Written by: Fatima Ismail
I am Fatima Ismail Al-Saifani, a cultural activist and podcast producer in the field of archiving the popular heritage and Yemeni music through the oral history methodology. I have over 4 years of experience in podcast production, during which I have worked on three seasons of recorded podcasts. My role in the production process varied between content writing and sound engineering. In addition to the podcast, my first short story in Arabic, titled “The Revenge of a Little Girl,” was published in 2019 as part of a collection of stories called “Struggle.”
After introducing myself, I would like to share with you through this article my journey in the “Voices and Rhythms of the Forgotten” project. The journey was full of melodies and inspiration and is considered the most important in my podcasting career. At first, I joined the project with the belief that this step would change concepts and bring new developments to the podcasting world, which is still rare in Yemen.
The journey began by filling out an online form, and every word written in it reflected my passion to join. It was only a few weeks later when I received an email informing me that I was shortlisted for the final interviews. The joy was overwhelming as my podcasting journey began to align with the vision I had always dreamed of.
I prepared for the interview according to the instructions, and I couldn’t sleep that day. In fact, I logged into the interview site ahead of time, and amusingly, I dozed off while waiting. When I woke up, I heard voices calling “Fatima! Fatima!” These voices were from Ms. Ferial, Ms. Rasha, and Ms. Yasmin. I tried to regain my composure and started the interview. Honestly, I don’t remember what I said, and I also expected not to be accepted because of my unintentional nap. However, a few days later, I received the final email notifying me of my acceptance into the project.
Our journey began on July 20, 2024, and what a journey it was! I went through several training stations that expanded my understanding of the podcasting world. The first station was oral history. My knowledge of this field was minimal, but after several trainings, I realized that oral history (history of those who have no history) was a crucial aspect. The journey continued with stations in sound engineering, pre-recording vocal exercises, scriptwriting, identifying the correct niche for a podcast, and marketing.
The next stage was the fieldwork phase, which was the most challenging. I coordinated with my colleague Sahar, as we worked as a team with four forgotten Yemeni female artists. We began the actual struggle. We chose the first artist, but the information about her was very scarce on the internet. The field visit didn’t help either. After extensive research, we discovered that she had disappeared entirely and had withdrawn her artistic legacy from the TV archive and would not respond to any interview requests.
We didn’t stop there. We moved to the second choice and faced a firm rejection. Worse still, the artist lived outside Yemen. We went to the third choice, coordinated with the artist, and scheduled the recording date. Unfortunately, on the day of the recording, the artist canceled in the morning, citing her husband’s refusal to allow her to meet, as he only permitted her to sing at weddings.
At that moment, we felt disappointed because our efforts had yielded no results. Moreover, Yemeni female artists are still bound by patriarchal societal constraints, as their art is limited to wedding halls, which offer only modest financial income or eventually lead to their complete withdrawal from the field.
The fourth option was our only hope, and indeed, it succeeded. In my opinion, this was the best choice of all. My colleague Sahar and I chose the artist “Aliya,” who significantly impacted the episode and helped us achieve the true goal of the project. The recording with her was filled with traditional music and the stories that accompanied her journey. However, destiny had its wisdom, and we had to re-record the episode. After completing the initial recording, we faced an issue with sound engineering and had to coordinate and re-record it.
The sound engineering phase was the best part for me. It was decided that the episode would consist of two parts, as the recording lasted for three hours. Due to the constraints we adhered to at the request of artist “Aliya,” the interview ended up being only one hour long. This was my first time producing a podcast episode for a specific entity, and I learned a great deal from Ms. Nafine Sarraj, who helped clarify many points of confusion for me.
In the end, after completing the first phase of the “Voices and Rhythms of the Forgotten” project, filled with experiences and lessons, I hope to experience it again and produce as many episodes as possible that document the journeys of forgotten Yemeni female artists using the oral history methodology.
