The SIDE collective

The SIDE collective, cooking and cleaning politics, cultures, religions, and arts, is a collective that hacks, hijacks, and re-create cultural, artistic, religious, and political scenes from an intersectional feminist lens. The cofunders of SIDE collective are Samar Zughool, Behnaz Aliesfahanipour, Safa Saad and Sammar Al Kerawe. Samar Zughool (she, her) is a performing artist, intercultural trainer and researcher on intercultural cooperation, social movements and public policy making. With the SIDE collective, Samar directs and performs community art practices. Behnaz Aliesfahanipour (she, they) is a human rights activist, youth worker and visual artist. Behnaz started her activism in Iran, advocating for women's rights and justice. She is a freelance visual artist and youth worker who uses visual arts for community building and enhancing resilience. Safa Saad (she, her) was born in 1996 in Baghdad and has been a resident of Slovenia since 2013. At the age of 11, she discovered her talent in drawing, and since then, she has used her drawings to communicate her feelings about social issues and her journey of discovering her self-identity in connection to the concepts of war, migration, and integration. Sammar Al Kerawe (she, her) is a hairdresser by occupation; she is active in different social programs in Slovenia. Gender-based discrimination is one of the main reasons that forced her to leave her place of birth in Iraq for Slovenia. She dreams of an inclusive world with equal rights and justice for all.

The work is part of the BEPART project supported by the Creative Europe Programme.