Press
Aadya Shakti, or Primal Energy
10 Dec 2022
The Dreaming Machine
Extract from an essay in Period Matters
When I was asked to make menstrual art for this book [Period Matters], ‘Aadya Shakti’ had been on my mind for several months. The political turbulence and ecological strife in my environment had been upsetting me. I kept asking myself: what is the ultimate answer to the violence and anger? The answer came to me in a dream one night and I felt convinced that reclaiming the ancient belief in the magical qualities of menstrual blood through art could be one way of healing the ruptures that were plaguing our planet. I decided I would illustrate the mystical aspect of menstrual blood to portray how women are connected to Mother Earth through their menstrual cycle. Menstrual blood has the power to create peace and regenerate the earth, and I felt the strong need to bring this vision of the feminine life force to life through my art.
The idea birthed in my dream was initially a motif of many lotus flowers floating in a sea of blood. In India, the lotus is a political symbol and the logo of a right-wing political party, but in many cultures the flower is used to depict enlightenment, fertility and rebirth. I resolved to erase the negativity and hatred through my painting and reclaim the purity of the lotus…
www.thedreamingmachine.com/aadya-shakti-or-primal-energy-lyla-freechild
Menstruation in Fiction: The Authorial Gaze
10 Dec 2022
The Dream Machine
Extract from an essay in Period Matters
Fiction has always been the place where ‘forbidden’ subjects are explored, and writers have dared to probe various aspects of sexuality, thereby offering readers a window into an understanding of the subject or an alternative perspective.
Writers from all cultures have seen the breaking of silence as their main task. In her book The Novel of the Future (1947), Anais Nin wrote, ‘The writer’s task is to overthrow the taboos rather than accept them.’ In her short stories, she never shied away from illuminating moments of sexuality, no matter how transgressive they were. Similarly, around the same time, Ismat Chughtai, known as Urdu’s wicked woman, wrote about sexual experiences in verse with great candour. She was charged with obscenity and put on trial for her short story Lihaaf (The Quilt) which had erotic and lesbian undertones. Later, in an interview, she said she hated the suffocation in the lives of her characters, and that being trapped in ideas of shame and honour was absurd…
www.thedreamingmachine.com/menstruation-in-fiction-the-authorial-gaze-farah-ahamed/
What If
8 Dec 2022
The Punch Magazine
Note by Farah Ahamed: I wrote the poem What If in response to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem What if You Slept? His poem is about a dream where the sleeper finds herself in heaven and picks a ‘strange and beautiful flower,’ and on waking finds the flower in her hand.
In contrast, my poem, What If is from the point of view of a poor sweeper woman, and about her living nightmare. Rather than a flower, she finds a broom in her hand. Because of her gender, class and caste, her occupation is ancient and fixed. She cannot escape this destiny which includes working with dirt, navigating through public spaces where she is an ‘invisible’ person, and bleeding on a dirty rag during her period. I wrote the poem moved by the stories of the sweeper women of Lahore, in Ayra Inderyas’ essay in Period Matters (Pan Macmillan India).
Menstrual Matters: Shashi Deshpande on how she grew out of the halo of shame around periods
8 Dec 2022
The Punch Magazine
December 8 is marked as the International Day for Dignified Menstruation. Novelist Shashi Deshpande, whose fiction openly mentions menstruation, narrates her own story of menstruation and how she grew out of the shame and misconceptions associated with it.
My mother narrated this story to me in what now seems such a distant past that I am surprised I remember it at all. Time has nibbled, of course, at the edges of the story, but the core of it remains intact. It is the story of the wedding of my mother’s older sister…
Farah Ahamed On The Diversity and Creativity of the Menstruation Experience
9 Dec 2022
British Asian Women's Magazine
What inspired Period Matters: Menstruation in South Asia?
I’ve been working on period poverty in Kenya for the past decade. Through my campaign Panties with Purpose we have been carrying out reproductive health workshops and distributing underpants in schools. We distributed over 50,000 pairs to more than 16,000 girls. Reflecting on this experience, I had the idea that the diversity of menstruation could best be illustrated in a book which included every genre. I decided the anthology would move away from the conventional to a deeper and more honest cultivation of stories about menstruation…
Hot Mango Chutney Sauce
20 Sep 2022
Adda
Farah Ahamed’s story, Hot Mango Chutney Sauce, was shortlisted for the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
“It was only yesterday that the last girl, Maryam, took her turn with paracetamol and cheap alcohol. A few weeks earlier, Zainab had done the same, but Laila, who followed Hafsa, had slit her wrists. When the police took us in for questioning, we said we were ready to cooperate. We even offered to share our photographs. After all, who better than we could explain what happened to the girls? We sit in the row of kiosks on the left side of the car park as you face the front of the shrine. From behind the curtains of tasbihs, wooden rosaries and Ajrak scarves hanging on the frames of our windows, we observed the events as they unfolded in the shrine compound…”
Read the full story, and watch the office music video of Hot Mango Chutney Sauce, starring Meesha Shafi and featuring Swineryy.
