#southasian
As of 2021, President Biden officially designated the month of May as #AsianAmericanNativeHawaiianAndPacificIslanderHeritageMonth (#AANHPI). A long acronym but that’s not the only one. Its also known as #AsianPacificIslanderDesiAmericanHeritageMonth (#APIDA), which intentionally includes #SouthAsian identities as their cultures and identities are underrepresented. All of these terms are pretty umbrella but no matter what it’s called we must continue to learn and unlearn about these cultures. We all need to see ourselves. We all need to be acknowledged, recognized and celebrated because #representationmatters. For everyone!
So like every year, let me know who your favorite mixed raced #Asian #Hawaiian #PacificIslander and #Desi public figures you would love to see featured.
Also DM me about your experiences being mixed #AANHPIDA to be featured!
Feel free to represent yourselves below, what are your heritages? You may find someone you can relate to! Happy #MixedGirlMonday!
#mixedgirl
https://www.instagram.com/p/CdEa4SkO_8l/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
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So over the moon to welcome my other newest member @curvesbecomeher to my @effyourbeautystandards team! She is my first voice from Asia, & the perfect addition!
“hello lovelies!
I’m Aarti Olivia Dubey, a plus size chicky from Singapore and will be an Asian representative for Eff Your Beauty Standards!
It’s been 3 years since I started blogging and years of internal struggle led me to making sweeping changes with my outlook on my body and on internalised fatphobia. As a psychotherapist by profession and as someone who has struggled with body dysmorphia, I know the struggle all too well. My peers in Asia struggle with body shaming and constant beauty standard comparisons, which is what makes me so unabashed about dispelling beauty standards. I’ve been following this movement like you have for quite a while and I am stoked to be part of something that talks about body positivity, size diversity and so many important facets of self acceptance.
I look forward to contributing to the awesomesauce movement that is effyourbeautystandards and looking forward to getting to know You! Thank you so much to Tess and the team! @curvesbecomeher
#bodypositivity #fatshion #plussize #psbloggers #sgig #sgbloggers #southasian #asian #effyourbeautystandards
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I am obsessed with the details! This was a mixed wedding, and the jewelry was so intricate, I had to create a special way to show it off. Plus, purple is my favorite color!
#allaboutthedetails #wedding #details #jewelry #desi #southasian #traditional #shoes #heels #gold #bridal #bling #sparkle #stones #glam #glow #handmade #rimlight #glamour #glamourphotography
https://www.instagram.com/p/Br1TFuJg5M3/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1uwuury1yj3nv
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Family portraits don’t need to be traditional!
#family #portraits #familyportraits #pakistani #funnyposes #fun #humor #sisters #mom #women #blue #green #southasian
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrvgNM3g2BC/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=y60lnlpwazln
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That time I met a strong desi girl with blunt charm and a real smile is one I don’t forget! Sometimes you starts friendships in very unique ways.
I had just moved and told her I had no friends in the area while I was doing photos for her. She just easily said, oh no problem, just call me I’ll be your friend. And that’s all it took.
#clientturnedfriend #pakistani #model #portraits #silhouette #contrast #southasian #desi #red #shalwarkameez #fashion #jewelry #romantic #classic #elegant
@effikenakhrey
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrstSDUg4jY/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2zfjpjd9idvb
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Sometimes you just want to obsess over the details!
#wedding #southasian #mixed #jewelry #bangles #chooriyan #gold #goldjewelry #henna #hands #bridal #traditional #islamic #muslim #pakistani #mehndi #valima @maleka_musliwala
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrlKn4ogQV4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ff8uauy7dily
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This isn’t one of those horribly romantic posts. This one is one that probably won’t be seen for the one that inspired it, not for some time anyway. We past the checking each other’s social ish.. lol well; most of the time.
My heart feels heavy and I feel like the things that offer me so much strength are now making less sense to me.. I look at my mother’s life and the dynamic that rests between her and my father and it breaks my spirit.
She is so accustomed to behaviour that makes me want to scream the house down. I try and be the good Indian daughter, but now my silence seeps out of me in ways I cannot control.
So I sit on a swivel leather chair in the living room, with my aunt and parents and think of you.. I feel calm and I even begin to feel a small smirk turning into a smile hanging from my lips.
I didn’t handle the situation as you would have done; I couldn’t sit and bite my tongue. Not meeing fire with fire, but dousing hatred with water the way you said I should. I didn’t do it, I lashed out and stood my ground and the antlers were coming for me. Reminding me of being young, afraid, without voice.
