Top Five Inspirational Blogs For The Desi Woman
By Mahnoor Jalal
For every woman, following your ambition and goals is a challenging concept in a patriarchal society. Whether married or unmarried, women are constantly reminded to suppress their innate desires and opinions – an age old practice.
This is where online bloggers and writers come in. Written by ordinary women from ordinary backgrounds who are offering women a safe space to seek ways to challenge the boundaries the patriarchy confines them in. These women are bold, fearless, witty, observant and most of all, want to help other women seek freedom in a society which tells them they have no say.
They range from body-positive icons, travelers and the like. Their aim? To inspire the average woman to take control of her circumstances and not to allow customs and norms define her fate.
Here is a list of our favourite blogs for the desi woman!
1. Curves Become Her
One can be left feeling awe-struck by this woman’s wit, boldness and reminder to love ourselves first before allowing someone else to love us. A fierce feminist and body positive icon, the blogger comes from an academic background in Psychology and Psychotherapy. She decided to focus on blogging at the age of 30 after facing backlash from relatives about her body weight.
Her blog is incredibly eye-opening and wonderfully written. She covers issues a diverse range of topics such as mental health, plus-size fashion, issues during childhood, female empowerment and reclaiming public spaces.
2. Nabela Noor
Finding it difficult to find good makeup? Especially for brown women in a world where European beauty standards are worshipped? Nabela is a go-to inspirational beauty blogger for tips such as local beauty products available on drugstores, to excellent skin-care tips. Besides being a makeup guru, she is also a body positive icon and has at least more than 1 million followers on Instagram.
3. The Brown Hijabi
This woman ought to be on the reading tabs of every brown woman in South Asia because of how truly real she gets about life as a brown woman. She works hard everyday to ensure brown women are receiving the representation they need on a public platform.
Living in London, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan graduated with a bachelors in History from Cambridge and a PostColonial studies Masters degree from SOAS. Her blog is just a fraction of her workload, which features a diverse range of topics such as mental health, white supremacy, colonialism and much more.
Khan has written essays for newspapers such as Al-Jazeera, The Independent and The Guardian and her poem “This is not a Humanizing Poem” has gained more than 2 million views online.
4. Girl With Green Passport
For a brown woman, travelling to and fro between university/work and their home can be a hassle and tedious – even taboo. Anam challenges this concept by starting a blog in 2015 in which she offered tips and places brown women can visit locally and internationally, encouraging them to step out of their homes and reclaim public places.
With 2 million viewers, she writes about the challenges and rewards a brown woman must go through in order to visit another country, especially when you’re carrying a Pakistani passport. She’s bold, witty and her blogs will make you want to abandon everything and take the next flight out to somewhere.
5. Lakshmi Rebecca
Talk show host, writer and vlogger, Lakshmi uses her public forum to interview women in positions of power who are bringing positive changes in India. Her blog covers a variety of topics from political and economic issues, as well as women’s issues and how they can be resolved