Her Kajal Won't Smudge

In this episode, Shana is in conversation with Bangladeshi women’s rights activist and poet, Sadaf Saaz. Sadaf talks about her journey from the UK to Bangladesh and how she found her feminism along the way, the strides made by the Bangladeshi feminist movement, the role of female garment workers in changing attitudes about a woman’s place in society and Sadaf’s poetry, which has been a constant in her life. Sadaf and Shana also discuss an issue close to Sadaf’s heart, the plight of the Birangona, the hundreds of thousands of women who were victims of sexual violence at the hands of the Pakistani army during the 1971 war. While the stories and records of the Birangona have been systematically erased and covered up by both the Bangladeshi and Pakistani governments, it is the feminists on both sides who continue to acknowledge, remember and build bridges.  

 

Follow Sadaf on X @SadafSaaz.

 

Follow us on Instagram @herkajalwontsmudge and check out our website www.herkajalwontsmudge.com.

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

In this episode, Shana speaks with award-winning actor, director and producer, Sarmad Khoosat, the first male guest on Her Kajal Won’t Smudge. 

 

In this conversation, Shana and Sarmad talk about Zindagi Tamasha (“Circus of Life”), a movie directed and produced by Sarmad. It was Pakistan’s submission for the 93rd Oscars but it has never had a theatrical release in Pakistan. 

 

Sarmad shares his thoughts on the controversy around Zindagi Tamasha, how men and women are both limited by social norms and the public’s heartfelt response to the intolerance Zindagi Tamasha has faced. 

 

Plus they discuss the influence Saadat Hasan Manto, the writer, has had on Sarmad’s life. 

 

Follow Sarmad on Instagram @sarmadkhoosat.

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

In this episode, Shana is in conversation with Kate Manne (philosopher, associate professor at Cornell University and author of Down Girl and Entitled) and Urna Chakrabarty (graduate student at Cornell University) to ask: why is there so much violence against women in South Asia? This is a question discussed by many academics and multilateral agencies and it is a source of daily concern for desi women who navigate everyday life under threat of violence. Contrary to our preconceived notion that crimes against women are random, Kate and Urna provide a very different perspective. They decode the systemic nature of violence against women and draw out the ‘logic of misogyny’ which perpetuates sexist, gendered roles through the threat of violence and victim-shaming. 

 

Follow Kate on X @kate_manne.

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar, Nikkethana Kamal

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

In this episode, Shana talks to Surabhi Yadav, the creator of Women At Leisure, an Instagram account filled with 7 years of pictures and videos of women simply at leisure - having a cup of chai, climbing a tree, playing football. For Surabhi, time is a feminist issue, which lays bare the many oppressions of caste, class and the invisibility of women’s work. 

 

They also discuss the backstory about how Women at Leisure came to be. After Surabhi’s mother, Basanti, passed away, Surabhi set out to keep her memory alive by asking aunts and her mother’s friends to share her stories. The person they described in story after story was a funny prankster, adjectives that did not come to mind when Surabhi thought of her mother. Who was her mother, when she was not busy managing a large family? This inspired Surabhi to create Women at Leisure as a kind of ongoing conversation with her mother. This conversation led Shana to also share why she created Her Kajal Won’t Smudge. The similarities in Surabhi and Shana’s journeys are a reflection of just how life brings two people together in ways that can be so unexpected and yet so in harmony. 

 

Follow Women At Leisure @women_at_leisure on Instagram.

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

In this episode, Shana is in conversation with visual artist, illustrator and graphic designer, Mira Malhotra. Mira runs Studio Kohl, a design studio with a very recognisable visual style and a roster of clients that are big name brands, corporations and charities. What makes Mira such a compelling and unique designer is that her feminism is ever present in all she does. Shana asks Mira about the origins of her feminism and how it came to be such a natural extension of her life and work, personal and professional. 

 

Follow Mira @kokumkohla and Studio Kohl @studiokohlindia on Instagram.

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

In this episode, Shana is in conversation with visual and performance artist, Amber Arifeen. Amber’s art looks at life through women’s eyes, giving insight into how women navigate the world. Take, for example, women and physical safety. Even if it might differ in degree depending on where women live, all women, around the world, can relate to this concept. Amber’s art shows just how this fear of violence against women restricts our freedom and full enjoyment of public spaces, including nature. The wonder of Amber’s art is that by making visible women’s invisible life experiences, Amber creates space for dialogue with society at large. 

 

Follow Amber on Instagram @amber_arifeen

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar, Nikkethana Kamal

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

In this episode, Shana talks to Krantinaari, a hip-hop artist, activist and a founding member of India’s first female hip-hop collective, Wild Wild Women. She talks about finding her own language of feminism, being a female rapper in an industry dominated by men and how Wild Wild Women came together to create music that they and other women can relate to.

 

Follow @krantinaari and @wildwildwomen on Instagram

 

Krantinaari raps acapella from her self-titled single ‘Krantinaari’ in this episode. 

 

Here is a translation of the lyrics:

 

In the traditional rule of the father and son

The woman is hiding her pain, she’s suppressed her scream

The thorns on the way that pricked her

Those became the sign of progress when she got educated

But now that we see she’s not even safe in the house of the rich

In such situations she’s holding on strong

Even when their mindset is old, rusty and useless

Come on, broaden your mind and evolve

Dangerous situations occur with 3 out of 5, by their own relatives

Stuck within four walls, she sacrifices her happiness

She is courageous and not your slave

She will smile forgetting all her pain

How long will you search for God with your eyes closed

If you’ve forgotten your morals, you’re going to be punished

She won’t just work hard from 9 to 5, day and night

With her heart and calm mind

The revolutionary woman is here to bring justice

The revolutionary woman is nature’s blessing

Revolutionary Woman! 

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

In this episode, Shana is in conversation with two co-organisers of Pakistan’s women’s march, the Aurat March, who share their candid, very personal, journeys to feminism. They also talk about how the Aurat March came about, what role Aurat March plays in Pakistani society and those incredible, revolutionary, posters and slogans that have fired up the conversation about a woman’s place in Pakistani society. 

 

Follow Aurat March on Instagram @auratmarch

 

The artist whose work is featured in the cover art is Saamiya Arif. 

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

In this episode, Shana is in conversation with comedian and social media star, Swineryy, who went viral in 2018 when she posted a video of an animoji pig asking “why am I haraam?” (translation: why am I a sin/forbidden?). We learn about why she is anonymous, how she created her iconic characters Blue Maulvi Saab, Leena Aunty and, of course, the Haraam Pig, what it’s like seeing her characters become symbols of resistance on posters carried in Pakistan’s Aurat March (Women’s March), and why she wants her comedy to be “genderless”.

 

Follow Swineryy on Instagram @swineryy 

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar, Nikkethana Kamal

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

Today, Shana is in conversation with satirist Mariam Shafqat Goraya. Through her character Naik Parveen, Mariam takes aim at women who are the “foot soldiers of patriarchy”. Mariam’s satire takes the sexist and misogynistic rhetoric that gets mentioned in private conversation, the stuff people don’t expect will get repeated, and she says it outloud through the characters she creates and, in the process, she uncomfortably forces us  out of our complacency. 

 

Follow Mariam Shafqat Goraya on Instagram @naikparveensyndrome and Facebook Naik Parveen Syndrome

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer : Nikkethana Kamal, Sonali Gupta 

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni

Visual Design & Social Media: Minal Jadeja, Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde