Shazeera Ahmad Zawawi is a Malaysian human rights lawyer who blends analytical precision with creative storytelling. When she isn’t working as a data analyst or advocating for human rights, she can be found illustrating comics or practicing behind her drum kit.
Shazeera hosts the podcast, The Storytellers, in which she interviews a diverse cast of creatives, exploring their approach to creating a compelling narrative, no matter the medium.
In addition to all that, she is also looking forward to publishing her anthology of short stories: Feathers, Blood and Salt – Unhinged Love Fairytales. Her work often explores the intersection of data, social justice, and visual art.
We are excited to introduce the Dispatched Divorcée community to Shazeera, both on the blog and in person at our next storytelling event. She’s also created the artwork for the upcoming show, which we consider such an honor! We caught up with her to ask her a bit about her life, her work, and her divorce.
You wear a lot of hats: human rights lawyer, data analyst, illustrator, drummer, writer. How do you introduce yourself at a dinner party, and has that answer changed over time?
Great question! My go-to answer currently has been I am Shazeera, I am a little bit of everything. I used to explain to people about each and everything that I do in life but nowadays, I choose to let the conversation flow and wear the hats depending on the dynamics of the company or conversation.
Growing up in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, how much did that environment shape the stories you tell and the causes you care about?
Growing up in Kuala Kangsar shaped me through its quiet, old-school rhythm and tight-knit community. It’s a royal town, similar in some ways to where I live now i.e. Rolle. The King of my State lives in a palace in Kuala Kangsar and there are always interesting conversations around the royalties, Malay traditions and even superstitions that sneaked into our daily lives. Questions around racial and religious identity and heritage were something that is rich and alive in all parts of my formative years there.
The biggest influence for me growing up in Kuala Kangsar was my grandmother. She was a traditional healer and a massive storyteller who raised me with Malay folklore stories. Watching her, I realized that healing and storytelling are actually the same thing: they’re both about listening to people and restoring their sense of self.
Ultimately, I feel like my advocacy work, be it with human rights and data, is a modern version of my grandmother’s work—using stories to expose realities, heal gaps in our community and protect the things that matter.
You’re now based in Switzerland, far from Malaysia. How does living between those two worlds influence your perspective and your work?
Living between Switzerland and Malaysia feels like holding two different maps of the same world. Switzerland has taught me the value of precision and directness, especially in how I communicate but those can be cold for me sometimes. Despite calling Switzerland home now, my heart remains anchored in the warmth and community-first spirit in Malaysia. In my human rights work for example, having this lived understanding of my region is my greatest asset in fostering trust and contextualising communication.
Residing in Switzerland while working as a human rights advocate for those in the Asia Pacific region, people in the region can tell I’m not just arriving with a set of external solutions; they sense a shared history and a genuine respect for our traditions. That cultural intuition allows me to build authentic connections and navigate conversations with people from my region. But when it comes to nurturing my creativity and passion for art, living in Switzerland has given me the space and opportunity to express myself artistically that I could never do in Malaysia. I felt there is more freedom for me to mold my artistic side in Europe and Switzerland.
Your illustration work has reached organisations like Amnesty International, the ICJ, and the APT. How did you first discover that drawing could be a tool for human rights advocacy?
I have always been doodling since I was a child but it was actually during my Masters studies in the U.K that I realized the power of art for change. It was 2011 during the Arab spring/revolution and I was producing political cartoons regularly for my campus as well as friends in Egypt. When I was in Cairo for my final dissertation, I got to see how empowering visual arts such as cartoons, visual protest banners and graffiti on the street can be in conveying powerful messages about the people’s uprising and democracy.
Hand-drawn data visualisation feels almost radical in a world of dashboards and automated charts. What drew you to it, and what can a hand-drawn viz do that software simply can’t?
I absolutely agree with you about the radicality of drawing data in a world of automated dashboards. As an artist, I believe the personal is political and powerful and drawing data allows the data to be conveyed and consumed in the most personalised and human way possible. This is how you bring in the visceral experience in understanding data to your audience that no software can, because software is programmed to present data in a specific, mass-produced accurate way and there is nothing wrong with that as well.
