#Sarah Khan interviews

[govtjobme]

Sarah Khan Biography | Wiki, Career, Photos & More

Renowned Pakistani actress Sarah Khan is well-known for her roles in dramas on television. She started her acting career in the early 2010s and received popularity for her various performances. She was born on January 22, 1992, in Karachi, Pakistan. In 2012, Khan made her screen debut in the drama “Bari Aapa,” which launched a lucrative career. Her parts in well-known plays like “Mohabbat Subh Ka Sitara Hai,” “Kaisi Terii Khudgarzi,” and “Raqs-e-Bismil” have earned her praise. Khan has gained both a devoted fan base and critical acclaim for her captivating performance and magnetic persona. In addition to her acting profession, she is well-known for her social problem campaigning and charitable work. Sarah Khan is still a prominent figure in Pakistan’s entertainment sector, and her influential work has helped it to expand and become more diverse.

[girlactionfigure]

ISRAEL REALTIME - erev Shabbat parshat Chaya Sarah ✡️

"Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

🔻NORTHERN ALERT… 12:08.   Residents in Raon, Avivim and Dobb are asked to stay near a protected area.

▪️HOSTAGES… Oren Goldin, a father of two young children, who was believed to be kidnapped by Hamas, was just declared dead.  The delay?  Bodies are still being found, and others badly damaged still being identified.  May Hashem avenge his blood.

▪️ISRAELI HACKERS TAKE DOWN INTERNET IN YEMEN… Multiple reports this morning that the internet was down in Yemen.  The Red Evils - Israeli black-hat hacking team: “We managed to bring down the entire internet throughout the country of Yemen and disconnected over 10 million people from the internet. We managed to hack the primary Yemen communication provider and take info on hundreds of thousands of users. The next blow is tougher.  We will continue to act and together we will win.”

▪️IDF IN GAZA… IDF D-9 bulldozers have reached the outskirts of Shifa Hospital.  Israeli tanks are encircling Shifa hospital and Israel is demanding the evacuation of the hospital, to which the director says ‘will not leave’.

▪️IDF NAVY… enemy channels: 18 fishing boats were destroyed in the attack on the marina in Khan Yunis.

▪️LEBANON ACTIVITY… Reports of anti-tank fire at a military position on the northern border.  Lebanese channels: Israel is attacking in the area of Meiss Ej Jabal in southern Lebanon.

▪️HAMAS SAYS… The official channels of Hamas, especially that of the military branch, tell lies about dozens of weapons that they destroy for the IDF every day. These lies are echoed by Arab media outlets that support Hamas (as well as other major ones) and create a different picture for their consumers.  Senior Hamas officials also claim in interviews with the media that the IDF has not advanced at all since the ground entry, but only occupied "soft areas" that have no military significance. The photos of the Israeli tanks in the Netzer neighborhood this morning and near A-Ranteesi Hospital are shaking Gazans on social networks.

▪️EILAT - IRANIAN BLOGGER SAYS… An Iranian blogger who specializes in the military of the Shia axis:  The suicide drone that fell yesterday in the city of Eilat is the Shahad 101 long distance UAV made in Iran.  This UAV could have arrived in Eilat from either Iraq, Yemen or Syria.

▪️IDF OFFERS BOUNTIES… flyers are being shared with the IDF offering bounties for information, particularly for locations of Hamas leadership and hostage info.  Sources in the Arab media and indicate the cooperation of thousands of Gazans with the IDF in handing over locations of Hamas forces, locations of tunnels and IDF warehouses and launch sites.  The sources report that, most of the information transmitters do not demand money but safe passage for them and their families.

[galbadiaedeakramer-blog]

“Wesker loves Claire.”

Starting off our Clesker evidence is none other than Richard Waugh, who graced the RE fandom with his sexy, cunning, and honey voice laced with deception, Albert Wesker. Providing his voice from 2000 to 2005, Waugh captured the essence of Wesker perfectly and became a fan favorite. Having no prior knowledge of the character, his "Shere Khan" Wesker, to which some of the fans joked about it sounding like Bowie. The RE fanbase was giddy for anything close to Wesker, Richard Waugh took part in a few fan events and interviews. One, in particular, took place in 2011 by Project Umbrella, years after Capcom replaced him as Wesker. https://www.projectumbrella.net/richard-waugh-interview-project-umbrella.html

With an interesting question below.

RW: "I'm afraid I am a little biased. Claire is a favorite."

In 2017, on the Crimson Head Elder podcast, which interviewed Alyson Court (Claire) and Leila Johnson (Alexia) was suddenly interrupted by a special guest. Which was none other than Richard Waugh.

https://youtu.be/zJaD5cNrqLg

Shocking the podcast hosts, and it eventually became an Alexia/Claire/Wesker interview lol. (@31:46) The interview goes on, and they questioned Waugh about his performance as Albert Wesker, with Alyson fangirling in the background. All this leads to Waugh being asked about Wesker's obsession with Chris, and Claire being mentioned (smirk) (39:54)

RW: "Yeah, his obsession with Chris is really odd to me, but I'm obsessed with Claire just because of Alyson. I don't understand the obsession with Chris."

Host 2: "I think Wesker's infatuation with Claire is that he really likes her."

