers who will continue, or reframe, violence and control over us.
…
What am I becoming increasingly confident about? That as the chaos and calamity continues to unfold, the contradictions of our world order continue to reveal themselves: funding, alliances, plans, interests, etc.
What else am I confident about?
The closer I get to the epicentre of struggle, the more I know these people have known, and continue to know, in the most treacherous of ways, these contradictions.  So let’s listen to them.
What can I still confidently shout?
Woman, Life, Freedom!
زن، زندگی، آزادی!
ژن، ژیان، ئازادی!”

346

15

"..reality is contradictory and uneven, shaped by forces that do not arrange themselves into coherent theories."

Written by @yaldakesh , published by @shado.mag
Highly recommend a read, exercise expanding our understanding of reality beyond false choices/binary choices. Take in multiple experiences.
Listen to Iranians.

3

1

Aaaah the OG mag has sold out, officially!! 💫

This green sheen guide - co-designed with the incred @yaldakesh + @mollyporteous - is a reimagined 00s teen mag with the visuals and attitude to match. There’s loads of scandal, flakey exes, an agony aunt, astrology, quizzes and freebies. And absolutely zero ads or shopping guides - as if! Designed for babes who give a f*ck, it exposes the real fashion sins (exploitation - not skinny jeans) that traditional media loves to ignore.

The tea is it was supposed to be a one-off… until everyone started asking when the next issue was coming out and how to be a part of it! So NBI became something bigger: More hot takes. More community events. More mags with more contributors, interviews + photoshoots.

The next issue is shaping up to be iconic and it’s all thanks to you! So ty to everyone who bought, bookmarked and raved about the first mag, to the dream team who helped put it together and to everyone who hung out IRL. Thanks to your support, 10% of the proceeds were donated to @giveyourbest.uk + @thesameerproject <3

Dw if you missed out on a print copy - the digi version is completely free and linked in the bio 💋

97

6

Today, we’re releasing a piece by @yaldakesh who explains its content better than we can: “This piece is built on conversations with four people who have lived their entire lives inside Iran, held after the 2026 protest massacre and shortly before the latest round of bombings. Not analysts or professional dissidents polished for Western consumption, but people moving through the ordinary, grinding texture of Iranian life. Spoken on the edge of further escalation, their reflections now carry a different weight. In moments like this, ideologies grow louder than lives and something essential is lost. These conversations are an attempt to listen for what remains.”

https://shado-mag.com/articles/opinion/more-than-one-voice/

🎨 @alexefrancis

225

12

Truth must be told.
So very proud of you my darling @yaldakesh
#handsoffiran #worldpeace #nowarwithiran #freefreepalestine

6

1

Today, @yaldakesh shares a fresh take on the show that’s got everyone talking. Yalda interrogates how Heated Rivalry’s cultural significance lies in the rare equilibrium of its male intimacy: two men, equal in status, physicality and social positioning, who desire each other on equal ground.

“Against a world that asks intimacy to function as infrastructure, Heated Rivalry offers a version of love that has not yet been overworked by the demands of a system that has withdrawn care everywhere else,” Yalda writes. “Rather than romanticising queerness, Heated Rivalry helps diagnose the conditions that make this response so widespread. It shows what becomes briefly possible when hierarchy loosens and how quickly that possibility could collapse when institutional power reasserts itself.”

🎨 @that.zany.martian who says: “The illustration shows how the article centres around the two queer ice hockey players, as they balance their shared vulnerability / romance with patriarchal archetypes of success & achievement.”

https://shado-mag.com/articles/opinion/heated-rivalry-and-the-erotics-of-equality/

12k

110

Let’s Unwrap Spotify 🎁

Big Music streaming services aren’t music companies, they’re tech giants built on data, extraction and exploitation.

And while Spotify rightly deserves criticism, it isn’t uniquely worse than its competitors (Amazon, Apple, YouTube Music) when it comes to how little most artists earn or their complicity in g•cide.

The recent wave of Spotify cancellations comes after Spotify’s founder invested heavily in companies developing military AI drone technology.

I’ve used @Ethical_Consumer_Magazine’s guide which suggests avoiding Amazon, Spotify and YouTube Music, and recommends the following ethical alternatives:  @SubvertWorld  @Even.Biz  @NinaProtocol  @PrestoMusicCom  @Qobuz  and Bandcamp (although I should flag that their recent corporate acquisitions are concerning, as many Black, trans and non-binary employees were reportedly laid off).

Sources: Billionaire Index [Bloomberg] The intern behind Spotify Wrapped was never given her dues [Thred] Music Streaming [Ethical Consumer Mag] Massive Attack remove music from Spotify to protest against CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in AI military [Guardian] Spotify users boycott streaming platform over ICE recruitment ads [Euro News]

Video co-written by @YaldaKesh
Food styling: @MaxLaManna
#SpotifyWrapped #spotify #ai

@venetialamanna

3k

0

Tomorrow is my birthday 🥳, and I couldn’t be more grateful for all the love in my life. Love is the most powerful energy and the most meaningful act. The connections we make and the love we share are what life is really about.❤️

Since it will be my birthday 🥳, haha, I’d like to ask for a special gift: can you share some of the love in your heart? If you’re able to donate, I’d be so grateful if you could support one of some beautiful families I’ve had the honour of getting to know and forming a friendship with, all rooted in love. You can find the donation link on their bio:

@yousef_almadhoun https://gofund.me/6c80d6c28
@melqadi https://gofund.me/0b51c7700
@artist_adhamalmadhoun https://gofund.me/421edecd1

If you are not in a position to donate, could you please share their fundraising campaigns with the donation links?

That would honestly be the best gift I could receive. Thank you so much for spreading love and kindness!❤️

(Those who I couldn't tag on photos: @camilapontual1 , @mpetula @tatibatalha @moshimosh___19 @ffiorim @_aurora_dos_campos )

109

49