Period! Magazine, Netherlands
26 Sep 2022
Period Media
We sincerely enjoyed this brand new volume [Period Matters]. In this intriguing anthology you’ll find essays, artwork, stories and poems from politicians and policymakers, entrepreneurs, artists, academics, students, activists, nuns, prisoners and the homeless. Together this provides a glimpse into the way menstruation is viewed by people from different backgrounds, religions and classes. While activist Granaz Baloch narrates how she defied traditional notions of tribal honour and conducted the first-ever menstrual health workshop in Pakistan, Radha Paudel writes about her mission to have menstrual dignity acknowledged as a human right in Nepal. Shashi Tharoor relays his radical Menstrual Rights Bill which was tabled in the Indian parliament.
The director of Period Media, writes: “I really enjoyed reading Period Matters. Text, artwork, insights: every single aspect of your book. Thumbs up! It’s on the top of our updated book overview now.”
Up Close & Candid, The Asian Weekly, Kenya
26 Sep 2022
Up Close & Candid, The Asian Weekly, Kenya
Dignifying the menstruation experience
Farah Ahamed interviewed by Milly Maina
My earliest memory relating to periods goes back to when I was eight years old. After Little House on The Prairie one Sunday evening came an advert for pads. It began with a blonde girl in white jeans riding a bicycle, talking about the pads being ‘soft and fluffy’, and promising girls could be ‘free’ to do anything they wanted. It showed blue ink from a dropper filling a sanitary pad and ended with the image of two blonde girls on horses galloping into the sunset. I was scared of horses, I didn’t have a bike, I wasn’t blonde and I had no idea what the blue ink blotting pad was about…
Outlook India
26 Sep 2022
Outlook India
Santhals Celebrate Menstruation As Hormobaha Or Flower Of The Body
Farah Ahamed interviewed by Niyati Bhat
I wanted to highlight how menstruation stories could be told and interpreted in every genre and art form. To show how it influenced every aspect of life. How it was subjective and affected by context and culture. It occurred to me that the diversity of menstruation experiences could best be reflected in a book which included both fiction and non-fiction.
The Friday Times, Pakistan
23 Sep 2022
The Friday Times, Pakistan
Talking The Unthinkable
Farah Ahamed dared to chronicle this feat of breaking the stigma associated with the cycle. When she was in Uganda, she realised the importance of menstrual hygiene management. She established an informal initiative called Panties with Purpose, the objective of which was to promote menstrual health and raise awareness about the harmful effects on girls in Kenya – such as missing nearly sixty days of school per year because of a lack of access to menstrual products, that damaged their chances for academic success and compromised their health and well-being.
Period Pieces
22 Sep 2022
Business Standard
When it comes to urban India, the topic of menstruation and menstrual hygiene receives a great deal of importance and attention. In fact, times are so advanced that many workplaces now ensure there is a steady supply of sanitary napkins in the women’s restroom.
But what is it really like in the world parallel to the progressive urban one, where the concept of menstruation, a natural and healthy occurrence, is taboo and any open discussion on it is forbidden?
For anyone who identifies as a woman, every menstruation story feels personal. The shame and the suffering of it. So many conversations, so much talk around periods and yet my neighbourhood chemist packs my sanitary pad in a brown paper bag. Here’s hoping Farah Ahamed’s revolutionary book can bring the pad out of the bag!
Beyond Blood
7 Sep 2022
Beyond Blood
In Period Matters, we find voices that have been historically oppressed and neglected, be it in the social sphere or the academic or popular discourse around menstruation.
Ahamed recounts the stories of Farzana and Chandan, two transwomen in Lahore who strive to feel like “complete” women. To feel more feminine, they imitate the experiences of menstruation by wearing a sanitary pad once a month for a week. As it is commonly followed by women locally in Lahore during their menstruation, they also follow dietary and social restrictions. Some also use red dye to give the impression of blood on their pads. Additionally, they speak of how the pads protect them against harassment and groping. Farzana and Chandan also talk about how difficult it is to access doctors and seek medical help.
www.beyondblood.org/post/period-matters-menstruation-in-south-asia-a-review