Iraqis in Pajamas
Iraqis in Pajamas fuses Iraqi Jewish prayers with original indie rock and personal storytelling, singing in Judeo-Arabic, Hebrew, and English. In turn vulnerable and angry, haunting and inspiring, the band disarms audiences, opening them to deep contemplation about trauma, healing, and transformation.
The Band
Led by front woman Loolwa Khazzoom, Iraqis in Pajamas is an award-winning original music project rooted in alternative and punk rock, with Middle Eastern, jazz, folk, metal, and experimental musical elements weaving throughout its albums. An international and virtual collaboration, Iraqis in Pajamas brings together musicians from diverse musical, cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, reflecting the spirit of curiosity, dialogue, creativity, and human connection that lies at the heart of the band's music.
Written primarily in English and incorporating select Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew passages, the songs offer a punk rock take on Iraqi Jewish liturgy—ancient supplications for healing, wholeness, and renewal reimagined for the contemporary human experience. Rooted in indigenous Middle Eastern Jewish heritage and consciousness—a perspective that remains rarely, if ever, represented in contemporary music—the band's artistic vision illuminates the timeless threads connecting humanity across culture, generations, faith, and geography.
The Albums
Iraqis in Pajamas is currently developing a series of original albums forged through a four-year period of excruciating loss, grief, betrayal, and upheaval. Together, these albums invite listeners on an artistic journey through identity, belonging, exile, and memory, as well as love, creativity, resilience, and the exquisite human capacity for turning poison into medicine.
Far from a retrospective collection of songs written from a distance, these songs were written and sung in the act of becoming. They do not simply tell the story of transformation—they are living expressions of it. As the music unfolds, listeners witness the music itself serving as a crucible, where the raw energy of suffering transmutes into fuel for healing, beauty, meaning, purpose, and deep human connection.
The Impact
More than a performance, Iraqis in Pajamas music is an invitation to explore, together, the vastness of human potential. Through song, spoken word, storytelling, and facilitated dialogue, we open a shared field of consciousness in which curiosity replaces certainty, complexity is welcomed, and genuine human connection flourishes.
At a time of increasing polarization, isolation, and division, Iraqis in Pajamas music serves as a catalyst for play, exploration, and discovery. Rather than reinforcing the artificial barriers that separate us, the music illuminates the timeless threads that connect us, inviting participants to become co-creators in discovering what none of us could have imagined alone.
As the distinction between artist and audience softens, music becomes a living exchange—an unfolding process of listening, responding, creating, and becoming together. In that exchange, something entirely unexpected can emerge.
Your Support
Your tax-deductible contribution through Allied Arts Foundation helps support professional recording, production, mixing, mastering, engineering, artwork, video production, distribution, and live performances as Iraqis in Pajamas brings this ambitious series of original albums to audiences around the world.
Thank you for helping make this work possible.
Iraqis in Pajamas is a fiscally sponsored project of the Allied Arts Foundation.
If you'd prefer to donate by check, please make check payable to "Allied Arts Foundation" and indicate "Iraqis in Pajamas" in the memo line.
Checks can be mailed to:
Allied Arts Foundation
2212 Queen Anne Ave N #759
Seattle, WA 98109