Things are different now; I feel a slight pang of fear but it subsides. A victory for my spirit and a coat hanger for this ego.
Ego Death has been on repeat in my car, Praise the Lord for an aux output and youtube videos on how to install your own “sounds”. Moving on, writing this I feel lighter. Knowing in a few days I will be back in the sanctuary we made together.
“[Jasmin] All you need in life is love and a cat.”
Click here for the March 2012 issue of India Currents
I did this story to reach out to a group that is pretty invisible when it comes to debates about immigration reform and immigrant rights.
It’s a big deal for India Currents to shine the spotlight on an issue that most of our community speaks about in hushed tones. The United States knows us as mostly doctors and engineers. And while many South Asians do enjoy a relatively good life, silver-lined with “model minority” status, there are many of us who do not have the same luxury.
South Asian Americans make up one-sixth of the undocumented population in the United States. They become undocumented in many different ways:
- Overstaying visas to stay with family
- Losing their H-1B jobs
- Leaving an abusive marriage with a H-1B holder
- Being exploited as a domestic worker or sex trafficking
- Aging out
- Losing their asylum cases and overstaying due to family ties here
- Crossing the border through Mexico
We need to have these hard and awkward conversations within our communities. We need to ensure that the most vulnerable parts of our population get the support and services they need. And it is my hope that through the article, I’ll get to meet and help out many others like me.I hope everyone enjoys the issue.
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URGENT: On Friday, November 4th, Minhaz was forced to wear an electronic ankle bracelet and has to present a one-way plane ticket to Bangladesh, a country he hasn’t been to in 20 years, on November 18th!
Please take immediate action to stop Minhaz’s deportation!
2. Call DHS – Janet Napolitano 202-282-8495 and ICE – John Morton 202.732.3000
Sample Script: “I am calling to ask that DREAM-Eligible student Minhaz Khan (A# 70663420) be allowed to stay in the U.S. Minhaz came to the United States when he was only 4 years old. Minhaz is a college graduate with a degree in Neuroscience and wants to contribute back to the only country he calls home. Don’t deport DREAMer Minhaz Khan.”
3.Click here for more information and to forward this petition to your friends.
By Thahitun Mariam
We come from the unsheltered cruelty of
broken homes,
broken bonds,
the apathetic, unapologetic,
rawness of shards and solitude,
all mixed into a device of its own being.
We come from the homes where
mothers and fathers never speak to one another,
never to taste
loving words rolling from their lips,
where fathers ask children to not come to his funeral
as he pummels them into the ground
with each venomous insult that grows
seeds in their minds
we come from homes where
mothers are left to take care of the entire family,
when the father returns to their homeland
to remarry a girl thrice younger than
his own age,
where teenage years and our early 20s,
are wasted working 12-hour shifts,
where we accept lovers
who are unavailable and unemotional
because that is all we have seen,
where we witness some of the people
we have shared our childhood with
take refuge in religion
as though it could ever be an answer,
where brokenness is not defined or spoken about
because for so long,
so long,
we thought the way we live
is the way everyone lives
Was there ever any better to be had?
It was not until
the paradigm shifted,
in a new environment,
did we discover the way we were raised,
loveless and cold,
was never the real answer to how
living,
breathing,
functional,
human beings
are brought up in this world.
When we faced confusion
in making the smallest of decisions,
when we began to take on actions
without any contemplation,
when we became machines
who operate in swift movements,
when we could not turn to anyone
to discuss what the next move should be
in terms of our education,
or career,
or realizing one’s potential,
did we recognize
the ones who strive
and do make it,
are able to do so
because they stand
on the shoulders of many
who navigated them to
those waterways.
We see we have been deceived.
We were not raised the same.
The neighborhoods we grew up in
are concrete,
and filled with trash bins,
broken pavements,
and a lurking danger
as the socio-economic class struggle
of the lower-income folks,
living in destitute and dirt,
is as much internalized
as it is an externalized issue.
We take one of two routes—
we either cower in fear
of the inevitable problem that may arise,
from our protest,
or we walk boastfully
as though we can take on any hurdles
that may come on by.
The stoic nature we must carry
with us on the streets
resonates with the stoniness
of our personalities
that we must take on
while inside our homes.
