“After a big burnout at work, and the loss of my father, I made a radical change. I needed more freedom. More experiences to live. More purpose.”
Sarah Oirdighi has just turned 30, and has already crossed out 15 major life goals. She has lived in four countries, given a TedxTalk, shot a short film and won an HEC Cinema Prize. Her most recent achievement? Launching a podcast.
Yallah Habibti was created to give Arab and Middle Eastern women a platform to present themselves and discuss taboo subjects that their cultures, and even the West, refuse to tackle.
It is no secret that pop culture, in particular Hollywood movies, falls short when it comes to Arab and Middle Eastern representation. When films include Arab or Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) characters, they often tend to represent these characters as terrorists. Whenever MENA culture is actually included, it is often commodified, with films having no Arab actors present in the cast — such as in Dune (2021).
Dune is a 1965 epic science fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert, with the movie adaptation starring Timothee Chalamet released in in 2021. Herbert was inspired by many cultures while writing his novel, showing a great interest in messianic religions and Arab culture. The book is an obvious allegory for Western imperialism and environmentalism in the Middle East, drawing up heavy inspiration for the fictional Fremen of Arrakis from Middle Eastern culture.
And yet, Hollywood did not see it appropriate to cast a single MENA person in the franchise, going so far as representing a mangled version of the Arabic language and casting a white man as the lead. Unfortunately, this did not come as a surprise to any Arab or Middle Eastern person.
Yallah Habibti tackles this alienation. “Growing up, Arab and Middle Eastern women never had a chance to be represented to get some guidance,” Oirdighi says in her podcast introduction. “Our communities are either marginalized, sexualized, or not represented at all.”
Oiridighi was born and in Tangier, Morocco, and lived in three other countries prior to moving to Montreal in 2016.
When she was 20 years old, Oirdighi was completing a master’s degree in digital marketing from KEDGE Business School in Marseille, France. Creative and adventurous by nature, she was attracted by the opportunity her university offered to complete two semesters abroad.
Her first country of choice was Sweden. There, she encountered two Montrealers who encouraged her to complete her second semester in Montreal.
“There are so many cultures [in Montreal],” she says. “I felt represented and accepted for the first time in a long time. I immigrated to three different countries, and [Canada] was the first country where I felt like I belonged, even if it isn’t my home country.”
Once her student visa expired, Oirdighi had to go back to France, but she wouldn’t stay for long. At 22 years old, she packed up her bags, kissed her mother and aunties goodbye, and embarked on a journey to one of North America’s coldest cities to hone her creativity and pursue her dreams.
“There is a big sense of freedom in Montreal,” Oirdighi says. “A freedom of what to wear, where to go, of being safe on the streets, and a feeling of whatever you put your mind to it you can do. The city really helps with the motivation. People aren’t judgemental here, they’re very welcoming. It didn’t feel like that in France.”
She explained that Montreal’s authenticity and freedom allowed for her creativity to flourish, and ultimately inspired her to create her own content. To see artists everywhere in the streets led her to tap into her own artistry and focus on what she truly loved to do.
Once settled, Oirdighi threw herself into many content creator jobs, climbing the corporate ladder and achieving goal after goal – eventually burning out, handing in her resignation, and focusing on healing.
“I was so disgusted with anything that had to do with work. I needed to take a break, to feel like myself again,” she says. “I didn’t have any creativity in me anymore and that’s when I knew I wasn’t myself.”
As she attempted to navigate her loss of creativity while also managing her finances, Oirdighi took on another job working at Cirque du Soleil, a position that helped her get back on her feet.
“[Cirque du Soleil] was an amazing experience, and I learned a lot,” she says. “I mean it’s Cirque du Soleil, you know, it’s the literal circus. I got to see people hanging from the ceiling, and performing, and it was great! But when I took that job, I already knew I wasn’t going to stay, because I had made a promise to myself: to never let anyone else be responsible for the happiness I feel from my work.”
That’s when she started drafting a business plan to go out on her own, eventually launching her own business, Le Pouce Bleu (The Blue Thumb).
Le Pouce Bleu is a social networking platform that helps up-and-coming entrepreneurs shine on social media, grab as many opportunities as they can, and help them become the best versions of themselves.
“I wanted to help anyone find their voice, and be able to use it,” Oirdighi says. “To shine on social media, and grab as many opportunities as they can. Because to me, ultimately, that’s what we’re here for: to be the best version of ourselves.”
A strong desire to uplift people is a gift Oirdighi inherited from her late father, who passed away six years ago.
“My dad spent his entire life working to give [my siblings and me] this ability to have a future,” Oirdighi says. “He grew up super poor, and had to take care of his whole family, and didn’t get any opportunity to enjoy the life he built. But he always encouraged me to believe in myself, and to share that belief with people.”
Le Pouce Bleu is a way for Oirdighi to share her ambition and creativity, and inspire the online community she built to take the same leap of faith she took.
Yalla Habibti is a way for her to give back to the community she grew up with.
When Oirdighi worked as a communication manager in one of her corporate jobs, she was disappointed in the lack of representation and the absence of platforms given to Arab and Middle Eastern women. So, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
“If I work for someone who doesn’t even want to give people a chance to be represented when they claim to the world that they are doing the work, when in fact they aren’t,” she says. “Then let me do the work. Let me help somehow, let me give a voice to these women who are dying for representation and represent them.”
Yallah Habibti has, in a way, allowed Oirdighi to find the inspiration and role models she desperately sought when she was younger.
“As an interviewer, I don’t speak much and I love that,” she laughs. “I’m here to point some direction but I’m also here for the woman to speak. And I see a mirror. She’s talking about her traumas — the positive, the negative — and I needed that so much when I was a kid. It helps me grow and it helps me heal because I feel like [Arab and Middle Eastern women] have so much in common that we never talk about. I really like the way [the podcast] helps me create links between different women, cultures and generations.”
Sarah Oirdighi’s story with Montreal is not unlike that of many immigrants. To be surrounded by so many cultures allowed her to appreciate the one she grew up with, and to heal past wounds she didn’t realize she had.
“I started working on that podcast when I was still in Montreal,” she says. “And then when I went back to Morocco to visit my family, the experience was so different, but the same at the same time. Because when I see the women around me and the people I’m talking to about this project, I see how everything is connected. And that’s why I love the internet so much. Because it’s like this online space where everything can happen and everyone can share their thoughts. I feel like this project helped me connect the dots between my life here and my life there, and I hope I get to create more projects in the future to try to reconnect my cultural heritage with this new life that I’m creating here.”
To know more about Sarah Oirdighi’s story and keep up with any future projects, follow her on Instagram (@sarahoirdighi) and LinkedIn.