In her monograph Riding in Silence & The Crying Dervish (2025) Mashid draws from the dept of her family history, unraveling the echoes of migration, forced departures, and the quiet endurance of those caught between worlds. The book builds on her previous work, Freedom is Not Free (2021) , where she explored the role of women in movements pf resistance across the MENA region. However, in this latest series, she turns her gaze towards the intersection of masculinity, political ideology, a,d displacement, examining how historical forces shape personal narratives in ways both visible and unseen.

She reconstructs the past not as a distant realm but as something tangible, living within language, inherited trauma, and memory. The presence of her ancestors—scholars, exiles, believers, and revolutionaries—haunts her work, their choices reverberating through time. Whether she speaks of the dervish’s grief in the mosque, the execution of the Báb, or her father’s reluctant exile, her storytelling carries a poetic weight, blending the deeply personal with the grand sweep of history. This layered approach allows her to engage with themes of exile and belonging in a way that is both intimate and politically urgent. (Text by Andrea Copetti)