2020-2021 Board: Here we are!

New year, new Sheherazade board! We (Sijmen, Jessica, Alexandra and Moena) would like to quickly introduce ourselves to our dear members.

Hi guys, my name is Sijmen and I will be the chair of our study association during the upcoming academic year! I am very excited to start the year, even though the situation is, unfortunately, quite different than we are used to. We shall continue to stay positive and I hope to be able to meet and see each other as much as possible at our social events. We are going to organize some new and fun activities for you all, so stay tuned! Furthermore, this year I will be doing my MA in Middle Eastern Studies, after having finished my pre-master last academic year. My main focus will be on history, language and politics. We as the new board cannot wait to start the year and we hope to see all (new) members soon in September!

Hi everyone! My name is Jessica, I’m 24 and I am from the small town of Leusden. I have been a committed Sheherazade member for some years now and this year I am happy to start as the board’s secretary! I am a student of Arabic and in my free time I love to dig even deeper into this language, especially the Egyptian dialect. Besides that, I really enjoy spending time in the kitchen, and it should come as no surprise that I mainly cook dishes from ‘our’ region. Obviously, this year will be a bit different than usual, but if you ask me, we will still have a great time. I hope to see you all soon at our events!

Hi! I’m Alex and this year I will be your treasurer (cool word right?). I will also be responsible for Sheherazade’s social media and of course be intimately involved in the fun activities that we will organise online and inshallah offline! Finally I’m also the confidential counselor of the board, so do not hesitate to approach me! This year my aim is to lay a foundation of “gezelligheid” which will make Sheherazade a central part of our lives as students. During the BA I focussed on ideology, ethno-nationalism, Persian, Uyghur and the Turco-Persian world. I briefly lived in two extremes of this region during my semester abroad in Samarqand, Uzbekistan and my internship at the Dutch embassy in Cyprus. I also love to travel as much as possible to visit everything in between! In September I will start the MA. Khodahafez & xäyri khosh!

Hi! Shloon kon? (“how are you?”, shaami dialect)I am Moena, 22 years old, a master student MES, and your assessor! The coming academic year will be my fifth year as a student; I completed my BA English Language and Culture and then via a pre-master I switched to MES! Furthermore, I was born in Damascus, but ever since I was a little girl I have lived in the beautiful south of Limburg. Moving from such a small village to Leiden was a big change! No hills, no soft pronunciation of the ‘g’, nor any real Limburgian vlaai (pie). However, I have really come to appreciate Leiden and I am still in love with the cute bridges all over the place! I also really like to read, listen to music (check our Spotify playlist full of Arabic hit songs!) and I also belly dance! As your assesor I am going to plan the most awesome activities for you and I hope that, together, we can fully enjoy this (bizarre) year! I hope to see you all soon at our (inshallah real/live) activities to get to know you all! And to say goodbye as we do in Limburg, “hooieee!”

We are looking forward to getting to know the (new) members!