Welcome to Dazed MENA

Everywhere, there are communities embodying artistry, ingenuity, and inspiration to be found, to help us all untangle the chaos we find ourselves enmeshed in every day. Even as humanitarian crises widen worldwide and algorithms feed us generic content, as we doomscroll in the little time we have to escape, life offers us so much. No matter how faint, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. 

That is why Dazed MENA is launching today: to give our communities, and the rest of the global majority, a platform that celebrates our imaginative and resourceful youth, to spotlight their style, art, music, and subcultures on the global stage. This is what they deserve, and this is what we hope to give them. We believe the future of culture lies in the hands of these creatives and trailblazers. They are our pride and joy.

Our first issue, Creativity in the Age of Chaos, looks at the people persevering and resisting despite the turbulence. Whether through music, film, fashion, or art, we are making space for these individuals and groups because they play the onerous role of creating representations of themselves, us, and where we are from. Giving us a language with which to understand the multiplicity of realities across landscapes of the global majority, they put our worlds into perspective, and offer us a glimpse of the worlds that are possible.

To encapsulate this essence of this issue, and that of Dazed MENA perpetually, multidisciplinary artist and our Creative Director, Chndy, has directed a film inviting us to really look at what makes Southwest Asia and North Africa beautiful, in all its absurdity and tenderness. 

At the core of this exploration are the many faces of this region’s people. Chndy’s film centres on these individuals, those whose stories we are committed to telling. “I wanted to re-examine the beauty of the region,” remarks Chndy about his film. “I wanted to slow things down and frame the region in a new and different light.” And indeed he does, allowing us to take in every moment and detail, to inspect what makes the SWANA what it is.

The film is just one part of our larger mission, “Empowerment is at the heart of what Dazed MENA is,” says Ahmad Swaid, Editor-in-Chief. “Together we are creating a collective vision that champions youth and creativity on a global scale.”