Tell us about yourself and why you started a page about faith and mental health. I’m a Muslim Psychologist. This page is about an integration of faith and mental health as both are extremely important […]
Sholay & Slanguages: Kitne dialogues hai – in popular culture?
In 2020 Ramesh Sippy’s superhit film Sholay turns forty-five. The journal of South Asian Popular Culture have called for papers and presentations to be submitted for its one day symposium at Birmingham City University. Academics […]
MannMukti on Mental Health
Tell us about MannMukti and what prompted you to start the organisation? In the fall of 2015, I lost my childhood best friend to mental illness. I felt that what he went through could’ve […]
Interview: Surviving Marital Rape
On July 15th 2019 Mandeep Hayre shared her experience of trauma incited by sexual violence. In a powerful twitter thread Mani (her preferred name) owned her voice and story by calling out her rapist – her […]
Mental Health and Race: Dr. Tina Mistry
There is a lack of research on Black and Minority Ethnic/BME mental health and the ways in which the health care system is set up and challenged by some of the issues that arise from […]
Surviving male suicide as a loved one
This blog comes with a trigger warning. For the second entry in the mental health blog series I interview a South Asian man who tragically lost a family member to suicide and shortly after falls […]
Psychotherapist Aman Chohan discusses motherhood & mental health
Welcome to Part 1 of my ‘Mental Health’ blog series. This first entry is about understanding parental mental health and in particular that of a new mum who happens to work in the mental health […]
Slanguages, Hip-Hop a Russian Play, Punjabi Poetry and Oxford University
Oxford University hosted ‘Poetry in Motion’ last month at Wolfson College to academics, students, artists and creatives as part of their four-year-long research project Creative Multilingualism. Creative Multilingualism investigates the rich interdisciplinary connections between language, linguistic […]
Interview: Is there a denial of caste discrimination in India?
Since researching caste studies and sharing those findings on my social media pages I have learnt much about the experiences of my followers through online interactions. Initially I experienced a strong reluctance from people in […]
Faraz Arif Ansari on Filmmaking & Queer Identity
Faraz Arif Ansari is an Indian filmmaker and the director of Sisak, India’s first silent LGBT film. I came across his work at the first British Asian LGBT conference held in Birmingham in the UK […]
Muslim and Gay
I interviewed British Pakistani Muslim Adil Khan just weeks after he had come out to his friends and family about being gay. Adil was somewhat tense yet animated as he recounted his experiences and told […]
Script Editor Naz Ahmed on defying the odds
MY JOURNEY AS A CREATIVE WOMAN WHO DEFYED THE ODDS… As with any journey, I guess one should start right at the very beginning. So, nearly thirty years ago, I remember telling someone about my […]
Interview: Kapil Seshasayee launches his first music album on the caste system
Kapil Seshasayee is a Scottish Indian artist and musician who is releasing his first music album “A Sacred Bore” on September 14th. Kapil was born in Tamil Nadu India and moved to Scotland when he […]
First British Asian LGBT conference is held in Birmingham
The first British Asian LGBT conference was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on Saturday 28th July. Organiser’s Khakan Qureshi, Siddhi Joshi and Peta Cooper rallied together a team of LGBT activists, doctors, academics and allies […]
Virginity testing, Immigration and the brown female body in 1970s Britain
1970s Britain for South Asian immigrant women reflects a dark and institutionally racist past. Britain held a secret. One that the Home Office attempted to conceal until an article written by a Guardian journalist named Melanie […]