samya arif | OCEÁ

Jo tum na dou ge NOC, Hum chheen ke leinge NOC! Since 2018 we have been marching and taking up space on the streets, at dinner table conversations, over the internet, and at every place — virtual and physical — where a woman's right to exist has been brought into question. We continue to march in 2026 so that there can come a day where we don't have to anymore, just for rights as simple as freedom from harassment, rape, domestic violence, marital rape, and financial abuse. Earlier today, we were briefly yet brutally detained simply for wanting to share our feminist demands against a patriarchal Pakistan with the media. At a peaceful press conference. Maybe Sindh Government wants to tell us that speaking out loud for your rights if you're not a man is also a crime. Don't march. Don't call out misogyny. Bas ghar baitho, chup kar ke. Kya zarurat hai bahar nikalnay ki? Yehi tou zarurat hai. This is exactly #WhyWeMarch! With 5 days left, we are still fighting for our right to an NOC to peacefully march this Sunday, 10 May, at Sea View. If you care about gender-based violence and feel like you should have the right to peacefully walk on public streets, please post using the hashtag: #AuratMarchRightToNOC. 100 baatoun ki aik hi baat, Ho ke rahega Aurat March! Artwork by @samyaarif #MarchTuHoga #AuratMarch2026 #AuratMarch

Made by @samyaarif ❤️🖤🤍💚 DOWNLOAD ALL OF OUR POSTERS FOR FREE THROUGH THE LINK IN BIO

MY ARTWORK on IQBAL BANO is on GOOGLE!!! SUPER EXCITED & HONORED to share this special project I got to work on for @google for their Google doodle series celebrating Pakistan's brilliant and revered, Iqbal Bano on her 81st birthday today. ❤ ❤ ❤ . While I was aware of Iqbal Bano before, I had not really gotten a chance to explore much of her music or her life, so this project turned out to be a great opportunity to learn more about her. I ended up falling in love with her voice and the beautiful poems and ghazals she has sung, by some of the greatest poets from the subcontinent. I was also amazed by her veracity and passion to stand up against the military dictator, Zia ul Haq by singing Faiz Ahmad Faiz's revolutionary poem, 'Hum Dekhenge'. Iqbal Bano wore a Sari in defiance and as a form of protest while singing the poem by Faiz, during a concert in Lahore in front of an audience of almost 50,000 people, in 1985. Both the Sari and Faiz were banned at the time by Zia ul Haq. Though she was officially banned from singing live or on TV, Bano attracted a cult following, and her message and voice are still heard to this day as a symbol for revolution. . Iqbal Bano has been a great icon to us Pakistani women especially, for following her passion with determination and grace throughout her career. ✨✨✨ #illustration #iqbalbano #google #googledoodle #digitalillustration #art #pakistaniart #digitalart #pakistan #illustratorsoninstagram #artistsoninstagram #womenempowerment

The sweetest @auratmarch with my Shameem and Nemo, by the sea I grew up beside ❤️‍🔥🌊✊🏽 #auratmarch2026

Meet the facilitators! We are really grateful to them for facilitating insightful sessions with a lot of thought and care during the course of our residency. We will be sharing more details on the sessions that they conducted. [Feminist Movement, Archives, Resistance]

✨ My animated logo design for the newly launched platform Home of Hope—an inspiring initiative by @impactartorg —emerged from a collaboration that began years ago. I was first connected to Rosanna Lewis in 2018 in Brussels while representing the British Council at the European Development Days. Over time, that connection grew into meaningful collaborations, including participating as an artist and facilitator in Impact’s global virtual gatherings focused on conflict transformation and addressing gender-based violence. Those spaces—filled with people from across the world sharing stories, art, and lived experiences—shaped the spirit of this project. The brief was to create a logo that reflects a boundless community rooted in learning, sharing, and solidarity—something both static and animated, vibrant, and open to interpretation. The final design centers on a window/door frame—symbolizing openness and possibility—surrounded by layered elements: two intertwined hands for solidarity and protest, birds for freedom and fragility, flames for unity and rebirth, and natural motifs like fish, a sunflower sun, stars, and the sea. Together, they express hope, diversity, and interconnectedness. Home of Hope is a global platform for artists, cultural workers, researchers, and peacebuilders to connect, collaborate, and learn. Through its WhatsApp community, members exchange ideas, resources, and support—while a growing open-source Resource Hub offers access to research, opportunities, and creative work across arts, culture, and conflict transformation. Officially launching at the @icaf.rotterdam (International Community Arts Festival) in Netherlands on Saturday 28th March 2026, the initiative reflects Impact’s commitment to building inclusive, safe, and creative spaces for dialogue, solidarity, and social change. @impactartorg is a diverse global organization, advocating for arts and culture to transform conflict and build more creative and just societies. Learn more: impactart.org/hoh/ #impact #homeofhope #logo #logodesign #community

EPISODE 3: “Namoos ke Muhafiz, Parlimaani Chaalbazian & the Making of 295-C”. The passing of Pakistan’s blasphemy law does not come from centuries of consensus. A law that continues to shape our current socio-religious landscape was passed in just a few hours, and sharply contradicts the religious tradition it claims to have emerged out of. #talkabout295C

llustration for a recent book review by @tam_hussein99 for the @newstatesman . The piece reflects on two memoirs — by Sajid Javid and Naz Shah — and the long arc of South Asian migration in Britain: from lascars jumping ship in the early 20th century to the children of Partition sitting at the Cabinet table. For the illustration, I kept returning to the idea of inheritance — the strange layering of memory, migration, ambition and silence that sits inside family histories. Two political figures occupy the foreground, but beneath them runs another timeline: parents, children, neighbourhoods, shops, the everyday architecture of immigrant life that quietly built the foundations for these stories. I wanted the illustration to feel slightly archival, almost etched — like a political memory pressed into paper. Art direction: Gerry Brakus ✨ Founded in 1913, The New Statesman is one of the UK’s most influential progressive political and cultural magazines. Over the decades it has championed sharp political thought and literary criticism, publishing writers such as George Orwell, Bertrand Russell and Virginia Woolf. #illustration #editorialillustration #thenewstatesman

How would you like to design a poster for Aurat March 2026? Join us this Saturday, 14th March, for a Poster Making Workshop with Aurat March and Samya Arif at Darham / Marham. Samya will guide us through the thinking and making behind the powerful designs of her previous Aurat March Posters, and Aurat March Organziers will share with us the process of their collaborations with various artists over the years, and discuss the concerns for this years Aurat March - scheduled to be held on May 10th, 2026. - Samya Arif, also known as OCEÁ, is a Karachi-based visual artist, illustrator, and graphic designer whose work has received international recognition. Her practice explores cultural and social narratives through a distinctly female perspective, often centering on women and the spaces they inhabit. A graduate of the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture, she has created visuals for music, film, publications, and book covers. Her collaborations include Penguin Books, Al Jazeera, Google, and Coldplay, with features in The New York Times, BBC, Vice, and Pitchfork. Her work has been exhibited across South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the US, while she continues to teach part-time at her alma mater. - Please sign up via the link in our bio ⭐️ Darham Marham is located in Shahbaz Commercial, Phase VI, DHA Please note this space is a third floor walk up - we regret to inform you that the elevator is not presently working and we apologize for this inconvenience.

This was 39 🐚 documentation of life by @humayunmemon @tonjethilesen @ob.scura109 , painted by @amna_rahman 🤍

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U = ∞ forever decoding and retracing the cosmic brainwaves of @victormosquera ’s imagination 🪐 #illustration #scifi #thefinalfrontier #life #death