Qazi & Qazi
Words by Willow Shields, Photographs by Rosie Carne
Assistant: Julia Weaver, Artist Assistant: Manpreet Gehlan
What is it to be magical? Is it to be kind? To be soft and strong? To have something about you that no one really understands, that fascinates? I’ve never been able to pin-point the magic in people. Until I met Naadirah and Rukaiyah Qazi.
Our first meeting was at a Rabbit Baby fashion show. They were immediately kind presences, making my anxiously beating heart become normal and my stiff persona become pleasantly relaxed. As they practiced the runway and giggled together, I observed them and knew I had met two of the most special people to walk the earth. They would later walk the runway, then perform to the crowd of eager eared Rabbit fans at The George Tavern, and I would leave early. After that day I would see their Instagrams and fall even deeper in love, confirming what I had presumed. The way they write, songs, poems, social media captions, is as if mother nature is speaking through them, as if someone in the stars has a pen and guides their hand. They are both surrounded by this buzz of cosmic energy that had me deeply enthralled the more I got to see it. The next Rabbit Baby event, I saw them again. It was brief and I was rushing, but a wave of calm came over me with their presence. As if just seeing them both made my nervous system be still for a second. And I hardly even knew them. I could not believe that they are flesh and blood humans, they seemed like mythical, magical beings made of moonlight and myrrh.
Above: Qazi & Qazi at Rabbit Baby show by Willow Shields
I knew they surrounded themselves with candles, slept on vintage furnishings and cut fruits with swords. And I knew I had to speak to them, properly and fully. So, I invited them to The Cavendish Arms. A tiny little pub in Stockwell on an unassuming road, with lots of lore itself. The concrete garden is like walking into some other world, wooden canopies protecting sofas of varying shades of red, placed in living room style set ups throughout the space. Inside the front door is a maximalist heaven, with plants and rugs and little things everywhere. It’s cozy and allows for an instant sense of calm, much like the subjects of this feature. We all stood outside, Rosie Carne - photographer, Julia Weaver - assistant, Manpreet Gehlan - artist assistant, Naadirah and Rukaiyah Qazi and Me. The sisters were getting ready, Manpreet was putting gel in Naadirah’s hair, Rukaiyah picking what boots to wear, and then there was Rosie and Julia trying to calm me down from being frightfully stressed about something or other. The shoot began outside, pearls and trinkets scattered out on tables. Then inside, twenty or thirty LED candles sitting bunched atop a tiny table, the background of this shoot matching the subjects better than I had even hoped.
After wrapping up the shoot, we all huddled into one of the false sitting rooms laid out in the garden. It was getting dark, so we all had little layers on and it almost felt like a family communion. I began asking them “for the tape,” “who are you and what do you do?” Naadirah began, “we are sisters, Qazi & Qazi.” “I’m Qazi” and Rukaiyah replied “and I’m ‘and Qazi.’” After lots of giggles around the point, Naadirah stated, “we’re sisters and we make blood-bonded harmony music together.” I very suddenly took a sharp turn down wacky alley on account of the fits of giggles the sisters had already altered my brain with. “So, of all of the mythical characters of the cinematic universe expansing everything, who is the most inspiring to you?” Naadirah began, “I think women, especially sisterhood, they are the mystifying creatures of the universe, to me. So whether they are mystical or not, I believe they are mystical creatures. I’m going to say; anyone part of a sisterhood. With that, I’m going to say Siren energy...and pirates.” Rukaiyah then answered, “I definitely swing through phases of favourite mythical creature of the week, day, even hour. But today I’m feeling very much Siren, ‘songstress of the sea,’ is feeling good.” Naadirah in agreement with the sentiment continued, “I think yesterday I would’ve said Pegasus. But that’s also so fitting, because can you imagine a Siren rising from the waters and trying to figure out how to move through the universe, it would obviously be on Pegasus.” Rukaiyah then stated, “I do have a soft spot for Phoenixes.” After surmising that maybe Pegasus and the mighty Phoenix are actually the same, and maybe the wing-ed God of the universe, I moved on. To oceans. As one does.
That’s not a joke, it’s all we know. We grew up in land-locked Birmingham.” Over giggles Naadirah declared proudly, “we are the Sirens from those waters.” “Let’s not forget the Birmingham Canal. Birmingham’s canal system is bigger than Venice’s, we have more canals than Venice. I would even argue that we are as beautiful.” Rukaiyah’s eyebrow lifted as she replied, “I would have to put a question mark on that statement. But Birmingham has its vast oceans.”
