Zara Suhail Mannan is Shana’s guest on this week’s episode of Her Kajal Won’t Smudge. Zara studied English at Yale University. After Yale, she could have sought out the best-paying corporate job she could have found, but instead Zara returned to Pakistan to teach at an all-boys underprivileged school. By day, she taught, presenting as a man, and mentored young boys and, by night, she was one-half of a glittery, sparkly, pop band called Mystical Shayari. It all came to a head when Mystical Shayiri did a photoshoot, glammed up, in front of a monument to the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah. 

Next came  online trolling, death threats, arrest, TV shaming and more. But what Zara has won in the process is truly a testament to the force that she is. Let’s just say, she set the record straight about what it means to be a Pakistani and she continues to live this activism through Kitab Ghar, a public library truly open to all. 

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CREDITS:

Host and Creative Director: Shana 

Head of Visual Design: Minal Jadeja

Visual Designers: Akshat Agarwal, Shaumik Kanvinde

This is a Maed in India production

Head of Production: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Ruchi Sawardekar

Junior Producer: Quoyina Ghosh

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni, Lakshman Parsuram, Nihar Temkar