I am the living dream of my grandmothers. These women had encyclopedic knowledge of the Earth and sustained life through empire and erasure.
My great-great-grandmother, a blue-eyed Indigenous Avar woman, embodied the strength of the mountains that hugged her village. She died at a young age, leaving my great-grandmother to care for the family and forego her dream of going to university.
She spent her life tending the land, the animals, and the kitchen in an era before refrigerators and supermarkets.
She did all this without ever being honored for it. My work is a reclamation of her dignity, of her matriarchal wisdom, naming it as sacred and powerful.
I was born in Kenya to an Azerbaijani mother and a Belgian father, and raised across three continents. To grow up this way is to belong everywhere and nowhere. But my roots are deep in the soil of Qakh.
About me
Qakh, Azerbaijan, the root of my maternal line
When I was 9 years old, I attended my first protest against the authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan.
I shouted, “No to corruption!” and “Yes to democracy” among the bravest people I’ve ever known. Many of them paid the price of speaking out with their lives.
This experience planted the seed for my lifelong commitment to justice and freedom (azadlıq).
Over 20,000 people gathered in 2005 for free and fair elections
In 2019, I began building Chicks for Climate, a platform to bring feminism and environmentalism together. The page shared accessible and informative content that garnered millions of monthly views.
When I became a mother, I realized matriarchy was the social architecture that could fulfill the goals of ecofeminism. Today, my Substack newsletter “From a Young Matriarch” translates the ancient wisdom of matriarchy to a modern audience.
My upcoming book, Matriarchy, weaves scholarly work and artistry to present matriarchy as a necessary alternative to our failing systems.
I do this as a mother raising a daughter and as a granddaughter honoring my lineage. The women before me never had the chance to be honored, but in their memory, we will build the world they deserved to live in.
Birthing new worlds
Previously published works:
Degrees acquired:
B.A. Economics, Barnard College