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I'm Hani the human and this is my blog.

Posts in Writing
How You Make Me Feel

CONTENT WARNING: Self harm, suicide, abuse, homophobia

How You Make Me Feel | Digital | (2022)

There is a lot I want to say about this piece. I draw in an unplanned, organic way. When things appear in my imagination, I add them in.

I imagined hands coming down as spiders, throwing out hooks, manipulating my face, my emotions, how I appear to the outside world.

The hooks would pull and tear at my skin, as the lines pulled through bone and sinew.

Why illustrate such violence towards oneself? Well for one thing it is better than hurting my physical body.

Through the process of this illustration I realised I was expressing some deep traumas that I have not really addressed directly. When I look back at the body of my work, it is obvious where I have subconsciously explored these feelings. In deciding to make this piece with more focus, I found that it drained and took a lot out of me. I worked on it tirelessly until it all came into focus, and when it did, I felt a tidal wave of exhaustion but also relief.

I feel like the time is right to share these stories. They will provide context for this work.

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31 Dhivehi Haikus for the month of August

In August during lockdown, I wrote a haiku in Dhivehi each day. It started off with simple Thaana text on black background, and slowly evolved to incorporate my photographs. It is nice to write haikus in Dhivehi as the structure lends itself nicely to counting the syllables.

The poems themselves seemed to take on a very self reflective nature, with common themes being the ocean, Maldivian life, and life in Male’ City.

I have included english translations for each of them. However do note that sometimes the meaning and syllable structure is lost somewhat in translation.

Originally posted on my instagram.

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Three Classic Maldivian Music Videos That Totally Don't Normalise Street Harassment

Street harassment is a huge issue in the Maldives. Many women share stories about how they get harassed almost every single day while just walking to work. This has led to many social movements, such as #Nufoshey (don't harass).

The Maldivian entertainment industry has historically led the charge against harassment, responding to this atmosphere of fear by creating some groundbreaking music videos that both shocked and enlightened, dramatically reducing the incidence of street harassment in their wake. Here are three shining examples. 

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A POLICY OF DESTRUCTION - From 'The Maldive Islanders' by Xavier Romero-Frias

This is the final chapter of Xavier Romero-Frias' "The Maldive Islanders".   With the direction the Maldives appears to be heading in, it is perhaps even more relevant now than when it was first written. If you wanted to know why so little is done to preserve Maldivian culture and heritage, this is why. 

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Broken Rainbow

A girl walks along a narrow road. The sun beats down on her from above, as heat rays rise from ground. Her steps echo loudly along the narrow streets and the sounds of traffic and horns blaring can be heard in the distance. The road smells of petrol and concrete. On both sides there were buildings either too small to house those that lived within or ones so ambitiously large that they were never finished being built. There is a sudden rush of air through the road as a flock of roosting pigeons take off. The flurry of sound from their many beating wings gives her a jolt. She looks up to see the blur of wings disappear to reveal a cat walking along the gutter. It looks down at her and meows. She breathes a sigh of relief. As she keeps looking clouds roll over from above, casting the road into shadow.

Drops begin to fall, some of them hitting her eyes; making her squint and look away. The soft pitter-patter crescendos into a thundering roar that drowns out all the sounds of the city. She hurriedly ducks under the cover of a low balcony. The cat appears beside her. It meows and rubs against her leg. She bends down and ruffles its neck. As she scratches its ears the rain stops; just as suddenly as it started.

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One Year On - Celebrate Moyameeha's life by reading some of his earliest works #FindMoyameehaa

A year has passed and Ahmed Rilwan AKA @moyameeha is still missing. Much has happened since in the Maldivian political spectrum, but absolutely no real progress seems to have been made on his whereabouts or the people behind his abduction. The Maldivian Police remains silent, and the government even more so. 

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