Hanae Bezad

It was a stormy night when we gathered at @storm_bookscandy in Brooklyn for a conversation on #BeingOther with the amazing @lukemartiros . We discussed what it means to be other and how we can bring ourselves to a sense of wholeness while fully engaging in changemaking. Following events in Lisbon, Accra, Nairobi, Kigali, London, and Cape Town in 2023, and in Davos, various cities in India - Hyderabad, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Amritapuri, and Berlin, as well as online in Lomé, Togo, this is the 14th stop on this worldwide book tour. I am dedicated to continuing this journey because, in these polarized and polarizing times, it is crucial to focus on ingenuity, hope, and strategy. #BeingOther advances intercultural and multicultural dialogue by spotlighting the experiences of ambitious, creative young women of color from the global South and North in corporate and entrepreneurial environments. It explores how they transform their experiences of being othered into keys for unlocking compassionate and forward-thinking leadership. There’s a book to be written about this tour—the conversations with diverse audiences, the moments of lightness and heaviness, the tears, the vulnerability, the discomfort, and the multiple expressions of love, care, and attention. All I can say is that it profoundly moves me. Thank you, @lukemartiros , for joining this conversation as a partner in shine. Thank you, Nour and Marianne, and the beautiful team of the Storm. Thank you, @nurselle.photo , for capturing these precious moments. And thank you to my mama for honoring the occasion by sending Moroccan pastries all the way from Rabat, kindly carried over by my dear @atq.48 🤍✨

What’s happening for women of color, and why does it matter to everyone? Discover more in #BeingOther. DM me for info on the next book talk events 🌎✨🤍

📚 One Week of #BeingOther 📚 One week ago, I had a profound moment receiving #BeingOther, just in time for its launch. This room, where my journey began, holds special childhood memories of me writing short stories as a kid. Fast forward 25+ years, and I'm a proud author. Pursue your dreams and uplift each other. Thanks to supporters and reviewers who made this journey possible. This book is dedicated to inspiring #BIWOC. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey. 📚❤️ #AuthorLife #DreamsDoComeTrue

“So you speak French to your dog?”⁉️ I speak to Lenny in English, French, Arabic… sometimes Spanish or Portuguese slips in, and occasionally random words from other spoken and unspoken languages my recovering brain and adaptive body retrieve from some longed-for corner of the planet. 🔖🌍 At this point, Lenny is being raised multilingual, multicultural, slightly existential, and probably a tiny bit confused about his identity — which will likely take him on a grand journey of self-discovery and learning to meet the world where it’s at. 🤷🏽‍♀️ I fully expect him to start a series of pawdcasts with other esteemed dog speakers about the meaning of life, deconstructed attachment theory through an oriental relational lens, collective care, and systems change from a canine perspective. 🦴⚖️ Episode 1: Decolonizing the dog park and other back alleys Episode 2: Late-stage (neo)capitalism and why humans won’t stop emailing when I just want to play Episode 3: Extractive economic systems, regenerative futures, and who actually gets the treat Episode 4: Redesigning food systems for a happy puppy belly (and slightly less work for mamma) Episode 5: Peeing Other: identity formation, territorial negotiations, and the politics of becoming 🐾🤪 🐾 Meanwhile, he’s been busy enjoying spring in the Fraser Valley, discovering the bioregion, rolling in grass with deep conviction, and teaching folks how to reconnect with the quiet truth of living soils — that regeneration, transformation, and thriving are embodied ecological realities, and that biomimicry is not an aesthetic, but a commitment: a way of remembering what living systems already know. 🌷🫶 He’s also apparently made it his personal mission to melt hearts across the neighborhood and beyond. Truck drivers stopping at 6 a.m. because they need to pet him. People interrupting their workouts just to come say hello. Neighbours smiling and talking to each other more. No theory. No performance. Just a small fluffy being reminding people they do have hearts meant for hearting — and that they’re fully accountable for how they choose to hold them and what they make of them. 🤍🔋 Such a wise pup’ 🪬✨

Lenny, already the most pup’ular kid in the block 🤩🐶😍 Proudly wearing @thejoshuawatts coast salish art sweater @thenorthcoastcompany 🫂

The rain. My great grand-father. Who sat in prayer with a Berber tribe in the outskirts of Marrakesh. And the day after, it rained. And he was called the man who brought the rain. The rain. My mother who, when no one paid attention, would go outside in the garden and soak it in, to be closer to her/my ancestor. And me. In the rain. Swayed, cradled. Muffled. I live in the rain. And when I imagine the future, I remember. N.B. the video is from a piece of digital art Hyperopia by Meredith Bates and Mena Shazly presented at the Digital Ecologies artshow on Salt Spring Island

