About the Podcast:
- What does solidarity look like from the stands of a football stadium?
- What does it mean to grow up displaced yet deeply rooted in a homeland carried through memory and resistance?
- Should Palestinians continue their struggle in their homeland or seek better lives elsewhere?
In this episode of Thinking Islam, we explore these profound questions with Dr Kholoud Al-Ajarma, anthropologist and award-winning filmmaker at the University of Edinburgh. Drawing on her ethnographic research into pro-Palestinian solidarity among football fans in Scotland, she discusses the power and limits of public protest, the challenges of representing a cause across cultural boundaries, and what forms of hope persist amid displacement.
The conversation traces Dr Al-Ajarma’s personal and intellectual journey, from life in Palestinian refugee camps to becoming an acclaimed scholar of migration, identity, and activism. From her mother’s barefoot escape in 1948 to the contemporary struggle of needing Israeli permits to travel 15 minutes to Jerusalem, while it’s easier for her to reach Edinburgh than the holy city next door. Through stories of Celtic fans raising £140,000 for Palestinian youth football academies, we discover how sport becomes a space where the unspeakable can be voiced, where frustration against sanitized media narratives finds expression through chants and banners.
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Learn More About Our Guest:
Dr Kholoud Al-Ajarma is Alwaleed Lecturer in the Globalised Muslim World and Deputy Director of the Alwaleed Centre at the University of Edinburgh. A Palestinian anthropologist and award-winning filmmaker, she holds a PhD in Anthropology and Comparative Study of Religion from the University of Groningen. Her family was displaced from the village of Ajour in 1948, and she grew up hearing stories of a homeland where “figs were sweeter than honey.” Dr. Al-Ajarma’s ethnographic research examines pro-Palestinian solidarity movements, particularly among Scottish football fans, exploring how sport becomes a vehicle for political resistance. Her visual work captures everyday life in Palestinian refugee camps, and she has extensive experience developing human rights platforms with refugee youth.
Read More of Her Insights:
- Al-Ajarma, K. (2024) Mecca in Morocco: Articulations of Muslim Pilgrimage in Moroccan Everyday Life. Edinburgh University Press. Available at: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-mecca-in-morocco.html
- Al-Ajarma, K. (2023) ‘Jenin Women’s Tobacco Diaries: Women Workers’ Lives Between Colonialism, Exploitation, and Survival,’ Critical Development Blog, American University of Beirut, 8 June. Available at: https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/jenin-womens-tobacco-diaries-women-workers-lives-between-colonial/
- Hussein, H. & Al-Ajarma, K. (2023) ‘Exploring the framings of water scarcity in Palestinian textbooks,’ Contemporary Levant, 8(1), pp. 3–15. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/20581831.2023.2178090
