Saras Jaiswal – Writing Women

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Saras Jaiswal

Saras is pursuing an MA in Media and Culture Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She’s interested in understanding socio-political realities and their larger contexts through a feminist lens. She finds comfort in poetry and the visual world of photography and film, and is currently attempting to contribute to these forms herself.

A Mic of One’s Own; Women-Centric Media as an Instrument of Justice

Saras Jaiswal

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Essential Reading
Library of Feminist Legacies
Movements and Methods
Writing Sisterhood
In Translation
Record and Remembering

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Essential Reading
Library of Feminist Legacies
Movements and Methods
Writing Sisterhood
In Translation
Record and Remembering

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"'Dilli Ki Sair' is an audio rendition by Afreen A

"'Dilli Ki Sair' is an audio rendition by Afreen Akhtar of the eponymous Urdu short story written by Rashid Jahan in 1932 for Angarey, an anthology that birthed the Progressive Writers Movement in India. The story is from the perspective of a woman who shares her experience of being subjected to the male gaze at a railway station in Delhi"

We could listen to Afreen's sound work of Rashid Jahan's short story for days. It's beautifully done, and even though the original story is nearly 100 years old, the questions it raises on women's autonomy, and space in public places is still so relevant. As is the sisterhood the piece reflects. A collective of women coming together to document and share this powerful piece of feminist Urdu literature is such loving work, as Afreen writes, "We were the cheerful participants and the eager audience of our own play." We are so honoured to feature it here as the last of the 'for the record' series selections to be released ❤️

The audio piece in its entirety is available on the site, link in bio, along with a summary write-up and translation of the piece provided by Afreen. Follow @alaihda for more writing and wonderfully creative storytelling work 🌺
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#dillikisair #angarey #soundwork #rashidjahan #feministretellings #soundandstorytelling #audiorenditions #womenintransation #Urduliterature #fortherecord #selections #writingwomen #hearingwomen #shortstories #translatedfiction #urduwomenwriters #progressivewritersmovement

"Oral traditions include folktales, myths, artisti

"Oral traditions include folktales, myths, artistic expressions, songs and inscriptions." In her essay Malavika makes a compelling argument for why we should add gossipt to this list.

We love how she breaks down the sexist and colonial constraints subjected to gossip and critiques the research that implies "history is only worthy of being known when its records are in written form—a form practiced primarily by colonial powers and not by Indigenous populations." While gossip might not typically come to mind when thinking of oral history Malavika argues it should be, and reminds us of how 'gossip is a tool for the marginalised'

Read the full essay on the site, link in bio, and follow @malspeaks_ for more writing and some excellent spoken word and poetry! 🙌🏽

artwork note: The artwork featured here is titled 'Yayoi asukayama hanami', by Kitao Shigemasa, 17th century Japanese print artist, a series of his artwork has been made available for use on Unsplash by the Library of Congress.
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#spillthetea #oralhistory #oraltraditions #gossipforgood #fortherecord #selections #decolonialresearch #indigenousresearch #gossipasstorytelling #kitaoshigemasa #japaneseprintart #oralstorytelling #writingwomen

"As an art form that symbolizes the ephemeral, kol

"As an art form that symbolizes the ephemeral, kolam presents the opportunity to make the choice to draw with different rules."

Like Kolam, Sangeetha's writing is also one that connects the dots, creating patterns between intergenerational learning, reimagining practices of inequality, gendered expectations and art. By tracing the art practice of kolam in Tamil Nadu and her mother's experiences, she raises critical questions like "How can we preserve and progress? Why does the labour of protecting a home's exposure to good and evil fall upon women only? Can she retain the symmetrical elegance and discard the idea of kolam being a cultural imperative? And most importantly – who gets to define the idea of purity in people and spaces?"

Read the full piece on the site, link in bio, and follow @simple_sangee_writes for more writing, reflections on craft and some very insightful movie/ tv reviews 🙌🏽
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#kolamdiaries #indianartpractices #womensartasstorytelling #kolamasrecord #fortherecord #writingselections #womensrecords #rememberingthroughart #mothersanddaughters #intergenerationallearning #intergenerationalart #writingwomen #artasresistance

"Fictional literature on Partition provides a rich

"Fictional literature on Partition provides a rich source where women speak for themselves."

In her thoughfully selected collection of women's stories on Partition Deeplakshmi highlights the blurring of fiction and nonfiction in gendered accounts of history. We love how she analyses each story to reflect on how it adds to a feminist historiography of Partition from multiple perspectives. We've added a lot of titles to our reading lists, especially the translated short stories of Attia Hosain, Lalithambika Antharjanam, Jamila Hashmi, and Umm-E-Ummara, alongside the more popular titles of Urvashi Butalia, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin.

Read the full article on the site, link in bio, and see @deeplakshmi__ for more writings. Also we're keen to hear what you would add to this list, tell us your recommendations!
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#Partitionliterature #fictionandnonfiction #womenspartitionstories #ismatchughtai #attiahosain #shobharao #jamilahashmi #lalithambikaantharjanam #ummeummara #ritumenon #kamlabhasin #urvashibutalia #bordersandboundaries #fortherecord #writingselections #writingwomen #womenintranslation

"My mother often struggles with voicing pain. Inst

"My mother often struggles with voicing pain. Instead of saying that the crows have come to peck her blood, she cries aloud"

The visual analogies in Rayan's poetry are unreal, we can almost taste the Bhetki. His poems centre on the links between memory, nation and violence, and reinterprets notions of mother and motherland. As always, Shazia's artwork does brilliant justice to these beautiful pieces 🔥

Read the poems in full on the site, link in bio, and see @cyanide_in_my_tooth for more evocative poetry 🌺
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#poetryformemory #remembering #ghazals #cityscapes #illustrations #poeticanalogy #ghazals #fortherecord #poetryselections #writingwomen

"Inside the newsroom and everywhere outside of it,

"Inside the newsroom and everywhere outside of it, a woman must have a Mic of Her Own."

Saras rightly reminds us that a media controlled by capitalist, patriarchal and colonial interests will never serve us the truth, or justice. Little else feels relevant right now with the failings of a bought media on full display. But Saras's piece is hopeful and full of possibilities as she looks at women-run storytelling as a way towards gender justice. She grounds in the story of @khabarlahariya to illustrate feminist truth-telling, and reminds us of the need to imagine better instruments for justice 🌺

Read in full on the site, link in bio, and see @stringsofnothing for more written and visual narratives ❤️
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#amicofonesown #womensstorytelling #womenrunmedia #khabarlahariya #womeninmedia #truthtellers #fortherecord #selections #writingwomen

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