The Queen of Sheba & the Hoopoe - A playful journey into curiosity, power and encountering the unknown.

A queen. A bird. A message carried across the distance.

What happens when we encounter someone or something that challenges what we thought we knew?

Drawing on the Islamic tradition’s story of the Queen of Sheba and the Hoopoe, this playful and exploratory workshop open to all ages and backgrounds, invites us to step inside the story, rather than simply listen to it.

We’ll use it as a shared space to wonder, imagine play, create, ask questions and reflect.

What helps us become curious about someone who sees the world differently from us?

How does our position or power shape the way we see others and the way they see us?

What happens when we meet something unfamiliar, unexpected or difficult to understand?

And what might we be able to learn from a small bird?

You don’t need to be Muslim, or to approach the story from a particular faith perspective. We don’t need to agree on what the story means. Instead, we’ll bring our different perspectives and experiences into the room and see what questions, images and possibilities emerge.

Using drama, movement, art, games, storytelling and story-making, we’ll explore the story with our bodies, our imaginations and our own lived experience. There will also be space along the way for quiet reflection.

Come ready to play, create and be curious!

Please note that doors will close shortly before the advertised time, so we request that you arrive 15 minutes before the start time.

About Myriam Abdel-Basit

Myriam Abdel-Basit is a registered dramatherapist of Irish and Sudanese heritage, based in Cambridge. She works with children, teenagers and adults, using creative resources alongside talking therapy to support people in processing experiences, emotions and change. She specialises in working with refugees and asylum seekers, particularly unaccompanied minors and works with London-based mental health charities Off The Record and Play for Progress. She also runs a private practice in Cambridge, offering culturally sensitive, trauma informed therapy in English and Arabic.

Myriam’s clinical work encompasses identity, trauma, cultural and religious abuse, navigating change, anxiety, burnout, hopelessness, isolation, fear, anger, shame, loss, sadness, sleep disturbances, PTSD, CPTSD, depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation.

Alongside her clinical practice, she holds a Masters in International Relations and has almost a decade of experience working in refugee response, including cultural mediation aboard a Search and Rescue ship in the Mediterranean, delivering psychosocial programmes for children and adolescents across Greece, and providing casework support to unaccompanied minors in London.

Her work and expertise have been featured by the BBC, Al Jazeera, RTS and National Geographic. She has also spoken on the Victoria Derbyshire Show and written for The Irish Times about the conditions facing refugees in Greece. An experienced group facilitator, Myriam leads dramatherapy groups in community settings and at conferences, and regularly lectures at Anglia Ruskin University and the NHS Tavistock, educating students on using dramatherapy approaches with migrant populations.

Myriam also provides therapeutic consultancy to organisations including Amna Healing, developing therapeutic toolkits and resources for practitioners working with children and teenagers affected by conflict and displacement, including the Gaze Strip.

About The Cambridge Festival of Islamic Arts

The Cambridge Festival of Islamic Arts runs from 19 to 29 November 2026, bringing performances, exhibitions, lectures, and workshops to Cambridge's historic colleges, museums, and cultural spaces. Open to everyone, the festival celebrates the beauty and diversity of Islamic arts, and, fifty years on from the landmark 1976 World of Islam Festival, carries that spirit into our own time. Find out more at cfia.co.uk.

Description supplied by the event organiser.