A Life by Design

There’s a sentence on the Ya Khadijah design studio website that has raised eyebrows. It reads: “Habibti [rough translation: “My darling”], we help you get your shit together.” The owner of the studio, Khadijah Abdul Nabi ’08, stands by every word.

“It’s a little tongue-in-cheek,” says Nabi, who established the business in 2017. “This consultant from Deloitte wrote to me and was like, ‘You know, I really love your studio and everything, but you have to understand [the sentence] is not professional.’ [But] the biggest paying clients I’ve had have always started with ‘Khadijah, so great to meet you. I love that line on your website.’ So it resonates with the people that I want.”

Bold, brash, Bronx-born-and-raised Nabi believes in the power of knowing her audience. She is driven by intellectual curiosity and an iron will, which led her to establish Ya Khadijah, a women-led design studio in Iraq, despite daunting obstacles and a circuitous path.

When Nabi came to Barnard in 2004, she was planning to pursue engineering or pre-med. But as she began her studies, she had a calling that caused her to change course.

“I fell in love with Middle Eastern studies and anthropology,” says Nabi. Her parents were less than thrilled to know their daughter was eschewing engineering, a discipline in which she naturally excelled, to study a world they’d left behind. Her father moved to the U.S. from Baghdad in the 1980s, around the same time her mother emigrated from Tunisia.

“It was hard for them to wrap their heads around it, but the professors and the courses changed my life,” says Nabi. “It really intrigued me to understand how history creates arguments, how we see ourselves through the lens of identity, how ambiguous it could be, how there are so many different layers.”

Despite her enthusiasm, Nabi often felt overwhelmed navigating the logistics of career decisions by herself and became depressed. She zeroed in on work and says that the focus on her studies opened her to a reliable respite that continues to inform her art.

“I chose something that brought life and hope to me, which I’m really glad to do,” she says.

After Barnard, she worked at a few NGOs (nongovernmental humanitarian organizations) and, at the age of 26, moved with her husband to Erbil, Iraq, where she continued pursuing work at NGOs. Then a feeling of dislocation triggered another period of depression. She missed her home turf and the sense of possibility that had always been part of her experience growing up in New York City. She soon developed another plan and pursued a certification in graphic design at Shillington College in London. Upon her return to Iraq, she was determined to focus on her art her way. She found almost all of the studios in Erbil were run by “mostly arrogant” young men.

“And I was like, ‘You know what?’” she recalls thinking. “I’m a strong, beautiful Barnard woman, and I can do this too.”

@barnard.college The next issue of Barnard Magazine debuts online on May 12. In honor of National Arab American Heritage Month, we're sharing a sneak preview of our conversation with Khadijah Abdul Nabi ’08. This Bronx-born Barnard College alum founded Ya Khadijah, a women-led design studio in Iraq. Read on to learn more about her journey to providing branding and design for clients all over the SWANA region by visiting barnard.edu! @yakhadijah #barnard #barnardcollege #barnardalum #barnardalumna #barnardalumnae #NationalArabAmericanHeritageMonth #ArabAmericanHeritageMonth #art #design #branding #womencreatives #womenindesign ♬ original sound - Barnard College

The obstacles around establishing a woman-owned and -led business in Erbil, the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, have been daunting and, at times, dispiriting.

However, when Nabi talks about her clients, her projects, and the character of her business, there is apparent passion and pride in every choice, every design, and every color.

“The beginning was difficult,” she says. “The middle was difficult. It’s really difficult to run a business. I think I have a lot of grit. I have a lot of resilience. But there are days when I really just want to throw it all away just because I don’t think there is that kind of appreciation yet for the kind of work that we do here. The way that I persevere is to know that I have no other choice [because] this is what I want.”