Pakistani-American author Hafsa Lodi launches online hub at Emirates Literature Festival

DUBAI: A year after UAE-based, Pakistani-American author Hafsa Lodi launched her book, “Modesty: A Fashion Paradox,” at the UAE’s Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, the writer has launched a new “online content hub” at this year’s event.

The blog-like website, titled Modestish.com, is a “community for diverse women,” Lodi said in an interview with Arab News.

“It is kind of a way to keep the spirit of my book alive,” she explained. 

In “Modesty,” published Feb. 2020, Lodi looked at the causes, controversies, and key players behind the worldwide modest-fashion trend.

“The book was published in the middle of a pandemic and then lockdown happened. I was kind of sad because all of these new things happening in modest fashion — even up until (US-Somali model) Halima Aden quit modeling a few months ago,” Lodi explained.

She added that she launched this website to keep up with the ever-changing “modest movement.”

Modestish.com will also provide photoshoot and video campaign services for brands to make their collections “modest-friendly” for when they are targeting modest-seeking consumers.  

Not only did Lodi launch her website on Saturday, but she also held a workshop, titled “Make Your Book Eternal,” at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature — which kicked off on Friday — to share her tips with other well-known and aspiring authors. 

In the workshop, aimed at non-fiction writers, Lodi demonstrated how to put together a business plan for a digital space where your ideas can be realized. 

“The masterclass is about taking your non-fiction work from a book format to the online eternal web format,” she said.

But does that mean Lodi thinks books can have an expiry date?

“I think concepts explored in a book might become outdated, but the book itself will never become outdated. If you look at history, even if the concept itself becomes outdated, it was still relevant at a particular point of time,” she explained. 

To Lodi, the pandemic has helped her find ways to keep her book up to date. 

Besides the masterclass, the writer will also join Emirati sportsperson and FIFA coach Houriya Altaheri for a talk session on Feb. 12, called “Fashion, Football and Feminism,” to discuss their careers, recent events, and ongoing trends that have affected women’s prospects.