the CIA was on the phone

you did it all for fame; honey, how's life treating you now?

[iishtar]

[iishtar]

I mainly paint sex workers because my family is from the singing and dancing tradition. My mother and sister were prostitutes. I was the only son and my sister had four kids. Their fathers had all gone away so I adopted them. I needed to make money to support them.

Iqbal Hussain [x]

[iishtar]

got enough guilt to start my own religion

Tori Amos, "Crucify"

[iishtar]

Or, I don’t know, have an iced coffee at 7pm, dressed way too hot for the cafe, and let whatever happens between you and your words/art/music/journal/sketchbook/drafts folder/notes app that night happen. That’s my version of “let’s get fucked up.”

sandalwood scented skin

[iishtar]

[iishtar]

I tell the story that the husband leaves. Even as I tell the story that I tell the husband to leave. Even as I tell the story that isn’t it interesting I tell the story of the husband leaving even though I am the one who finally says go. Look: I even booked him a hotel for that night. Look: I even packed his socks. Hala Alyan, How the End Begins

[avecsabombe]

sex

[iishtar]

Articles no. 34

Inside the new HommeGirls store with founder Thakoon Panichgul by Nicole Phelps Vogue Business April 2025

Always and Forever: Bella Hadid in Conversation with Yasmine Diba Dazed Middle East December 2025

In 2026, I'm no longer interested in 'working on myself' by Sara Hussain Vogue India January 2026

The Hidden Imran by Osman Samiuddin Equator Magazine January 2026

Tarot Cards Are More Mathematical Than Mystical by Ervin Ruhlelana Medium

How the LA Review of Books Destroyed Itself by Tasbeeh Herwees No Bad Days February 2026

If You're a Tech Worker with an Attractive Girlfriend, We Have Extremely Bad News by Joe Wilkins Futurism October 2025

Fatima Bhutto On Surviving a Coercive Relationship by Fatima Bhutto Vogue January 2026

Jen Percy by Dina Nayeri Bomb Magazine December 2025

[iishtar]

Because she was vulnerable, she reminded me that we choose how to deal with someone who needs us—we can be kind and loving or we can be merciless and cold. We can resent love or we can adore it.

Fatima Bhutto [x]

[iishtar]

He often stormed out of restaurants, threw tantrums and left me alone in strange cities and gave me the silent treatment for days.

Fatima Bhutto [x]

[iishtar]

 I think also, for me, their sort of strange and not strange came from feeling very much like I was growing up in a popular culture landscape that pitted women against each other, and you were either the sort of, like, cool, alternative person or you were the more traditional feminine person. And there was no space to have aspects of both or no space to be both. It felt like you had to pick a side. And hopefully, I feel like it's not like that as much anymore.

Sarvat Hasin [x]

[iishtar]

Men are rarely called ‘mysterious’ because their thoughts and their opinions have for so long been the subject of all culture; women, frequently pegged as unknowable, remain so because it is easier for the consumer to devour them without the tiresome inconvenience of seeing them as people, flawed and needy and desirous.

Philippa Snow on Stephanie LaCava's The Superrationals [x]

[iishtar]

The other reason they don’t like talking about it is because it drives home the uncomfortable truth: the PTI isn’t really a party. The party is Imran. The ideology is Imran. People joined for Imran. People voted for Imran. The military banked on Imran. It always was Imran and will remain Imran, until there is no Imran. He is its life, and also its sunset clause.

Osman Samiuddin, The Hidden Imran

[iishtar]

Articles no. 33

'Schadenfreude'... Do we find comfort in someone else's failure? by Ruwaida Abela Northen Harper's Bazaar Arabia June 2025

Studio Execs Don't Want Their Actors Bringing Politics to Set. But at 25, Anamaria Vartolomei Is Making It the Crux of Her Career by Beatrice Loayza Cultured Magazine March 2025

Tribal Poetry, the Beat of Yemen by Steven C. Caton Harvard Divinity Bulletin Winter/Spring 2012

The Last Days of Storytellers' Street by Manzoor Ali Roads and Kingdoms July 2015

The Forgotten Charms of Iranian Storytelling by Dina Nayeri LA Review of Books August 2014

I Want to Lie: An Interview with Larissa Pham by Marlowe Granados From the Desk of Marlowe Granados January 2026

Naïka Embraces Her Layered Identity and Looks to New Horizons by Hafsa Lodi Vogue Arabia January 2026

[iishtar]

Someone else leans against a fire hydrant scrolling Vestiaire, thumb hovering over a vintage Prada skirt they absolutely don’t need. This is not about art. It’s about attendance.

The Disgraced Socialite Goes to Her Ex's New Girlfriend's Gallery Opening... and It's Fabulous

[iishtar]

Articles no. 32

Why Leonora Carrington's Work Feels So of the Moment by Kate Dwyer W Magazine February 2022

The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner The New Yorker January 2021

Golden Girls: How South Asian Women Preserve Legacy through Gold by Eman Naseer Vestoj

Born Under the Sign of Saturn by Susan Sontag Verso Books

In Dark Times, I Sought Out the Turmoil of Caravaggio's Paintings by Teju Cole New York Times September 2020

Tina Turner by Harmony Holiday 4Columns June 2023

On the Writing Lessons of Tarot by Abigail Nguyen Rosewood Literary Hub May 2022

THE HIGH PRIESTESS: The Five Teachers of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Pt. 2: Leonora Carrington Between Two Worlds October 2022

Reading the High Priestess The Pixie & Sorcerers September 2022

Seduction and Betrayal by Elizabeth Hardwick New York Review of Books June 1973

[iishtar]

If, by misfortune, you make her cry, you must realize that her tears are not liquid; they are of hard, frozen ice armed with geometrical points that can make her go blind.

Katie Horna on Leonora Carrington [x]