In this episode, Shana chats with model and Instagram creator, Sobia Ameen. Sobia shares how she ended up on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar India even though she’s an architect by training. Sobia talks about beauty standards and her activism around topics like menstrual shame and sexual assault, both of which are very personal to her. 

 

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

Follow @sobia93 on Instagram.

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

Head of Visual Design: Minal Jadeja

Visual Designers: Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Junior Producer: Saakshi Samant, Quoyina Ghosh

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram, Nihar Temkar

This week, Shana is joined by the Indian Urdu poet and activist Sabika Abbas Naqvi. Sabika paints a picture of her home and neighbourhood in Lucknow, India, and her deep connection to both that is reflected in her work. She talks about reclaiming male-dominated poetry spaces as a woman, how her poetry is  a tool of resistance against oppression. 

 

Sabika recites her poem, Maadari Zabaane (Mother Tongues) in this episode. You can read the English translation of the poem here. 

 

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

Follow Sabika (@boltiaurat) on Instagram.

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

Head of Visual Design: Minal Jadeja

Visual Designers: Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Junior Producer: Saakshi Samant, Quoyina Ghosh

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram, Nihar Temkar

In this episode of Her Kajal Won’t Smudge, Shana is in conversation with Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker Zarrar Kahn. Zarrar talks to Shana about his award-winning horror film ‘In Flames’ which captures, you guessed it, the horrors of patriarchy as told through the lives of the protagonists,  a mother and daughter. In Flames  conveys the daily experiences  of life in a patriarchal society and even though this film is set in Pakistan, its message is a universal one.  

 

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

Follow @kahn.zarrar on Instagram.

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

Head of Visual Design: Minal Jadeja

Visual Designers: Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Junior Producer: Saakshi Samant, Quoyina Ghosh

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram, Nihar Temkar

On this first episode of season 3 of Her Kajal Won’t Smudge, Shana is joined by the queen of Pakistani pop music – Meesha Shafi. In 2018, Meesha spoke out publicly about the sexual harassment she endured at the hands of a popular actor. Time Magazine described this moment as having sparked Pakistan’s #MeToo movement. In this candid conversation, Meesha shares what it means to live with her decision to speak out and how her music is an expression of her reflective self-journey. The woman we meet is courageous, vulnerable and so completely authentic. 

 

Meesha talks about the music videos for her songs Amrit and Hot Mango Chutney Sauce. You can watch them here:

• Amrit
• Hot Mango Chutney Sauce 

 

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

Follow @meesha.shafi on Instagram.

 

CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

Head of Visual Design: Minal Jadeja

Visual Designers: Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

 

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Junior Producer: Saakshi Samant, Quoyina Ghosh

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram, Nihar Temkar

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