Ali Returns to AwesomeCon

Pictured, L-R: Darya Bajestani, Mae Abdulbaki, Zaina Ujaili, Ali Nasser, Swara Salih

Ali returned to Washington, DC's beloved pop culture convention for a second year running as a featured panelist, this time diving deep into the state of SWANA (that's Southwest Asian and North African) representation across science fiction and fantasy. Film, TV, books, video games... Nothing was off the table this year!

Joining Ali was a genuinely stellar group of fellow panelists including artists, writers, and pop culture journalists who all share a SWANA background and, clearly, a lot of thoughts. The kind of thoughts that come from a lifetime of watching your culture get filtered through someone else's lens. The panel, led by Swara and Mae of The Middle Geeks podcast, tackled everything from the legacy of Orientalism to the specific ways it shows up in some of our favorite franchises.

But this year, the conversation got sharper. Rather than just cataloguing the good, the bad, and the deeply questionable, the panel zeroed in on a central question: Is this a SWANA representation problem, or a narrative problem? Because there's a difference, and that distinction matters a lot when you're talking about what actually needs to change. The group unpacked the history of how SWANA communities have been depicted (and misshapenly depicted) in popular media, why Orientalism is somehow still alive and thriving in 2026, and how these on-screen portrayals ripple out into real-world geopolitics.

The best part? You don't have to have been in that room to be part of the conversation. You can watch a recording of the full panel in the YouTube embed here. Whether you're a longtime fan of fantasy or sci-fi, a creator looking to do better, or just someone who's always felt a little unseen by the stories you love, this panel is for you.