I went to check on Parisa when the bombing of Iran began. That is how we found “Lion Eating Pomegranate”. In hindsight, that morning was as absurd as it was rage and grief-filled (cats and coffee and cursing the news). I could see in Parisa the wide-eyed incredulousness and scattered thoughts of heartbreak that I am very familiar with myself. She shared that she had been asked by an editor (of another journal) to generate work with a political analysis of the events. She asked me to explore a collaboration and I always say yes to Tehrani aunties.

Initially, we grappled with a strong shared resistance to offering any political analysis whatsoever during an active military campaign where we were both also experiencing the stuporous fog of profound grief. Simultaneously, we sensed that there was something important for each of us in trying to wrestle with the impossible task of offering commentary to this moment. Both of us come from a background where analyzing, rather than feeling, during times of profound grief was used as a coping mechanism. Here, we wanted to challenge ourselves to create something outside of the insatiable demands of the news cycle; a piece that spoke to how we needed to make meaning as human beings, if left to our own devices. Lion Eating Pomegranate, at its core, is about how we care for each other while our people witness and experience the unspeakable. It is about friendship and dreaming together as a way through.

Lion Eating Pomegranate is for the people of Iran and Iraq.

It is also for all peoples who know the extent of the loss that comes out of every explosion.

Free Palestine.

Paintings and words by Parisa Karami and Ṭaus al Chalabi

Digital Stitching by Ṭaus al Chalabi