Speakers: Ashmina Ranjit, Tasneem Al-Sultan, Tayeba Begum Lipi
Moderated by Tanvi Mishra

The feminist voice has received far ranging criticism and censorship, as long as the movement began – whether in activism or art practice. We see numerous examples of this in visual art and writing. Going back to one of the earliest written works of feminism, Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’ (1949), a seminal text related to the movement, which was at the time regarded as controversial, pornographic and even deemed as one of the ‘forbidden texts’ by the Vatican. One of the cornerstones of feminism is gender equality and the feminist movement in art has sought to raise questions of a socio-political nature, beyond the mere aestheticization of the image. This panel seeks to explore the notions of censorship, challenges and fears that may surround the work of these female artists. What is it about the feminist voice that poses such a threat to the outsider? When is it that a work is deemed as feminist? What has been the response of the three artists to the vastly different political and cultural conditions of their respective countries, namely Bangladesh, Nepal and Saudi Arabia? Does alternate and new media free an artist from the burden of historically male-dominated precedents like that in painting and sculpture?