Across South Asia, women have long been told to stay silent. Across South Asia, women have been resisting and fighting back in different ways.

Elaha Soroor and Sadaf Saaz are two such powerful women who use music, writing, poetry and performance to reclaim that voice and resist patriarchy and authoritarianism. Soroor, who’s an Afghan-Hazara singer, composer and activist, was born in Iran to refugee parents, rose to prominence on the Afghan TV talent show, and is now based in London, where she continues to create music that fuses Afghan folk traditions with feminist messages. Saaz is a Bangladeshi poet, writer and performer who was born and raised in the UK before settling in Dhaka, where she became one of the country’s leading feminist literary voices through her poetry collection Sari Reams. In this episode, we speak to them about how they use their work to confront patriarchy, religious fundamentalism, censorship and more.

Image Credit: Elaha Soroor's Facebook and Dhaka Sessions on YouTube

Produced by: Dashran Yohan

Presented by: Dashran Yohan

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Categories:  culture,  Women in Business,  performing arts,  Literature/Philosophy,  music,  History/Heritage,  Law/Activism

Tags:  south asian women,  poetry,  music,  patriarchy,  religious fundamentalism,