The Khaleejesque team continually ponders with the barrage of research, commercial trends, and click bait articles that have called ‘time of death’ on our respective field of publishing. With our collected knowledge, network, and experience in what is seemingly a “dying field,” we set to formulate our own research more focused on the MENA publishing scene on a global scale—namely, niche and independent publishing platforms, whether print or online, founded and staffed by young Arabs and Muslims from around the world.
As a platform that strives to amplify the voices of creatives and activists alike, we are dedicated to sharing our findings on a burgeoning field amongst creatives of the MENA region and beyond. As traditional publishing houses increasingly diminish, these independent platforms are paving the way for a new movement—heralding a cultural paradigm shift towards an egalitarian voice in publishing far from the constraints of traditional print and online media.
As a result, we’ve published a MENA Indie Zines and Platforms feature which can be accessed here.
In addition we’ve reached out to individual Zines who have shared with us their intricate workings and their missions and visions for their platform.
These are collective answers from The DAS MAG team.
- About the Platform:
The DAS MAG's mission is to cultivate creative self-actualization and discover one's true self through communicating perspective, understanding, and emotions. We do this with the motif of granting journalists, artists, and photographers complete free expression as contributors in the magazine in topics such as social, environmental, artistic, medical, humanitarian, and literature.
We provide the opportunity for one to freely express themselves through our magazine. This opportunity is open for any DAS high school female student who'd like to contribute as a writer, artist, photographer, or in any sort of creative way they'd like.
We particularly serve DAS students who are needing a comforting, confirming, conscious space that communicates cultural and systematic aspects that relate to their identities and their everyday lives. THE DAS MAG family is one big happy family. We sit, check in, learn, and express together.
- Content: what is your publication concerned with and what kind of content does it feature?
We provide the opportunity for creators (writers, artists, photographers, etc…) to freely express themselves through our magazine in topics such as social, environmental, artistic, medical, humanitarian, and literature.
- The team behind the platform:
We are a team of high school female students working on this project part-time. It started in 2017 as a Personal Project by the founding member, Layan Aljandan. At the beginning, there were 8 main writers. It then expanded into what you see today; a large family of creatives who strive to express themselves creatively and touch the lives of their readers. Our team is made up of our founders, directors, editors, writers, and creatives. The MAG is supervised by volunteer teachers and supported by the school administration.
- Work Space:
Yes we have meetings at our school or communicate online. But, the most recent issue was created during quarantine due to COVID-19. Therefore, we worked together remotely to create it.
dasmag.com
instagram.com/thedasmag
Images courtesy of The DAS MAG.
