Art with Bias

I’m often asked why I speak publicly about Palestine and politics — and why I don’t just “stick to perfume.” This is my response.

It’s shortsighted to believe that business can or should exist apart from human values — whether religious, political, or environmental. Business doesn’t operate in a vacuum; it is shaped by the same systems and structures that govern every part of our lives. Rather than pretend business can be separated from these realities, we should recognize it as part of the broader human experience.

We celebrate this connection when businesses support causes we agree with. We feel proud to back them. We buy from them. We tell others about them. Especially when those causes are safe or endorsed by institutions like the UN, we rarely question it. But that comfort breeds what I call ethical laziness. When a brand supports a "safe" cause, no one flinches. Yet when someone speaks about something more uncomfortable or politically charged, we expect them to fall silent — to return to neutrality.

But neutrality isn’t neutral. Silence is a position. Choosing not to speak is itself a political act — one that upholds the status quo. Every business makes a statement, whether it intends to or not. Every consumer response — every purchase, every boycott — is a statement too. I believe in voting with my dollar, and I expect no less from others. We all bear the ethical weight of our choices.

For me, this is not theoretical. I am Palestinian, from Gaza. My parents were displaced in 1948 during the Israeli colonization of Palestine. I grew up a refugee. I don’t have the privilege of separating my work from my identity. I can’t — and won’t — tuck my lived reality away when I create, speak, or simply exist.

When I speak out — especially about the genocide in Gaza that unfolded in 2023 — I’m not offering a political "opinion." I’m bearing witness to an urgent, brutal, and deeply personal injustice. Asking me to compartmentalize — to divide my work from who I am — is asking me to erase myself.

I refuse.

My perfumery is a reflection of who I am. Like any creative work, it carries bias. It carries history. It carries emotion and perspective. This is not something to hide or apologize for — it’s something to honor. To create is to express. And to express is to speak through the lens you live with.

So yes, my work is political. My voice is political. My existence is political. That’s not a flaw — it’s the truth of being human. And I embrace it fully.

Don’t compromise who you are. It’s not worth it. Nothing is.