“If you, personally, were a plate of breakfast, what would be on that plate?” I asked, feeling slightly like a court jester and a waiter combined. “This is where we divide.” Rukaiyah warned with a smirk. She then began, “For me it’s the sugariest, most American breakfast you can get. French toast, fruits of the forest and so much honey, so much honey bread. We love Jesus bread.” Naadirah then beamed, “Oh! That’s our uniter! If it’s a Qazi & Qazi breakfast, it is our Jesus breakfast, which is a really beautiful sourdough, really thinly sliced and toasted to perfection. And then the nicest, creamiest butter you can find” Rukaiyah sternly clarified, “must be salted.” Then Naadirah continued, “and then honey squeezed onto it and spread, then if you’re feeling really fancy then put some red, blood coloured fruit. Figs, cherries. And if you’re feeling fancy fancy you could add burrata, ricotta or mozzarella with sprinkles of walnuts. And Crog juice.” I paused, and tentatively asked, “What makes up Crog juice?” The sisters both in fits of giggles of secretive joy, “I’m so glad you asked us this.” As Rukaiyah looked up from her laugh, I got the sense that my life would be changed forever by the answer to this question. She explained, “We discovered on the internet - and I don’t have a source for this, so I don’t know if someone was just pulling my leg - but I saw that in the Medieval Times, which is one of my many past lives. They used to call orange the colour Crog, in England. So the Middle English word for orange is Crog and they didn’t have the fruit orange at the time, so I think that the word orange came with the fruit. But in my mind, I saw Crog and I thought ‘Ah! The fruit! Crog!’ And so I started calling all things Crog, Crog. Including the juice. And platters of Crogs. Salty Crogs is our favourite way to eat a Crog.” Naadirah, then, adds to the Crog conversation, “And... If you want to throw a bit of Indian ancestry in; salt with a little bit of cumin. Ah, it’s the best! Fantastic Crog.” Rukaiyah started to reveal how Crog has seeped into their daily lives, “We’ll be in a shop and there’ll be a choice between a blue thing and an orange thing and someone’s like ‘what colour do you want?’ and I’ll just say ‘Crog.’ and they’ll be like ‘scuse me?’ and it’s just ridiculous and it’s really gone too far. But I won’t explain it, I’ll just kind of point until they get it.”
“I am of the knowledge that you own a sword, I am insanely jealous and I need to know everything.” wasnt really a question, and yet it’s where I began this branch either way. Rukaiyah clarified that they were “birthday gifts,” and Naadirah shared that they “both have one, not one, two!” Then Rukaiyah continued, that they were “to cut my birthday cake. It became a rule that we can only cut foods with the swords now. We don’t use knives, we use swords. I tried to cut a carrot a few weeks ago, it was really difficult. When you’re using a sword like a knife, trying to chop like a civilised human being, you cannot cut anything. But if you just whack it, it’ll work. So, yeah. I don’t know if that’s conducive to a calm mental attitude when using a weapon to cut fruits and vegetables, but it’s a vibe. I think everyone should have a sword.” I then, with the countenance of more Mr. Hyde than Dr. Jekyll asked, “where did you get them?” with surprising urgency and maybe a little growl. Rukaiyah answered in total opposition to me and like a Goddess bestowing a bounty on a peasant - that’s the only way I can think of accurately comparing our conversation tones - “I just typed in ‘cake sword’ on the internet and the first website that came up I was like ‘yeah this looks about right.’ It’s a prop house, But I had to send a scan of my passport, I bought it online and you have to be eighteen to buy knives everywhere, I think, in the world. They were like ‘we need ID’. And they had some specialised delivery service come and drop them off, and the delivery driver had a picture of my passport, and then I had to show him my passport and he compared my passport with the photocopy. And I was like ‘what are you gonna do with that?’ and he said ‘uh I dunno,’ and I was like ‘can I have it back?’ and he was like ‘no.’ It was just a Gmail account that I sent my passport to and I don’t know... Am I going to have my identity stolen for buying swords on the internet? Or are they reporting me to somebody. I don’t know. Still recommend it.”
