B JEEVASUNDARI is a feminist researcher, writer and media person. She has contributed to various Tamil magazines including Pikika Children’s Magazine, Police News, Puthiya Paarvai, Araam Thinai, Kumudham Snegithi and Penne Nee. Moovalur Ramamirtham: Vazhvum Paniyum (The Life and Work of Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar) is the result of her independent research. She has also edited a book entitled, Thaneer – Santhaikalla Makkalukke. Her articles on women’s independence and violence against women have been compiled into volumes entitled, Penn enum Pagadaikkai and Kurallatra Bommaigal. Her abiding interest in movies has resulted in a set of serialised essays, ‘Raisgai Paarvai’ which have been published in the film critics magazine called Kaatchi Pizhai. The collection was later published as a book and received an award for the best feminist book. She has also received the Chinna Kuthoosi Award for her essays, and has translated many children’s books into Tamil.
V BHARATHI HARISHANKAR is vice chancellor of Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women. Previously, she was the founding Head of the Department of Women’s Studies, University of Madras. Her research interests include postcolonial literatures, literary theory, translation studies and web-based pedagogies. She has taught courses, guided research, and has written over 120 publications including research articles, books, edited volumes and textbooks in all these areas. She has co-authored three books on teaching translation. Her notable translations include Shanmugasundaram’s Nagammal and Thamizachi Thangapandian’s Birthing Hut and Other Stories. Her interest in Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar stems from the project on devadasis that she has worked on for the National Commission for Women.‘Some of our mothers marched the streets in the 1980s, demanding the emancipation of women. Three decades later, they accompanied their daughters to Aurat March, reflecting on past formations, present collectives and feminist futures. Some made concessions in their acceptance of traditional gender roles, forming conflictual relationships with daughters that pushed the boundaries of propriety. Some may not refer to themselves as feminist, differing from their daughters about the significance and implications of labels. Yet, the subtleties of our mothers’ adaptabilities are centred on women’s empowerment. Situated amongst these subtleties are moments of consciousness and self-determination that we, as daughters, navigate through, as we limn the contours of our own feminist formations.’
In this remarkable collection of essays about their mothers, women from Pakistan explore the many meanings of feminism and its varying interpretations through generations. How, they ask, do these meanings change, mould, attract and detract within and between generations? How do women bridge the cracks that emerge in these formations as they hold within them the joys, sorrows, conflicts and contradictions of their multiple feminisms?
DAANIKA KAMAL is a researcher and writer from Karachi. She has worked across the development, legal and academic sectors, with a focus on gender-based violence, access to justice and rights protections of women and girls. She is currently based in London, where she is completing a PhD in Law. Daanika is an internationally published author and editor in the fields of gender empowerment, climate change, law, and mental health. The Feminisms of Our Mothers is her first anthological project.
Food Journeys is a powerful collection that draws on personal experiences, and the meaning of grief, rage, solidarity, and life. Feminist anthropologist Dolly Kikon and peace researcher Joel Rodrigues present a wide-ranging set of stories and essays accompanied by recipes. They bring together poets, activists, artists, writers, and researchers who explore how food and eating allow us to find joy and strength while navigating a violent history of militarization in Northeast India. Food Journeys takes us to the tea plantations of Assam, the lofty mountains of Sikkim, the homes of a brewer and a baker in Nagaland, a chef’s journey from Meghalaya, a trip to the paddy fields in Bangladesh, and many more sites, to reveal why people from Northeast India intimately care about what they eat and consider food an integral part of their history, politics, and community. Deliciously feminist and bold, Food Journeys is both an invitation and a challenge to recognize gender and lived experiences as critical aspects of political life.
Especially after the #MeToo storm, ‘consent’ has been the rallying point of our debates. Nilofer Kaul looks at the idea of consent with all its assumptions of equality, rationality and language, and argues that this papers over the inherent asymmetry in gender relations. Harping on the centrality of consent, she argues, invisibilizes the violence of this asymmetric arrangement. The problem, as most women know, is not just that they are oppressed but that they apparently acquiesce to their indignities. It is in this heart of darkness that psychoanalysis is summoned to look at the inequitable distribution of power. Masculinity inherited power and this must be constantly proved and asserted, and constant violence is displayed to prove a delusional sense of power. This fictive potency demands the expunging of all traces of vulnerability, of the entire apparatus of thinking and feeling, and these unwanted attributes are then placed in femininity. However, Kaul argues, not all asymmetry is violent. BDSM partners ‘consent’ to violence, even seek it. How do we then think about consent in a world that is insistently and fearfully asymmetric?