Rw: "Yes, absolutely. I think he's in love with her, that's what I decided.

Queen Alyson: "That's what I decided too. I am so cool to go with this fanfiction. It's sort of like a Hannibal Lecter/ Clarice Starling pairing. Yeah, I always wanted to explore that aspect, but then I guess with what they did with the Wesker character, it went in a VERY DIFFERENT direction. But I'm just saying there could be some fan spinoff."

So we have Hannibal Lecter/Clarice Starling and another dynamic being mentioned, starting at 47:12.

RW: I was going with Shere Khan from Jungle Book with a kind of Bowie from Labyrinth thing as a side thing. Then it suddenly became, "Well, he's doing David Bowie." Well, I sound nothing like David Bowie. I wasn't doing David Bowie. I was doing George Sanders, and it was to me a risk when I first presented it to Susan. It was just me taking a shot at ultimate evil. All I knew was the name of the guy, that the thing was called Resident Evil or Biohazard in Japan. That's all I knew, so there was a freedom to that, and I took my shot. With Susan and the people from Capcom liked it, and it went from there.

After the interviewer sums up and agrees with Waugh on him sounding like Shere Khan, Queen Alyson adds to that. (LOVE HER)

QAC: Oh it totally makes sense, like you're blowing my mind here because it makes so much sense. I get the dynamic even more so with the Labyrinth comparison, and not so much the voice. Because again, you're right, you don't end up sounding like Bowie, but that dynamic between Claire and Wesker. It has several aspects of the playfulness where he's sort of teasing her. "Oh, you silly little girl." And she's kinda this plaything he's intrigued by, and that makes so much sense. With the Shere Khan thing, when you first said that it was instantly, that's brilliant and also now I want to hear you play Shere Khan."

For those not familiar with Labyrinth, its a movie about a magical prince name Jareth who kidnaps the brother of a young girl named Sarah. Who wishes for her younger brother to disappear forever. Jareth becomes obsessed with Sarah and this person summed it up perfectly.

https://screenrant.com/labyrinth-things-no-sense-jareth-david-bowie-character/

“For a guy so obsessed with a girl, Jareth has a funny way of showing it. He tosses a snake at her, he mocks her, and he does everything to demonstrate how little faith he has in her abilities. It's almost as if he's grooming her for a lifelong career as his subservient bride, creating a need for his approval in every deed she does.

Even if that's too dark an assessment for some, it still doesn't make sense to torment someone that you're simultaneously wooing. In the novelization, Jareth pursues Sarah even harder, and even attempts to kiss her at one point.”

In the end Sarah gains her own strength and walks away from the goblin king. Defeating him in the end, its a total 80′s movie if you decide to watch it.

Now with that out of the way, our dear Waugh took part in another interview by Crimson Head Elder.

https://youtu.be/IGuRnVcBdRs

The interview is hilarious and seemed Waugh had a lot of fun. We learn a few things about Waugh and how he created one of the best voices for Wesker. I hope they bring him back for Remake 4, because he's just perfect.

Enough fangirling, the interview goes on and eventually leads to one podcaster mentioning how Chris told Wesker he was acting like a comic book villain (lol). Which leads to this wonderful and funny exchange. (@54:23)

Host 2: "Well, Chris did say that Wesker was acting like a comic book villain at the final battle.(Re5)

RW: Yeah well, Chris is a dick. Wesker loves Claire. Yep.

Host 2: You heard it here folks, he confirmed it.

RW: Have you ever dated a girl who got a brother, and she goes on and on about how great her brother is? I have, and I hated her brother. I initially liked her brother, but when I finished dating her, I couldn't stand her brother. She was always like, "My brother would never say that. My brother will pick us up. My brother would, etc etc". (fanart idea)

Host 1: Well, that's the thing. If you and Claire ever get together, the subject of Chris would have to be a topic.

RW: Yeah, a hot topic, he only comes over for thanksgiving, and that's it.

Host 1: Is he going to get an invitation to the wedding?

RW: No he can be at the wedding, but as the relationship continues, he gets one dinner a year. Let's say Thanksgiving, and not even a good one.

Host 2: I can just imagine Chris all tied up and gagged (smirk). So Chris can just stay there and shut up, and with Wesker like “Uh huh, that's your place boy. Be quiet!!!"

Host 1: Well Richard, we won't put him at the main table with you and Claire we-

RW: We can put him at the kid's table!! Yeah.

Hilarious and the final dose for Waugh backing the pairing. (at 59:35)

Host 1: Biohazard Valkyrie and she asks, "When Capcom didn't cast you in RE5 and ultimately killed the character at the end of the game. The series really lost a part of itself and Capcom slowly has been trying to recapture that since. You were Wesker! How would you like for Wesker's fate to have played out? World Domination, death by rocket, or settling down with Claire?

Host 2: Ohhhhh we know this answer.

RW: Well, he's going to settle down with Claire eventually, but the world domination can work in there. That can be, you know, "World domination..... then settle down."

Host 1: That's like his to-do list on his fridge.

RW: Yes, exactly.

One of the best answers from Waugh and the hosts lol (someone draw that lol)

With that being said, we come to the end of Waugh's approval of the pairings (so far). If there is more that's hidden, I will gladly add it to the folder. