“But while all us South Asian feminists were cheering at this huge coup — we all know a powerful way for to shift rape culture is for male role models start championing women’s rights and bodily autonomy — Bachchan was already beginning his backpedal in an interview with The Hindu.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, October 2016.
“Piyali Bhattacharya’s Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion was the book I had been waiting to read my entire life. Finally, a book about us. A book that represents us. Us South Asian American sisters who straddled multiple worlds and did our best to find a balance that most of the time was always going to be just out of reach.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, October 2016.
“For a country in which one of the national dresses for women is the sari — an outfit that, even with all its yards of fabric, features a crop top that exposes a woman’s cleavage, back, and full belly — it was jarring to read that the Indian Minister of Tourism, Mahesh Sharma, issued a travel advisory to foreign women telling them to not wear skirts.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, October 2016.
“Slut-shaming is not new in Asian immigrant communities. Conservatism abounds, and the sometimes-insulated nature of many Asian communities, especially in the older generations, pushes back and hard against younger members getting too assimilated by mainstream American culture. The policing of women’s sexuality is a cornerstone of this conservativism, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an Asian-American woman who hasn’t been slut-shamed by a family member or many of them, and more than once. The difference is that most of these chastisements take place in the privacy of the home, not in the media.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, October 2016.
“After the Stanford rape survivor released her powerful and detailed victim impact statement, I was inspired to write my own open letter in which I discussed my experiences with sexual and partner violence. In the months since my “coming out” as a survivor — a decision that I did not make or take lightly — I’ve been actively reflecting on my myriad emotions and identifying distinct stages to the process. As with the five stages of grief, this isn’t a linear evolution; I found myself cycling through some of these stages multiple times before the emotion passed. Here’s what to expect.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, October 2016.
