On September 9, Imane Eddinari, who was publisher at Motivate Media Group until 2016 and well known to many of Campaign’s readers and advertisers, died after a short illness. Former editor Iain Akerman, who worked closely with Imane on Campaign from 2008, reflects on his colleague and friend.
“The last time I saw Imane she reprimanded me for my unreliability as a friend. I’d not called enough, not messaged enough, not seen her more than twice in the past six months. She was right. I’d been caught up in the necessities of my own existence. It was poor return for a woman who’d given so much.
Imane and I worked together for six years. She was the toughest, kindest, most generous person I ever knew. She was the first person I called if I was in trouble, the one person who refused to be intimidated or browbeaten, and I respected that. Life is hard enough as it is, she would say, why let it subdue or corral you.
Imane set everything to full volume. Her cigarettes were Marlboro Reds, her coffee was strong, her heels were high, and her dresses were the kind of elaborate affairs only a Moroccan could pull off. She added so much salt and sugar to her food that it would make me blanch. But we never fought. We laughed, we chatted, we enjoyed each other’s company.
She bought my son his first smartphone, lent me her car without a second thought, bought me breakfast, cooked me dinner. We threw snowballs at each other in Faraya and sang along to Mashrou’ Leila’s Fasateen in Baalbek’s Temple of Bacchus. In Beirut she complained that all I wanted to do was read when there were so many places to be seen and so much food to be eaten. She never did make it to England, and I never made it to Morocco.
Life was unduly hard on Imane over the course of the past few years, but you’d never have guessed it. She was still as generous, still as forthcoming, still as quick to a smile. She would’ve told me to put aside any deep sense of loss caused by her death or any anger at the harsh indifference of the world. She would’ve poured a coffee, lit a cigarette, checked her phone, and simply smiled.”
