The Rights Collective Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Rights Collective Podcast
A podcast which seeks to vocalise the lived experiences within the British South Asian community, brought to you by The Rights Collective - a community of South Asian women tackling inequality within the diaspora.
In our eighth and final podcast episode of this season, Habiba Akhter from The Rights Collective is joined by Tasnima Uddin, a writer and campaigner with interests across race, gender, abolition and citizenship. She is the co-founder of Nijjor Manush, an advocacy group for British Bangladeshis in the UK, as well as leading the Assam Project at international human rights organisation, Restless Beings. Together, Tasnima and Habiba discuss the linkages between faith and activism, the need for community-focused organising and the importance of speaking on and acknowledging history away from broad identity labels.
In our seventh episode, Inaya Hussain from the Rights Collective is joined by Pritt - an emerging R&B artist from South London. By coupling R&B beats with traditional Carnatic melisma, and using her experiences as a Tamil woman to subvert stereotypes through her songs, Pritt’s music takes on an ‘Eastern meets Western’ stand both musically and lyrically. In this episode, Pritt shares her personal experiences navigating identity, balancing duty & passion, and redefining what community means to her.
In our sixth podcast episode, Inaya Hussain from The Rights Collective is joined by Meera Ghani, a facilitator and community builder who has been working with various NGOs on climate change and human rights for twenty years. Meera shares her experiences working in activist and environmental spaces both in and outside of the diaspora, as well as her journey in cultivating a #cultureofcare, which she describes as the antidote to systems of violence, where wellbeing, care and love are central to survival.
In our fifth podcast episode Inaya Hussain from The Rights Collective is joined by Armeghan Taheri who - alongside being a writer, editor, publisher and essayist - curates and runs online magazine, What’s Afghan Punk Rock Anyway?, a collection of works exploring taboos which affect the Afghan diaspora. Armeghan shares her own experiences with identity and delves into the intricacies of love and politics, and how they manifest into her everyday life.
In our fourth episode, Inaya Hussain is joined by Almass Badat- a director, DJ and strategist from London who uses art to inspire introspection, embrace fearlessness and to unlock multi-potentialism. Almass shares her journey with her identity - from Lusaka to London to India - and her acceptance of self through spirituality and connection with her heritage.
In our third episode, Inaya Hussain is joined by Taimour Fazlani - a mental health advocate who started off as a young writer at Media Diversified. He is now the founder of Expert By Experience (EBE) - a volunteer-led multi-media platform dedicated to looking at mental health in South Asian communities from an intersectional and critical lens. Taimour shares how his experiences as a working-class immigrant have shaped the ways in which he engages with activism and mental health within South Asian spaces.
In our second episode, Inaya Hussain speaks to The Rights Collective’s co-founder and director, Nishma Jethwa. A lawyer by training, Nishma now works across the anti-oppression and social justice spaces in both London and Mumbai, with a focus on gendered oppression and transformative forms of justice and healing. She shares how her upbringing and experience as a British Indian woman have informed how she engages in community and activist work.
Show notes can be found here.
In our first episode, Chandrima Ganguly speaks to disability specialist and gender equality advocate, Shani Dhanda. Born with a brittle bone condition, Shani has founded the Asian Network Disability, the Diversability card and the Asian Woman Festival. She shares how her Sikh upbringing, advocacy for universal accessibility and passion for raising the voices of South Asian women has shaped her identity.
Show notes can be found here.