Data artists and designers like Giorgia Lupi and Stephanie Posevec and their projects like “Dear Data” or the Data Humanism Movement pioneered by Giorgia Lupi are crucial in reminding us of the power of analog, serendipity and human complexities behind the data.
Your podcast asks what a playwright or a musician can teach a data analyst. What’s the most surprising lesson you’ve personally borrowed from another creative discipline for your own data work?
I borrowed a lot of creative approaches from comics storytelling in my data work. My thought processes in visualising data are influenced by how I build the storyboard for my comics for example. In some of the data visualisation design I did, I looked at Art History as an inspiration or technique in designing and visualising data. Some of my visualisations were inspired by Francis Bacon or Edvard Munch.
Another interesting lesson I borrowed from the visual art world is the importance of letting your work “bake” and giving it time to grow and evolve. This is an important lesson in the data analytics world where everything is fast-paced and urgent. It taught me to take my time and use my intuition in approaching my data work.
The podcast brings together authors, documentary filmmakers, data artists, and social activists under one umbrella idea: storytelling. What’s the through-line you keep finding across all those different guests?
The common thread that I find in all the conversations I had with these creative souls are their relentless unapologetic sense of curiosity. This allows them to continuously pursue meaning and new discoveries in their work and I believe this is what keeps them going.
Drumming tends to be the creative outlet people least expect from someone in your field. What does the drum kit give you that drawing or writing can’t?
Drumming taught me a lot about synchronizing my mind and body. I have a chaotic mind and drumming helps me focus better through motor coordination and impulse control. I also came to realise that repeating the beat can be relaxing and calming. I would recommend women to pick up the drums and it is never too late for it!
If someone is reading this profile and feeling overwhelmed by the breadth of their own interests — law, art, data, music, writing — what would you tell them?
I’d say take a deep breath, recognise how wonderful it is to have all these interests and look at their interests in small bites. Imagine each of these interests as a puzzle that creates the bigger picture that is you. In my experience, you would learn how to juggle the different interests gradually and make space for them as you realise which one comes first, more important or perhaps later. There’s no rush to get this right.
What made your divorce experience unique?
I did it twice? Kidding. On the contrary, I don’t think there is anything unique about my experience. In fact, there is something universal about divorce that we all divorcées gone through that, in many ways, is comforting, even if the situation can be devastating for us.
For example, I find that divorce gave me the chance to un-learn a lot of things about myself as a person, as a woman, that other life events have never given me the chance to experience it, and a lot of my divorcée friends went through the same process as well. If I have to give a specific answer about my divorce, it’d be the fact that after my divorce, my ex actually married his first love and they are living a happy life with their new son and I am happy for him.
What’s the best piece of advice you got during your divorce?
Stop feeling guilty about it and give some space to grief. Sometimes, I think we tend to not see divorce as a loss deserving of a proper grieving. Sorry, that’s two pieces of advice!
Who helped you through your divorce?
My best friends in Malaysia. They are sisters who were checking on me constantly to make sure I showed up for myself everyday. I needed tough love and also gentle support and both of them provided me with that; the elder sister would give me frank but fair advice about the situation, while her little sister offered comfort and reassurance for me to navigate things. Indirectly, my daughter, who was 4 at that time, helped me as well. Whenever I spiralled or decided not to care about the world, she reminded me that I needed to stay on course.
What’s something that you learned through your divorce that changed how you live your life now?
I learned to be more self-aware after my divorce and the importance of standing by yourself and your own authentic self, no matter what. During my divorce process, I attended marriage counseling as well as cognitive behaviour therapies during difficult periods and realized a lot of things about myself that were concealed from me before. I also learn never to take anything for granted.
What are you currently reading?
Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening by David Hendy.
Shazeera is an excellent example of someone embracing all the different facets of her life and weaving them together to create something unique. Her insights after divorce make her the perfect person to contribute to the DD community and we’re so happy to welcome her into the fold. She made the artwork for the Ladies’ Night: Chapter 4 – Unsilenced Stories show, and you can see Shazeera share her unsilenced story on May 9th in Lausanne.
And listen to the latest episode of the Storytellers where she interviewed Laura about the history of Ladies’ Night.
You can get to know more about Shazeera by checking out her art portfolio, data visualization portfolio, and professional profile. Shazeera is based in Switzerland.
