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DUBAI: Actress and podcast host Yara Shahidi is part of National Geographic’s list of 33 “visionaries, creators, icons, and adventurers” from across the globe and she spoke to the publication about the project that landed her on the list.

In 1888, the National Geographic Society was founded by 33 pioneers in Washington. The “bold thinkers … aimed to reimagine how we encounter our world. Much has changed since then, but the mission that guided them — to expand knowledge and promote understanding—drives us still. In that spirit we introduce the National Geographic 33, a collection of visionaries, creators, icons, and adventurers from across the globe,” the publication explained of its new list.

Part-Middle Eastern star Shahidi, whose father is Iranian, was named on the list in the Creators subsection that celebrates “out-of-the-box thinkers developing innovative solutions.”

 

 

 

 

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The “Black-ish” and “Grown-ish” actress was highlighted due to her podcast “The Optimist Project.”

Shahidi, 25, launched the podcast to explore how to live a more fulfilling life with various special guests hosted on each episode.

Shahidi, a Harvard graduate, says she was inspired by the dynamic conversations she has with members of her diverse family. The actress has two brothers — one is an actor and the other works in fashion — while her father Afshin Shahidi is a cinematographer. Meanwhile, her cousin is the rapper Nas and her grandfather was a Black Panther activist. Shahidi and her mother, Keri Shahidi, who together run their own media company called 7th Sun Productions, decided to take their musings to a wider audience with the podcast, which launched in 2024.

“We feel so fortunate to be having these conversations,” Keri, who is Shahidi’s co-producer, told National Geographic “But equally, we felt the drive to make sure other people had the opportunity to hear what we were hearing.” 

The podcast’s guests so far have included “Saturday Night Live” star Ego Nwodim, Tony award-winning actor Courtney B. Vance, and Laurie Santos, a psychology professor at Yale University. 

“Having to pour so much thought into basic survival doesn’t give your brain space to think about, Well, why are we living?” Shahidi said. “What would make me excited to wake up the next day?”

In her conversation with National Geographic, she went on to acknowledge that this is a challenge moment for the next generation of leaders. “It’s overwhelming to think about how broken some of these systems are, how imperfect some of our tools for change are … but with that comes an onslaught of very inspired, very motivated young people.”

KARACHI: A centuries-old staple of South Asian closets, the farshi shalwar, is back in Pakistan and ruling fashion trends this Eid Al-Fitr. 

The word “farshi” comes from the Persian word “farsh,” meaning “floor,” and the farshi shalwar, particularly popular in Pakistan and northern India, is characterized by its floor-length, flowing and wide, loose pants, creating a dramatic and graceful silhouette. 

“Right now, it’s the hottest trend,” fashion stylist and director Tabesh Khoja, popularly known as Khoji, told Arab News, saying he first styled a farshi shalwar in 2023 for the fashion label of model and actress Sadaf Kanwal.

“I styled Sadaf Kanwal actually and after that I have seen every other designer doing a farshi shalwar version of their own,” Khoja said. 

No doubt, Kanwal seems to have played a key role in bringing the farshi shalwar back this Ramadan and Eid, with her label Sadaf Kanwal Fashion creating a number of outfits over the last two years featuring the baggy trousers. 

“Throughout the [last] year, I shot so many collections of so many designers and all of those designers at least used to have two farshi shalwars for sure in their collections,” Khoja said. “So it took us an entire year to make it a fashion trend.”

According to the stylist, the trend dated back to the 17th century and was popular among noble women in the Mughal era. Modeled after the flowing gowns worn by British noblewomen, the complete outfit consists of three basic parts: a kurta or a long shirt, dupatta or long stole, and the third and most important, the farshi shalwar or pajama, a flowing two-legged trouser held by drawstrings that falls straight to the ankles from where it starts flaring and flowing copiously onto the floor, trailing as one walks. 

In media, iconic movies such as Umrao Jaan (1981) and Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977) that depict Muslim culture of 19th-century Lucknow show noblewomen and royal courtesans wearing farshi shalwars. 

“They had a variety of silhouettes in terms of a kurta or a jacket on top, among other things. The outfit has been there, the silhouette has been there since the 17th century but how you make it relevant now is very important,” Khoja added.

HOW TO STYLE A FARSHI SHALWAR?

According to Khoja, some of the popular ways to style the farshi shalwar include pairing it with a button down shirt and accessorizing it with different kinds of jewelry pieces and hairdos.

“You can dress it up or dress it down. Sadaf [Kanwal] uses big organza dupattas. You can do big shawls also like [actress] Mahira Khan wore [designer] Banto Kazmi’s when she got an award at the UK Parliament. So something of that sort also with a plain silhouette.”

Pakistani actress Tuba Anwar said celebrities had been wearing farshi shalwars since last year but the trend had “peaked” among the general public in recent months. For her, the fact that everyone would be wearing the baggy trousers this Eid reduced their appeal. 

“I was planning to wear farshi shalwar on this Eid and then when everybody started discussing it, I was like ‘No, this is not what I’m going to wear because I have to do something very different’.”

When she wore farshi shalwars at all, Anwar said she preferred them in solid colors.

“In terms of styling, I would like to wear it with solid colors, not a lot of embroidery going on, not a lot of things or abstract things going on in the clothes that I am going to wear,” she said.

The farshi shalwar craze is not limited to women alone. 

Actor and host Fahad Mustafa has donned the farshi shalwar look on his hit gaming show Jeeto Pakistan during Ramadan. Singer and songwriter Falak Shabbir has been seen in the outfit as well. 

“It’s certainly not limited to women. Fahad Mustafa was of course wearing it on Jeeto Pakistan. I am going to wear it on Eid,” Khoja said. “So, you will see a lot of people of different sorts, male and female, wearing it.”