After the sword chat, I had something stirring inside of me. And it was the English Literature loving, GCSE History taking fourteen year old inside of me that needs to bring up Henry VIII in any conversation she’s a part of and so it goes: “I don’t know if this line of questioning will sink like a ship, or not. How do you feel about Henry the Eighth?” Synchronised smiles spreading on faces accompanied by “ooooohs” from the sisters ensued and I knew then and there. I was completely head over heels for both of them, in the way it felt like I was in the presence of celebrities, big ones. I then added, “Moreover, which one of the wives do you most see yourselves in?” Two louder “Ooohs,” then Naadirah said “This is fantastic.” Rukaiyah continued “Okay. This is amazing, because we actually had this discussion. I do this thing with my friends where I get them to ‘Top Five’ things. Henry obviously had six wives, but a debated seven or eight actually. But I asked my close friends and family...” This is when Naadirah qualified that this conversation took place, “literally two nights ago,” Rukaiyah continued, “‘What are your top five Henry the Eighth wives?’, and we ranked them all.” Rukaiyah turned to Naadirah and made clear that they had different rankings of Henry the Eight wives, and then continued, “I think my number one is Anne Boleyn, for the lore more than anything else, she’s got good story, good tale, excellent pearls.” Naadirah then spoke softly, “Now I’m really confused, Anne Boleyn had the best dress sense right?” Rukaiyah replied, “Jane Seymour.” Like they had had this conversation and had been stuck on this topic before, and knew each other’s references inside and out, as so many families do. Naadirah continued, “Jane Seymour was my number one, Anne Boleyn followed just because of the hat.” After proclaiming that I would “defend Anne Boleyn until my dying day,” and Rukaiyah agreeing by saying, “I would’ve been one of the women who guarded her body.” I had never felt so seen and was brought close to tears. Naadirah guided the conversion back to the original question, “which do we see ourselves in?” I elaborated, “personality traits, vibes.” Naadirah continued, “I’m a Libran, so I think I would have to say two, I can’t make decisions. I would probably say Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. Just Janey, just aesthetically. And Anne, completely as a human, original votes for women!” Rukaiyah then, “I completely j’adore Anne so much, Boleyn not ‘of Cleeves,’” [insert me - on tape - booing Anne of Cleeves for no personal reasons - I love Anne of Cleeves - I was getting carried away.] “A bit too nun for me, I feel like I’m probably Catherine Parr, who survived him, like outsmarting the bad guy.” Naadirah then once again bringing us down to earth and back to the question, “And then what do we think of Henry...” Rukaiyah flatly said, “Well.” But Naadirah continued, “I don’t condone that he killed so many people, women, but I think it’s the most romantic thing in the world that he had an entire religion changed just for one of his love quests. like if a mans not doing that…” The crowd burst out laughing, Rukaiyah exclaimed, “if he wanted to he would!” Naadirah then restored calm once again, “I hear he was a really amazing, accomplished poet and musician. Whoo!” Rukaiyah then dropped an essential bit of Henry VIII lore; “I mean, Greensleeves... Rumoured to have been written by Henry.” A full chorus of “Damn’s,” and “Whoa’s,” followed. Having the history I did, I of course already knew this fact, but was glad of the illumination. Naadirah proclaimed it to be one of the “top five songs of all time.” Rukaiyah continued the Henry VIII conversation in compliments, “I’m a big fan of his coats and tights,” in response Naadirah dropped a “yeah, very hot,” Another chorus of giggles, but of agreement.
It was at this point the interview started to delve into beautiful chaos, as so many of mine do. I posed the question, “are there any other English monarchs that you find hot,” the reply from Naadirah started as a whisper, “Charles,” then a louder statement, “Charles, The Second.” Everyone erupted, some thinking she meant the current King Charles aka “Sausage Fingers,” Rosie then appeared on the tape asking “The Horrible Histories one?” At which point I began to sing the Charles II song from Horrible Histories above a chorus of overlapping voices, then Rosie finished the song and when it ended everyone whooped and Naadirah asked “Do you want to join the band?” Rukaiyah then re-cracked open her historical fashion knowledge to entertain the group some more, “He’s also rumored to have invented the waistcoat, and so I owe a lot of my dress sense to him.” Naadirah then quietly questioned, “Can I say...Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid?” to which I replied, “Yes, he’s a monarch, it counts.” She continued, “Can I also say John Smith from Pocahontas?” Then Rukaiyah replied, “He’s not a monarch, but it counts.” She continued with, “Can I say... the King of Literature: William Shakespeare?” A resounding “Yes” from myself and the newly vocal crowd of friends and family. I then decided to ask, “Serious question; where is his head?” Because I thought, if anyone would know where William Shakespeare’s head is, it would be one of the Qazi sisters. Rukaiyah answered, “We don’t know, but I think it’s one of my life’s quests to actually discover that. Because I am so very attracted to that tiny earring, I need to know if that was real,” The audience was in stitches, I countered, “Would you find that on a skull?” Rukaiyah countered my counter, “Eventually, if it’s real gold it wouldn’t decompose, necessarily. Maybe the head was stolen for the tiny earring, maybe it was me in a past life going absolutely feral.” Naadirah then reminded us of the sad truths of grave digging, “The crazy part of that though, is that it could have literally just been grave diggers on a quest for loot. And they had no idea that they just dug up Shakespeare and were like ‘a head, alas.’” I then made a statement for the grave digger mentality; “When a guy is so very hot and has a tiny little earring, you have to steal his head.”
We then stopped the tape and talked as new friends for a couple of hours after this. The memory echoing in my mind now, a chorus of laughter, I had found my people.