Shweta R Manian

Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President, and eight others, including Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, died in a helicopter crash on May 19. As Iran mourns its President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials killed in a helicopter crash, the world, particularly the middle east and the west is closely watching the aftermath and the implications on geopolitics in and around Iran. The timing : It was obvious from the get go given the nature of the accident, endless speculations are bound to fly across all over the internet. Especially at the time of an ongoing war between Israel- Gaza with Raisi openly expressing his support to Hamas and its brutal attacks. Any consequences outside of Iran will depend entirely on who Iran  blames  for the crash, rightly or wrongly.  Domestically, Iran wasn’t doing much well either. There had been a significant increase in protests and rebellion against the regime for its treatment of women, amongst other huma...

  source: google images During our teenage years, we would have come across this phrase a lot and most of us actually would have actually felt good hearing this; even I did at some point. But once we got a taste of the real world in our adulthood, a lot of us realized how toxic and cringe this is. To put it in simple words, this phenomenon goes against the stereotypes that are considered feminine by the society (mostly heterosexual men) - makeup, fashion, fitness and so on. Some of us girls who don’t fit into this so called stereotype try to separate ourselves from the rest of the female population and hence consider ourselves “Not Like Other Girls”. Nowadays, this is what you call being ‘quirky’. As much as we loved this trend in the beginning and used to think we were cool for not being ‘girly’, this trend has hidden internalized misogyny all over it. Considering yourself more cool and 'swag' for not putting on make-up while attacking other women for doing the same and th...

  Just this morning, I got to know through one of my friends about the passing away of  photojournalist Danish Siddiqui in the line of duty. I didn't exactly remember who he was until I saw one his photographs covering the Covid-19 phase and the Delhi Anti-CAA riots in New Delhi, India and recognized quickly.  His photographs delivered a devastating impact with an unspeakable language. His Images were beautiful (not in a good way) and grotesque, capable of making anyone numb and emotional. He tried showing us a struggling side of humanity that many of us ignored and still continue to do so. He showed us a dystopian reality that unfortunately, we are moving towards. When we were all worried about whether we will be able to continue with the postponed trip or attend that friend's wedding or how badly we wanted to this pandemic to end while sitting under concrete, air-conditioned roofs and scrolling through our smartphones, his photographs crushed all the privilege and ignor...