Last Thursday (March 25) culture writer Najma Sharif hosted an AMAKA Live Interview with Libyan-American journalist and activist Noor Tagouri. During the nearly hour-long conversation, the two storytellers explored setting boundaries on the internet, remaining consistent in your values, and how to nurture curiosity.
The truth is multifaceted; a tenet journalists know well. This is increasingly the case when you are a highly visible person on the internet who people look to learn from. Having over 500,000 followers on Instagram, Noor has had to learn how to not only separate herself from public perceptions but also how to avoid being tokenized as the poster child of social issues. In her Live interview, she brought up the concept of ‘news wellness’: monitoring the information you are consuming and how it affects your mental health. She also suggested deleting social media apps from time to time and not bringing phones into the bedroom. Being intentional about unplugging is how she is able to “resist becoming a servant to the algorithm”, and rather prioritize what she really cares about when sharing online. While like-centric platforms such as Instagram make this kind of mindfulness difficult, Noor suggests looking to alternatives such as Patreon and Voice - a blockchain social media with no algorithm.
As a writer who thinks deeply about society at large, the conversation also took on the political dynamics at play in her career. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to create the world she wants to see. Noor recalled a story about her first speaking agency expecting her to be proud that another Muslim woman was turned down in place of her. She recognizes that it’s this kind of faux-progressiveness that creates a scarcity mindset among marginalized identities in the journalism industry. She actively works to repair this by putting other people into opportunities where she can. Together with Najma, she unpacks how resources are abundant but capitalism restricts access to said resources dependent on societal power. They name harmful ideas of exceptionalism and tokenism as also contributing to this sense of lack of justice.
The future is bright, though. Noor notes that the precarious nature of the journalism industry is leading to independent platforms, like AMAKA and her own, At Your Service. Making her own way has allowed for her to nurture her individual voice and remain loyal first and foremost to her wide ranging interests instead of being pigeonholed by a corporation’s vision.
With all that she does, how does Noor manage to stay inspired? One word: curiosity. A fan of talking to strangers, she suggests looking to learn from anywhere and everywhere you can. I’d say a good place to start is by looking more into her work. You can find the AMAKA Live below:
Key Quotes from Noor Tagouri’s Instagram Live with AMAKA:
On Being Tokenized as a Muslim woman:
“The reason why there is so much horizontal hostility in communities... is because there really is only an opportunity for one. That’s how it’s set up...I recognize that and so I will always pass opportunities on and I will always be open to mentoring when I can. I do what I can to build community all the time.”
On Navigating Systemic Roadblocks:
“I always want to complain on Twitter but I stop myself every single day... I have to combat that because you have to think about the world you want to live in, and that’s hard especially when you’re experiencing the systemic scarcity that we’re talking about. There’s also a way. You know what I think about? There are so many jobs that we’d never know about, like a scaffolder, and there are so many people who are so scrappy but don’t know they can do that.”
On Faith and Community:
“My mum is the queen of manifesting... she knows what to pray for and mashallah she gets what she wants when she prays for it. It’s amazing because I realise she thinks so big of God and she thinks so big of people, and it's really hard to do that because a lot of times people really suck but the people who don’t suck are the ones who we end up gravitating towards and that we come around and that is the community we built at ‘At Your Service’.”
On Following Your Curiosity:
“I recently realized that following and pursuing your passions is not very inclusive because a lot of people don’t know what their passions are. So, I think, I’ve changed my mindset completely and started telling people to follow their curiosities because all of the stories I do are literally things I was naturally curious about. Curiosity has always been one of my best friends - it's something I have not only found joy and companionship in, but it’s led me to meet so many amazing people and amazing opportunities...so follow it every time, and sometimes it’ll take you to a dead end and sometimes it’ll take you to the next big thing.”