“…leaves you unsettled. Akkai means to disturb and disrupt us.” — Vrinda Grover, lawyer and women’s rights activist
“Akkai Padmashali’s forceful and eloquent new book, A Small Step in a Long Journey, tells of the awe-inspiring life of this eminent activist. From the harrowing abuse she has faced to her ironclad determination to change attitudes toward the transgender community, Akkai’s story is an indictment of society’s cruelty toward those it deems to be different, and an inspiration to anyone who wishes for a more just world.” — Shashi Tharoor, author and politician
“This delightfully refreshing collective of organic voices is more than a book, an unsecured cove into which five simple women in Tamil Nadu, India, trustingly invite us into their worlds of agency in affirmations of womanhood, economic independence, and fashioning of ‘woman-rules’. As both a page-turner, and a head-turner, these imprinted voices demand the active presence of the reader drawn into the generous outpouring of personal stories of sacrifice, ruptured dreams and bodies, inter-caste marriages, friendships, romance, and rebellion. These audacious voices burst with self-conjured healing, rooted in a culture of simplicity and earthy humanness to counter gender and caste norms. This uncommon work is charming and moving, as we are left laughing, crying, and wanting more of the warmth and color of ‘Muthu’s room’ filled with kind and bold breaths.“ — Roja Suganthy-Singh, author of Spotted Goddesses: Dalit women’s agency-narratives on caste and gender violence
“Weaving in the meanings of mobile phones, mobility, migration, labour, life, struggles, and love, the conversations shared here resonate with so many intimate histories of (migrant) labour extraction as well as with so many ‘kitchen table’/‘tea time’ conversations amongst women who become chosen family across time and place. As Jacqui Alexander argues, we ‘need to become fluent in each others’ histories,’ and this book exemplifies the kinds of pedagogies of crossing that move us from static critiques of power and privilege, and public and private, to creative experiments with various forms of speaking with, and to, and against, that challenges assumptions about where and how knowledge is produced, and leaves us with new ways of listening and imagining how to grapple with the pains and possibilities of moving from here to next.“ — Koni Benson, historian, organiser and educator
“A marvelous book. Abhinaya, Kalpana, Lakshmi, Madhumita, Pooja, Samyuktha, and Satya embody a praxis of playful listening as they weave together the stories of their lives, labor, and bodies. In building conversations about how they were disciplined and exploited and in voicing their critiques, dreams, and (un)freedoms, these women enact a solidarity where laughter and rage become inseparable in a journey of unlearning and relearning together. Madhushree’s illustrations ensure that once a reader enters Muthu’s room, she cannot leave without being moved and transformed.“ — Richa Nagar, author of the trilogy Playing With Fire: Feminist Thought and Activism Through Seven Lives in India, Muddying the Waters: Co-authoring Feminisms Across Scholarship and Activism, and Hungry Translations: Relearning the World Through Radical Vulnerability
“Mobile Girls Kootam asks us to listen — to young labouring women, who leave their rural and small town homes for cities and industrial hubs and negotiate with skill and intelligence the travails of the assembly line and sweatshop, the protest and the picket line. Their conversations with each other, and with the women who put this book together, invite us into troubled yet rich inner worlds, where women ponder over food, love, sex, men, the body, wages, work, marriage caste, family... Labouring lives, we realise, are not only about exploitation and suffering, equally they are about self-making, comradeship and the quest for happiness.“ — V. Geetha, feminist historian and writer
“Generously studded with jewel-bright Urdu and Farsi verses, ably translated by the author's granddaughter Shahana Raza, the narrative retains the flavour of its Urdu original. It reminds us of a time when even those with little formal education had a wide frame of literary references and a world view that was eclectic and liberal.“ — India Today
“But, what makes this memoir an important one, is also her professional strides at AIR. When AIR launched its Urdu service, she began taking on more programming work, leading a Women and Children's show, analysing news, broadcasting short bulletins, and also producing a five-minute show called Dekhi-Suni. In her memoir, she writes about this very matter-of-factly.“ — Midday
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