Years go by, but
We don’t just forget
that one time
we had to find
our mother hiding in the closet
of a neighbor’s house as she was
bawling her eyes out
due to the acidic way
he screamed and
threatened to kill her,
or sell her to the streets
words ‘naughty’er baccha’ ‘khankir maagi’
prostitute, and other ruthless possibilities;
and then there are other times
when we were
to be on standby,
as he continued to kick her,
again and again,
on her injured leg,
and although,
she too is
a human,
she is expected to operate,
as a well-oiled machine,
as a puppet,
answering to his demands,
and how can we erase
the way we have to relive
the vivid accounts of friends,
who had been molested,
time and time again,
by these same men,
uncles,
neighbors,
cousins,
fathers.
Where will these memories go?
We cannot undo
the coils of clutter
that causes us
to hurl
within our insides.
We keep seeking escapes
in many ways
to leave these selves we have become—behind.
these unsealed memories,
we did not choose,
this childhood that remains tainted,
relations that offer the very minimum,
and yet we clench onto them;
the avoidance that comes from
realizing there was never any room for love.
Tell me,
Where will these memories go?
~~~~~
Thahitun Mariam is a Bangladeshi-American writer and activist from New York City. She has been wistfully writing poetry and prose since her teenage years. Through her words, she explores deeper questions of self, identity, places, relationships, and belonging. She divides her time between New York, Dhaka, and the Middle East. She studied International Relations at St. Lawrence University. Thahitun publishes her work atthahitunmariam.wordpress.com.
Hi everyone!!! Sorry I have not been active on this account, once my dissertation is done I will post a LOT MORE.
I have HUGE favour though, only for my SOUTH ASIAN MUSLIMS (sorry). I am conducting a study on honour abuse, and would love to hear your opinion on certain situations related to it, and if some things are reasonable.
https://uclan.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8G762t0QT1M3RUG
it will take 10 minutes MAX, and is sensitive so don’t worry if you don’t feel well enough to look at the topic
thank you to anyone that does it
Workers build the Madinat Jumeirah, one of Dubai’s premier luxury resorts, 2004.
#dubai #uae #unitedarabemirates #madinatjumeirah #luxury #labor #construction #southasian (at Madinat Jumeirah)
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![“Gargi”Part 5 of the ‘Desi Remix’ series [Remix of “The Last Supper” by Juan de Juanes]Gargi Vachakn](https://64.media.tumblr.com/93ce963180f17d67a59e026636f6a3fa/tumblr_ol4mkjupqo1s2xw6vo1_1280.jpg "“Gargi”Part 5 of the ‘Desi Remix’ series [Remix of “The Last Supper” by Juan de Juanes]Gargi Vachakn")
“Gargi”
Part 5 of the ‘Desi Remix’ series [Remix of “The Last Supper” by Juan de Juanes]
Gargi Vachaknavi was an ancient Indian philosopher. From a young age she became known for her intelligence, studying the Vedas and other philosophical scriptures with great proficiency, often surpassing men with her knowledge. One day King Janaka held a gathering, inviting all the educated sages, kings, and princes of India to participate. Janaka, also a scholar, was so impressed by the turnout of learned sages, he decided to hold a debate in search of finding a single scholar with the most knowledge about Brahman. Offering a prize of 1000 cows with golden horns, no one except sage Yajnavalkya was confident in their knowledge of the subject. Many other scholars chose not to debate with him out of uncertainty, however 8 renowned sages decided to challenge him, including Gargi, the only woman at the gathering.
Many of the competing sages debated with Yajnavalkya and asked him many philosophical questions, however his arguments were all too convincing, resulting in a loss for the sages. When it was finally Gargi’s turn to take up the challenge she questioned Yajnavalkya’s superiority, arguing repeatedly with him. She asked him everything from the status of human souls, to the environment, the universe, the origin of all existence, and the interconnectedness of the world. Upon her final question she asked him to define the world of the imperishable (Brahman). At this, he stopped her from questioning him any further and Gargi conceded to his superior knowledge. However, she still made it farther than anyone else at the debate and was Yajnavalkya’s toughest challenger to date. Being the only woman to outsmart a room full of men, she was honored as one of the 9 gems in King Janaka’s court.
As with all the pieces in this series, the point is to highlight stories of feminism and provide examples of non-stereotypical women that stood out for their unique definitions of strength in Indian mythology. This piece especially stands out because it made me reflect on how much we’ve had to fight for our rights as women. We’ve come so far from being viewed solely as child bearers and homemakers to career driven, educated women with opinions that matter and can change the world. We still have a ways to go, and there are still glass ceilings to be broken, but I hope the story of Gargi inspires you to never take no for an answer. And most importantly, never let any one make you feel that being a woman comes with limitations. If you choose to fight, you have the power to prevail and triumph.
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