Pink Jinn began in 2015 as a storytelling platform – a space to share history, culture and lived experience from across South West Asia and North Africa in ways that felt grounded, human and respectful.
I had decided to learn Arabic from scratch at university. An interesting choice for a girl from a tiny island in the middle of the Irish Sea, but one that changed my life by exposing me to one of the most beautiful and culture-rich regions on earth.
I quickly fell in love with the Arabic language – a love that deepened further still when I moved to Oman. What struck me most was the distance between the region as I had encountered it in English-language media and the region as I was now living it: its humour, its intellectual life, its creativity, and the warmth of the people who, with very little reason to, welcomed me as one of their own.
Meanwhile, friends and family at home were being fed narrow, often decontextualised narratives about the Middle East by the English-language platforms covering the region – culture and history were too often filtered through headlines of conflict or political unrest, or flattened altogether into orientalist aesthetics divorced from reality and lived experience.
Driven by my love for what I had seen of SWANA’s cultures, heritage, and people, and in the hope of countering the narratives that seemed to prevail back home, I started a little blog called Pink Jinn. I used it to share my experiences of the region, highlighting the beautiful places I visited and the communities I had the privilege to meet and work with.
This soon snowballed into a network of writers across the region who shared the same desire to challenge colonial narratives and orientalist stereotypes, creating bridges across cultures at a time when the world seemed determined to tighten borders and build walls.
From women’s rights activists and community volunteers to food writers and cultural storytellers, they widened what Pink Jinn could see and say – and made clear that the platform’s role was to amplify regional voices and create space for dialogue, not to speak on anyone’s behalf.
Meanwhile, I had landed in a career in international development, working with NGOs and international donors across the Middle East. I was travelling the region, meeting incredible people, and always returning home with a suitcase full of treasures purchased from artisans and creative businesses across the region
But at the same time, I couldn’t help becoming disillusioned with the not-for-profit sector – and the idea of ‘international development’ as a whole.
My time spent working within donor-funded and humanitarian systems revealed both their potential and their fragility. Often well-meaning international consultants being paid to develop elaborate theories of change, often unintentionally laced with white saviourist narratives and detached from the very communities they were trying to serve. Multi-million dollar programmes up-ended completely with funding cuts or shifting political priorities, leaving local beneficiaries destitute without alternative sources of support.
A marketplace for goods, ideas and creativity
It was during this time that I started the Pink Jinn Souq – an online shop selling beautiful products sourced from creators, artisans and small businesses across the region, with a focus on heritage preservation and creating income for communities affected by conflict
Between 2020 and 2025, we curated a line of products including textiles, ceramics, jewellery, spices, fragrance and more. Everything was sourced from creators across the region – from Morocco to Palestine, Syria to Yemen, Turkey to Oman – whose craft was inseparable from the communities and histories behind it. A portion of every sale went to organisations working with survivors of conflict and displacement across SWANA.
We took part in pop-ups and collaborations, particularly alongside our partners in Palestine, raising funds, driving sales and supporting efforts to document and preserve cultural heritage under acute threat.
In 2026, we are taking the next step. We’re transforming the Souq into a multi-vendor marketplace and creative community – one where vendors can list and sell their products – physical and digital – independently, connect with makers across borders, and access the tools, knowledge and networks to build sustainable businesses on their own terms.
Connecting the diaspora and the homeland
The marketplace is not a leap of intuition – it is grounded in research. As part of my PhD research, I explored how diasporas engage with their countries of origin and the conditions under which those connections can meaningfully contribute to peacebuilding and economic development.
What that research made clear is that diaspora communities are not peripheral to the regions they come from. They are active participants in sustaining culture, circulating knowledge and directing resources – often doing so through precisely the kinds of informal, community-rooted networks that formal development systems consistently overlook.
Pink Jinn is built on that understanding. It is a platform for SWANA and its diaspora together: people in the region and people scattered across and outside it, connected by shared heritage and a desire to keep it alive.
Building cultural bridges through community, creativity and commerce
Pink Jinn connects artisans, creators and experts across SWANA and the diaspora with conscious consumers around the world – blending storytelling with ethical commerce to celebrate cultural heritage and creativity while enabling sustainable livelihoods and investing in communities.
Our mission is to create an ecosystem that preserves cultural heritage, facilitates cross-cultural engagement, and economically empowers communities across SWANA and the diaspora.
I hope you’ll join us!
Laura Cretney
Founder & CEO of Pink Jinn
Join our community
Subscribe to our newsletter: In an era of shrinking attention spans and accelerating feeds, we do the opposite: long reads, slow stories, centering the people and communities behind them.
Apply to our vendors programme: If you make or create physical goods or digital products and want to sell via the Pink Jinn Souq while growing alongside a community of makers and entrepreneurs across SWANA and the diaspora, we want to hear from you. Access peer learning, mastermind groups and resources designed to help you grow on your own terms.
Email info@pinkjinn.com to learn more.
How delightful to discover your site & read your article! As a student of Arabic, the Pinkjinn spirit is exactly what I hoped to fin. I’m looking forward to uncovering the rest. Thanks!