Her Kajal Won't Smudge

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

In this episode, Shana is in conversation with Priyanka Paul, an illustrator, graphic designer, poet, and storyteller, who is also a Gucci Chime for Change ambassador and TED Talk speaker. Priyanka shares her lived experience as a queer, dark-skinned Christian woman from an oppressed caste, her encounters with online trolling and how she turns her anger into impactful art, carving out a space for those who stand apart and don't subscribe to  society's beauty ideals.

 

Follow Priyanka Paul on Instagram @artwhoring and Twitter @artwhoring

 

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

 In this episode, Shana is in conversation with Sheema Kermani. You may know Sheema as the dancer in the hit Coke Studios video of Pasoori but, for Sheema, dance is more than an artform. For her, it is also an act of defiance. A classically trained Bharatnatyam dancer, Sheema took on the Pakistani military dictator Zia-ul-Haq when he abolished public dancing. Since then, Sheema has steadfastly defended the rights of minorities and women. In this interview, Sheema talks about her activism, the early days of Aurat March and how she came to perform the feminist anthem “A Rapist in Your Path” in Urdu - a performance that connected Pakistan to the Fourth Wave of Feminism, which has ebbed and flowed around the globe.

 

Follow Sheema Kermani on Instagram @sheemakermani and Twitter @tehrikeniswan

 

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

Leeza Mangaldas is a sex educator with 2 million YouTube subscribers and Instagram followers. GQ has named Leeza one of the most influential young Indians. She is also the author of The Sex Book. In this episode, Leeza talks to Shana about why the Glossary of her book has words like “patriarchy” and “casteism” and “internalised oppression”. They also discuss orgasms and female sexuality, the social norm of female virginity and purity and why it is  time we get past guilt and shame-ridden frameworks that don’t serve women… or men.  

 

Follow Leeza Mangaldas on Instagram @leezamangaldas and Twitter @leezamangaldas

 

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

In this episode, Shana is in conversation with Sabah Bano Malik, a radio jockey and a founding member of a Pakistani comedians' collective called Aurat Nak. Shana asks Sabah what has surprised her and what she struggles with as a Pakistani American who moved to Pakistan as an adult. Sabah talks about her online presence, comedy as a way to reflect on society, body-shaming, toxic rishta culture, the anger she feels when women are brutally murdered and the sisterhood she has found in Aurat March and with the many women who are resisting patriarchy in Pakistan. 

 

Follow Sabah Bano Malik on Instagram @sabahbanomalik and Twitter @sabahbanomalik

 

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

In this episode, Shana is in conversation with comedian, actor and writer Radhika Vaz. We learn about Radhika’s journey to comedy and why she mines the desi female experience as a source for her material. Radhika is one half of the team behind Shugs and Fats, a Youtube series about two curious Muslim women who are navigating life in liberal Brooklyn. We talk about script-writing episodes in which women are doing the street catcalling and the shroud of shame is lifted on the dirty period. Oh, and we also imagine a world in which women just stopped getting married. 

 

Follow Radhika Vaz on Instagram @radhikavaz Twitter @radvaz and Facebook Radhika Vaz

 

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

Women from South Asia (and the global diaspora) are challenging patriarchal social norms and expectations by taking to the streets and using the bullhorn of social media to be heard. 

Join Shana, our host, as she talks to social media influencers, street protestors, artists and film-makers who are making change happen. With millions of followers and supporters and numbers that keep growing, Her Kajal Won’t Smudge asks: are we witnessing a desi women’s liberation movement? Has its time finally come?