Beleza 🤍🪬✨

L’épisode 3 est désormais en ligne 💜🤗✨ On y parle authenticité, cheminement vers soi, et ouverture de cœur vers une forme de leadership et de relation basée sur l’égalité, la compassion et la tolérance. 💜🙏🏼 Hanae nous racontera son enfance au Maroc 🇲🇦 et son ambition et sa curiosité insatiable de comprendre le monde et d’être un agent du changement. On y évoquera les épisodes qui lui ont fait prendre conscience de cette position « d’outsider » qu’elle avait malgré elle dans les environnements élitistes et majoritairement masculins dans lesquels elle a navigué durant ses premières expériences parisiennes. Puis le déclic qui lui fera prendre une autre direction grâce a l’entrepreneuriat, l’écriture et les voyages. A travers son ouvrage « Being Other », @beehane nous décrit ce processus de construction de soi face à l’adversité afin de libérer son plein potentiel lorsqu’on évolue notamment en tant que femmes d’origine nord-africaine dans une société où persistent les préjugés. 🙌🏻 Cet épisode est une masterclass qui nous amène à réfléchir sur ce que nous sommes prêtes à accepter ou non dans nos vécus de jeunes expatriées et professionnelles. Partage le à une amie, une sœur ou une cousine que cela pourrait intéresser ✨ (mais pas que !) L’épisode est disponible sur toutes les plateformes d’écoute et le lien est en bio 🔥 #authenticité #intégrité #ouverture #tolerance #emancipation

Et si trouver son authenticité, son intégrité, passait par un ajustement permanent ? ✨ Et si l’adversité nous permettait de nous questionner sur ce qui fait une relation authentique et enrichissante ? 🫶🏻 🧐📚C’est dans la littérature et la recherche anglo-saxonne que Hanae a trouvé les mots justes pour traduire les expériences et les rencontres avec l’adversité qui l’ont façonnée entre sa vie étudiante et ses premières expériences professionnelles à Paris, Casablanca, Kigali, Lisbonne ou Vancouver. « Being Other », « Être autre », son premier ouvrage paru en anglais nous éclaire sur cette négociation permanente qui nous amène à nous questionner sur notre place et notre capacité à être véritablement nous mêmes lorsque nous sommes toujours ramenés à nos origines et au statut de « minorité ». Dans ce troisième épisode nous découvrirons le parcours de Hanae et sa quête d’authenticité et d’intégrité en tant que femme qui traverse les langues, les cultures et les savoirs. Lien en bio 🔥 #liberté #doubleculture #authenticité #intégrité #processus

My heart has dropped a few times lately — for reasons small and others significant. It’s a season of transformation. And yet, I was reminded gently this morning, by a beautiful sequence on this tiny device: I am boundless love of the source. It’s about being steady. Rooting in lovingness. In all dimensions. Grateful for sacred moments lately that help remember — in sisterhood, in connection, in ceremony, in celebration. 🤍✨

さようなら、日本。ありがとうございます。 Sayonara Japan, arigatō gozaimasu. I leave this beautiful land with my heart full and my body, mind, and soul infused with light — koriki, that inner child joy. These weeks have been deeply inspiring, nourishing, and expansive: savoring extraordinary food, walking the threshold between modernity and tradition, moving from Tokyo to Kyoto, Nara, Hakone, Kamakura, and back again. A journey of layers. Of presence. Of quiet wonder. It feels like I’ve shed the last skins of the Snake year and am stepping into 2026 as a fierce, grounded Horse — clearer, stronger, more alive. When I was a child, Japan lived in my imagination as a honeymoon destination, a place to one day share with “the one.” And in its own way, this journey became a yuzu honeymoon — a meeting with myself, with beauty, with unseen worlds. A place where connections with light beings, ancestors, dragons, and goddesses could softly unfold. I was in my element, as my mother would say. ✨ For that, I am deeply grateful. 🙏🏽 And I will be back. 🌸🐉 P.S. The last image is goshuin-inspired — a piece of calligraphy symbolizing the friendship between Japan and Morocco. It’s a design I submitted to the Japanese Embassy of Morocco as part of their recent contest, created as a humble offering of connection between cultures, histories, and shared spirit. 🇯🇵🇲🇦

I come from the country where the sun sets 🇲🇦 And I am here now where the sun rises 🇯🇵 It’s a place that knows my name 🙏🏽 Hanae-San 🌸 Ishin denshin 👀 It understands me even if I stay quiet 🤫 Like a Maiko in Gion 💃🏽 Very orderly, very elegant 🎭