Illustrator and entrepreneur Zayneb Haleem, has long enjoyed being crafty. Hobbies like weaving, pottery, painting and punch needling keep her busy. But she didn’t get into digital drawing — the medium that launched her into social media stardom — until she was pregnant with her second child six years ago.
“I got huge and I couldn’t move,” she says. “I couldn’t find a hobby to stay in one place and do.”
Digital drawing allowed her to be creative without budging from the couch — and soon led her to Instagram, where she shared her illustrations with friends and family, who encouraged Zayneb to open a branded account for her art.
Then things took off: Within seven months of starting @idotdoodle in March 2019, she says, its follower count had skyrocketed to twenty thousand fans of the colourful doodles and humorous sketches she posted, including some images featuring a stylish and serene woman in hijab.
Today, 276,000 people follow the account, where Zayneb’s style and substance have evolved, with signature soft colours and inspirational messages about prayer, patience, humanity and, often, Palestine.
Her hijabi character remains a staple and now stars in a lovely hardback book, Dear Moon: Be Inspired by the Beautiful Wisdom of the Qur’an, published last year in the UK by Ebury Press, and more recently in the US by Andrews McMeel Publishing.
The book takes us through the four seasons, from the colourful blossoms of spring and vibrant summer through the flame-coloured autumn and austere winter.
“I wanted a book that’s like my Instagram page,” she says. “If it’s personal to me, if it’s helpful or speaking to me, that’s when I share it on the page. It was the same intention with the book. Every page needed to have its own message, along with the beautiful illustrations.”
Each two-page spread in Dear Moon includes minimal text, just an inspirational or hopeful message from Zayneb or a quote from the Holy Qur’an. In the calming illustrations, the female character (who does not have a name) walks through flowers and lily pads, reads in nature, reposes on the moon, and often lifts her face to the sky.
As Zayneb was working on the book, she made a list of Qur’anic verses from which to choose, focusing on popular verses many people connect with and use in their day-to-day lives.
“Growing up as a kid, most of these verses [in the book] were said by my mum on different occasions,” she says.
She also wanted verses to fit a range of moods and emotions. “Not just when you’re happy,” she says, “but also when you feel a bit down. There should also be a verse for that, too.”
Calling herself a visual learner, Zayneb says that placing ayahs into illustrations is a “nicer way to remember things, and a nicer way to teach children as well.”
In one spread, the female character, dressed in a black headscarf and flowing blouse and trousers, lifts her face to the rain, next to the verse “Do not let their words sadden you” (Qur’an, 10:65).
Lights glow behind her, and Zayneb says the inspiration for the artwork came one day while she was in the middle of working on the book and feeling sick, as heavy rain fell outside her window.
“That was a time where I drew exactly what I saw as it is,” she says.
In another pair of pages, the woman wears a light grey headscarf, a dark blouse, and grey pants, with an autumnal landscape of tree trunks and falling leaves behind her, a heart-shaped leaf pile before her, and the words “He knows what is in every heart” (Qur’an, 67:13) beneath her.
Zayneb says she drew most of the illustrations during the season they depict. In the illustration of the fallen leaves, she says she wanted the heart-shaped leaf pile to echo the verse on the next page.
“I tried with most of the illustrations to have little messages, subtle things to make you feel like you want to connect with the verse,” she says.
Though her woman in hijab remains a signature of her drawings that many people relate to, Zayneb says she didn’t initially intend to create a character.
“I just started to draw in a certain way that only I could draw in that way,” she says. “And people recognised that style.” The more she refined her drawing style, she says, and the more she drew the woman and incorporated her into Instagram posts, “the more it became a character. And many people identify with the character.”
Still, Zayneb resists naming her character or giving her a single, recognisable outfit, as is conventional with comic characters. She believes leaving the woman — or women — anonymous makes it easier for people to relate to the illustrations.
“When you see her, you need to feel like you are that character,” she says.
Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Zayneb moved to the UK about 10 years ago when she married her husband, an IT network manager. The digital art she shares on @idotdoodle is largely self-taught, through taking online tutorials, following other Instagram artists, such as comics artist and writer Huda Fahmy of @yesimhotinthis, and observing the world.
“The sky inspires me, nature inspires me a lot,” Zayneb says. “Textures, day, night, evening, how the colours are placed. All those things are very interesting. When I see certain things, certain objects… I take a picture of it so I can use that colour palette. Fabric, a pot — if things work well together, it doesn’t matter where it comes from, I take a picture of it and I try to draw it.”
Digital drawing, she says, taught her to see the world and herself in a new way. “Since I started drawing, anything and everything is so inspiring, tiny details,” she says. “That’s when I realised, OK, I am an artist, because I notice tiny details. I realised that I love art so much.”
Zayneb attributes her success partly to having a supportive partner. In the beginning, she says, “My husband encouraged me to keep drawing. He saw something in it. I didn’t see it as anything special.”
And while Zayneb was not digitally savvy before she started @idotdoodle, she says her husband pushed her and gave her the confidence to become a digital illustrator and entrepreneur. While she was toiling away on Dear Moon in the library, he looked after their kids at home, and he’s been her IT guy all along.
“Without that kind of support, I couldn’t do it,” she says.
In addition to publishing her own book, Zayneb has illustrated a children’s book, Maymoona’s Moon, which was written by Razeena Omar Gutta.
With Dear Moon out in the world, Zayneb says she’s focusing for now on her Instagram page, her brand and her business, where she sells illustrated products such as sweatshirts, stationery, pins and journals. She’s also open to new adventures.
“It’s always been a dream to do my own book, and I’ve done it,” she says.
“Maybe I would like more books from me to come through. Whatever opportunity comes my way, if it’s interesting or creative, I might just give it a shot.”
Eman Quotah is the author of the novel Bride of the Sea and winner of the Arab American Book Award for Fiction
Follow her on X: @EQuotah
