#nishat

[lutnistas]

Nishat Garden in Srinagar ( Kashmir / India )

one-day shikara cruise on Dal Lake

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Round 1

Nishat- The Henna Wars

Eric Bittle- Check, Please!

Aline Penhallow- The Shadowhunter Chronicles

Fletcher Lane- The Rowan Harbor Cycle

Voting ended onMar 27, 2023

[lettiegrief]

"The Henna Wars" review

♥️ 10/10

⚠️ Possible spoilers

I finished The Henna Wars and my god what an incredible book. I devoured this book, in one day I read 80% of it. It has such a pleasant rhythm, the writing is so addictive, it generates so much curiosity and makes you freak out so much that it's honestly very difficult to stop reading.

This book debates cultural appropriation in a way I've never seen before. Yes, you can use art, food etc made by non-white people, no, you can't take it as your own, want to go over someone whose thing you are using/reproducing/consuming be part of that person's culture and then act as if it were just fashion, as if diversity were something just for profit, as if it wasn't part of someone's experience.

Appreciate and even utilize art from other cultures made by people from those cultures, and when someone from that culture is saying that what you're doing (without even knowing what you're doing) is cultural appropriation and racism, shut up and listen. It's not about you.

Nishat suffered racism and homophobia in a hellish way. She saw other people using her culture to win a competition and profit /while/ they were racist and violent towards her at the same time that she had to deal with her own friends saying that her discomfort was victimism and childishness. It's no wonder that she had no desire to respond to the violence, because even her own friends saw her pain as nonsense or selfishness. No one cared what she had to say, or her feelings.

I am genuinely happy to have followed the development of these people, especially Nishat's parents. Her parents, whose story made Nishat muster the courage to come out to them, but who were ashamed of their own story and didn't want Nishat to be the shame of their family like they were to hers. However, they really sought to understand, they tried hard to change their limited mindset and support their daughter.

I understand their fear of also not wanting their daughter to suffer from gossip, rejection and other violence, because I've heard my own mother say that too, but after someone brought her out to the entire school, I believe this made them start to put Nishat's safety and happiness first. And it was actually really nice to read, it reminded me of how my mother reacted to me being a lesbian.

Her reaction was the same as Flávia's mother, in fact, but the way Nishat's parents went about studying the community out of love for their daughter reminded me of my mother. It was really cute to read them worrying about what Flávia would want to eat for dinner.

As for Flávia, her development is also very good. I didn't really like how oblivious she was to the racism and bullying that Nishat suffered, it made me very uncomfortable, mainly because her cousin is precisely the person who did all this to her the most, but I believe that she improved a lot like everyone else there, she recognized her mistakes and would be someone who would continue to improve after the end of the book.

I really liked how the author addressed xenophobia against Brazilians too. I don't know if you, foreign moots, have any idea, but, as Brazil is known as the country of Carnival, Football and Funk, foreigners (mainly Americans and Europeans) end up relating these things to mess and bitching, also adding to the fact that they see us as a people incapable of forming complex thoughts (there have literally been Europeans saying that either you are Brazilian or you are a thinking being), and those who suffer most from this are women.

Latina women in general already suffer from a lot of sexism, and speaking as an afab Brazilian, I know how sexualized Brazilian women are, seen as someone who would accept anything and treated like stupid, quarrelsome bitches.

Flávia is a black, bisexual and Brazilian woman, the stereotype gets even worse with people like her.

The author portrayed this very well, she perfectly showed how much Flávia feels out of place in Ireland and uncomfortable because she is fully aware that being Brazilian makes her a very big target of sexism there, while also showing that her dual nationality makes her also have some identity crisis.

The characters in this book will definitely remind you of at least one person you knew in real life, and I think it's impossible for you not to identify with anything there or not feel welcomed/represented.

[an-theduckin]

Just a lil doodle of Nishat and Flávia from Henna Wars!

[ultramilous]

“This is one of those moments that I want to bottle up and keep with me forever. Not because it's extraordinary, or because it's the kind of thing you would find in a Bollywood movie.

But because it's the kind of moment I could never have dreamed of having in a million years.”

‘The Henna Wars’ by Adiba Jaigirdar

[vivienneodusanya]

so what is this book about? it's the story of Nishat, a girl of Bengali origin who lives in Ireland. she's a closeted lesbian -- only her loving sister, Priti, knows of her sexuality. she decides to come out to her parents after a wedding because she doesn't want her parents to have similar conventional expectations from her due to her sexuality. Her conservative parents don’t take it particularly well, and deduce that Nishat’s sexuality is probably a ‘phase’ and that it’s a consequence of her being bought up in Ireland, which is more liberal in its gay laws than Bangladesh, their home country, where being gay is punishable by death. on top of this, Flávia, Nishat’s childhood crush, makes a comeback after having left their school a few years before. Nishat realises that her feelings for Flávia -- a biracial Brazilian-Irish girl -- haven’t subsided. a business competition is announced in their class, and both decide to set up henna stalls -- Nishat wants to do it because it’s a part of her culture and something that gives her solace, while Flávia and her cousin Chyna ( the latter had spread racist rumours about Nishat ) want to do it because it’s ‘trendy’ and to paraphrase Flávia -- because it’s all art and art doesn’t have boundaries. Or does it ? what do I think of this story ? it is a very beautiful, honest story. normally, i wouldn’t have liked Nishat’s character - she remains aloof on the goings-on of her sister and friends, despite them being involved in her life; a quality which usually turns me off. but this is just part of her character arc, and Adiba Jaigirdar rendered Nishat’s character in a manner that i loved Nishat from the very beginning, all the same. she’s got problems; she’s afraid-- to paraphrase Nishat herself -- that she can be anything that she wants to be except herself. she’s scared that no one except her sister is really going to accept her, and in such circumstances, i could understand why Nishat would be anxious about her future. she also had a great sense of humour and her more serious internal monologues really made me want to protect her soft heart. i loved that this book also raised the problem of cultural appropriation and why it’s so wrong. i loved that Nishat had a strong, firm relationship with her sister and that they listen to each other and accept each other so wholly. I loved that the romance did not completely take a lead over Nishat’s other relationships -- her best friends help her on her journey as a better person along with her sister. I loved the descriptions that Nishat gives of her culture -- she’s not embarrassed by it; she embraces it but at the same time is tentative of the reaction of fellow white students to her culture, a culture she clearly holds so dear to her. I loved that Adiba Jaigirdar called out the hypocrisy of those who toe every other line in religion but are selective when it comes to matters like sexuality.  i also loved the realistic banter between Nishat and Priti. not to mention the love story itself, which was one of the cutest I've ever read. there were some predictable turns the story took and the ending seemed to be like too much of a fairytale , but what the hell, I still loved it. The story as a whole was very endearing and I hope that I can see more stories like this in the future. Thank you, Adiba Jaigirdar, for writing a story so endearing and adorable, yet so thoughtful.

[ the edit on top after the book cover was made by me lmao ]

[firelady]

@diversenet event one: intersectionality >> nishat, the henna wars

So maybe - just maybe - they can accept this other form of love that blooms in my chest sometimes when I see Deepika Padukone in a Bollywood movie, and not when I see her male love interest.

[petiterusk]

she didnt expect an answer.

i have new space lesbians OCs and i i wont hesitate to draw them. you may know the green one from my previous drawing. also it’s a big canvas so maybe just click here - it will be easier to see.