Welcome to Rising Up!
Hi! Salaam! Welcome to my Substack! Thanks so much for joining me here.
I’m Yasmin Khan, an award-winning author and human rights campaigner. This newsletter is where I share musings on the big passions of my life – global politics, food, creativity and wellbeing.
I started this Substack to share stories and strategies to help us all grow in resilience.
Why?
Well, you don’t need me to tell you that we live in challenging times.
From the rise of the far right, attacks on democracy, the cost-of-living crisis, the climate emergency, structural discrimination, the polarisation of political thought, and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, sometimes it can feels like we’re running on a treadmill of bad news - the impact of which is crippling on our mental health.
This is a newsletter about how we get through it.
Drawing on what I learned through two decades of human rights activism, I share a mixture of essays and interviews on how to not only survive but thrive in today's world. I also share delicious recipes, inspiring cultural recommendations and the odd random listicle on a topic I’m currently thinking about.
In doing all this, I’m hoping to build our collective resilience, spread a little hope and joy, and help us become more effective, more engaged, more compassionate and more connected. Because in the end, we’re all in this together.
About me
I’ve written three best-selling and critically-acclaimed books, The Saffron Tales, Zaitoun and Ripe Figs that share stories and recipes from my travels through Iran, Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean and challenge stereotypes of the Middle East, one pomegranate at a time.
I’ve written for newspapers such as the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal and magazines such as Bon Appétit, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and Condé Nast Traveller. I host the occasional podcast and radio programme too.
I’ve been immersed in campaigning for social change for decades, working for NGOs and grassroots groups on issues such as militarism, racism, and refugee rights.
I believe that connection and community are the cornerstones of a happy life and I hope, through this newsletter, we’ll build a little space of inspiration for us all.
Why subscribe?
By subscribing you’ll ensure you’ll never miss an update. The free subscription gives you access to the fortnightly newsletter.
Why pay?
Paying for your subscription means that you get the full Rising Up experience! As well as my regular newsletter, you’ll get full access to monthly recommendations round ups, recipes, Q+A’s and workshops. You’ll also get exclusive news and special deals for my books and live events.
More than that though, you’ll be supporting my work.
We live in a world where people don’t think twice about paying £3/$5 for a cup of coffee but can’t bring themselves to pay for a newspaper subscription.
I want to make a case for paying writers for their labour and to push back against the idea that all content should be provided for “free.”
After a decade of spending thousands of unpaid hours creating content for Instagram and Facebook (which essentially is a tool for making advertising money on the back of content creators), it feels radically empowering to step out of that model and communicate directly with my readers. Writing takes time, commitment, imagination and work. Each week, this newsletter will take me hours to organise about, hours to plan, hours to write. If you enjoy it, please support it, so I can keep doing the work I do.
