ABOUT


I’ve been a rockstar since I was 8 years old.
(And I cut my own bangs, just so you know.)

About the Rockstar:

My name is Yasmine. Say it like this: yahss-MEEN. I love the Oxford comma, and have an extremely low tolerance level for multiple exclamation points.

I used to take lots of photographs and use flickr as an exercise in practicing brevity, but the brevity part didn’t work out so well. This is what happens when you make friends.

I’m 38, and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (Northern California) with my husband and our two daughters, a teenager and a toddler.

Oh, and I love emails! Send me one.

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About the Website:

Sweep the Sun used to be Sweep the Sunshine prior to 2019, and the blog title was inspired by a collection of short stories by Hanan al-Shaykh, entitled I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops. In the collection’s title story, a mother, exasperated by her daughter’s fascination with the sun and its warmth, remarks disparagingly, “What can you do with the sun? Sweep it off rooftops?” Something like that.

I began blogging at the beginning of 2003, when I was an undergrad college student and blogs were personal journals and there were no such things as influencers and affiliated links. The community of friendships that grew out of those early and ensuing years is one of the biggest joys of my life.

Between 2003-2005, I was at RamblingMonologues, a name that encapsulates my approach to story-telling quite perfectly. Between 2005-2007, I wrote over at SweepTheSun[shine].v1.

It has been years since I’ve updated this blog in any regular fashion, but I have a soft spot (and a ton of nostalgia) for this sunny space on the web.

19 thoughts on “ABOUT

  1. yaz, you inspire me every single day of my life. your photographs and thoughts are beautiful b/c they reflect the awesome person that you are inside. for all those people that haven’t met yaz though, trust me, she is so much cooler than you could ever imagine. rock on, rock on…

  2. Beautiful pictures, it’s nice to meet a fellow photographer…I also love to share my photos on my blog. What camera do you use? I look forward to reading more.

  3. I’m bored, so I was reading your “about me” section, and when it came to the age part, I was thinking, “No she’s not! She’s 23!” And then I realized that’s my age.

    Damn, I feel old.

  4. It’s funny how you can run into the people even on the net! I used to read your blog long, long ago, in 2004-05 maybe. Then over time your url went out of my mind. And today, I was searching flickr for hijab related pics (just like that) and your name kept popping up. And here I land. I’ve recently discovered a love for orange/sunshiny glows, specially toned down lighting and your flickr collection is awesome. Also share a hatred for multiple question marks! Glad to have found you again, take care, wassalam

  5. i just stumbled on to yjour website by mistake but it’s one mistake i am happy about. i love all the pics esp. the banner. you rock.

  6. hey those chanclas (slippers or whatevertheyare) are off the hook! good to see you been stylin since 198@ when you popularized them with this classic pose!

  7. ooh i’ve read the story you’re talking about! [note: carefully placed single exclamation mark]
    it was a set reading for a course called muslim women and islamic feminism.
    just thought i’d share.

  8. long story long…a long time ago my lil sis put up a quote ‘thank god i can feel the sunshine on my bones’ and that quote makes me feel blissful and i’ve asked her were she found that quote and couldn’t even find it on google (i know…i thought everything was there). so i just went to the first page that came up- yours. and i like your writing style and dig your moves. i just think you must have such a joie de vivre that just seeps into your prose. rock on rockstar.

  9. salam
    came across your blog a couple of weeks ago. must say it’s very interesting, and i just *love* ur photography…keep rocking! :)

  10. I love me some flip flops but the ones they have here in this desert are no good….they are just no good….sigh….I love the photos and I watched your 6 minute hijab wrapping video…and it took about 20 minutes to finish it because of loading issues….but I think it was pretty…I have tried many times and I am a hijab wrapping failure…oh well…..I just wear my triangle scarf and continue to pretend to be cool. Oh I also wanted to say that once there was a kid in my neighboorhood who would spend hours outside sweeping his driveway…..it was his punishment…his father would make him sweep the sun off the sidewalk….He was also made to count the blades of grass from time to time….

  11. salam, just read somewhere in one of your posts that ur mother in laws from gurghushti and ur dads from behbooti.OMG!! i thought there was hardly anyone in the world that was from there!!!we’re from barazai which is like next to gurghushti!!i’m soo excited coz ive never met ny1 else who speakes our language/ dialect

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