Talk & Performance – We, Mahila: Mahila Zine as an Alternative Space
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10.04.2024
Manmeet Sandhu, TSAI Ping Ju and LI Kuei-Pi
Mahila is a word borrowed from the Hindi language and in English can be translated as woman, lady or adult female human. But when spoken in the context of Indian society, the word mahila may take on a number of connotations depending on the particular social construct; the essential denotation may however remain the same, i.e., female human. It is also a word that is used in public across the country especially to denote the category of females. Seats assigned for women on a DTC/ government buses or Metro train in Delhi are labelled as Mahilaon ke liye; women queue up at the gates assigned for Mahila for security checks at airports; public women’s restrooms also have the Mahila sign. We are not oblivious to the sarcasm and the blind standardization that come along with the conventional usage of the word; in fact, it is this discontentment that leaves a lot of room for satire, humor, and exaggeration.
The zine is a space where we can articulate our experiences stretching from private and personal to social and conceptual. These stories are told with a witty, tongue-in-cheek approach, but not necessarily in a roll-on-the-floor-laughing way. We feel this name fits the collection of our visual narratives, which are women oriented and created by women artists. The stories range from at times drawing and analyzing the ‘everyday’, to observing the altering roles of women in the urban milieu (from domestic to professional, sexual to social, emotional to economical), reflecting upon individual experiences and opinions of/as women, to shouting out for gender equality and exploring the intersectional connecting us through gender, class, and race.