Remembering 20th Century South Asian Women in Culture

Join us to celebrate International Women’s day 2025 with an online forum under the theme ‘Remembering 20th Century South Asian Women in Culture’

Date: Tuesday, 11th March 2025
Time: 4pm-6pm (Sri Lanka Standard Time)
Join via Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83580083526
Meeting ID: 835 8008 3526

This online forum will feature five women figures whose contributions and ideas helped shape the South Asian cultural landscape in the 20th Century, a period of significant social, cultural, and economic change.
The forum will feature:

INDIA
Irawati Karvé (1905-1970) – India’s first female anthropologist and known for her groundbreaking writings about Indian culture and civilization and caste system.

PAKISTAN
Noor Jahan (1926-2000) – known as Pakistan’s Queen of Melody, she is considered one of the greatest and most influential singers of her time in South Asia

NEPAL
Bishnu Kumari Waiba (1937-1993) – a leading literary figure in the 1960s and 1970s who wrote under the pen name of Parijat.

BANGLADESH
Begum Sufia Kamal (1911-1999) – poet, litterateur, social activist and feminist

SRI LANKA
Minette De Silva (1918-1998) – an internationally recognized and trailblazing Sri Lankan modernist architect

Our speakers:
• Dr. Kumud Bhansali, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, South Asian University, New Delhi, India
• Dr. Nabiha Fatima, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Social Sciences, Lahore School of Economics, Pakistan
• Prof. Sangita Rayamajhi, Senior Professor, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
• Jinat Ara Haque, Chief Executive, WE CAN Alliance to End VAW (Violence Against Women), Bangladesh
• Irushi Tennekoon, Artist, Animator, and Educator, Colombo, Sri Lanka