Reading The Kite Runner, And Came Across This:

Hello!! I’ve been trying to find Pakistani/Pashtun owned dark academia accounts because there are really not much of them and most aren’t given much attention :( im honestly so glad I found yours, I adore it so much 🥺🥰 (I’m Pashtun myself hehe)

Hii! I am pleased you like it and I agree with you. I thought not many people will understand it but I started it anyway because i think the dark academia aesthetic can go really well with our culture. I am so glad you reached out. 🥰🤗

i can’t believe there are people who live in such historically rich places like italy or scotland or greece or paris with old architecture and ruins and museums… the audacity. 

Dark Academia for Brown People

 Most people, when they think of dark academia is books (that’s the whole point) and ancient languages such as Latin or Ancient Greek. I’m here to tell you that you all are SLEEPING on brown culture. Love that is conveyed in the languages of Persian and Urdu (my native language) crosses borders. Sure, Shakespeare and Sappho wrote great pieces of literature but the stories and poems of Rumi, Manto, Hafez and Iqbal have a special place in my heart. 

Some of my favourites are:- (all are translated)

Sit at my grave with wine and a minstrel in a trance, so your smell will raise me from the dead.

HAFEZ

My lover’s sadness lit a fire in my heart that burned my chest, there was a fire in his house that burned the nest.

HAFEZ

O the day turned night, what a shame, a gazelle of kindness a lion became, my partner and lover grew tired of my words and prayers too.

RUMI

These are my personal favourites. I can always make a longer post if you all want.

Female poets deserve a whole other post.

As someone who goes to an English-Medium school, we are always taught to converse in English, see the language as a part of yourself but deny a place to Urdu. As I grow older, I have come to appreciate my identity and so should all my fellow brown people. Take pride in your mother tongue.

Ka makh de rana heer sho no jehan ba rana heer shi,

Ka noom de rana heer sho no khpal zan ba rana heer shi.

- If I forgot your face I will forget the world,

If I forgot your name I will forget myself.

Ghani Khan

Illuminated pages from a manuscript of Hafez, Zand Period style, 1790.

things to include in a letter to your overseas pen-pal

that one sticker you were saving

pressed flowers from a walk around your neighborhood

book quotes that made you laugh

paint swatches of colors that remind you of them

the local time of sunrise and sunset 

poems and movie quotes

meaningful song lyrics

polaroids of your desk space, or the view out of your window

cutouts of sheet music you used to play

phrases in your native language with translations

magazine cutouts

pages of old books folded into a small envelope

a secret about your hometown

newspaper clippings from the day of writing

coins from your country 

maps or drawings of your city

recounts of strangers you saw

teabag of your favorite tea

colorful stamps

Afghan Dark Academia consists of wearing velvet kuchi dresses and drinking kahwah while listening to classical Rabab music and analysing poems of Rumi, Rahman Baba and Hafez.

Perhaps you'll appreciate the gift better when you've had to ride the stormy waves to recieve it. So be patient and carry on.

shrines. qawalis. sufism. solitude. heartbreak. cigarettes. leather jackets. alcohol. poetry. football. ali sethi. manto. hadiqa kiani. havelis. photography. love. sunsets. you.

- life, once upon a time

Dark Academia Gift Ideas!

I was looking for some dark academia gift idea lists, but couldn’t find any, so i’ve compiled my own list of affordable gifts for a anyone who loves the DA aesthetic! Feel free to reblog to add to the list! :)

• notebooks with cute designs (Paperblanks make beautiful ones, but are on the more expensive side)

• a fountain pen

• DIY or shop-bought quill

• accessories such as scarves, socks or jewellery (cute scarves and jewellery can be found in second hand shops or on etsy)

• vintage/antique knick-knacks like tins, spectacles, drinking glasses, ornaments etc

• books! I recommend looking in charity/second hand shops for cheap books

• candles or incense or accessories like candle holders etc

• a tea set, or part of a tea set (teapot, cup and saucer)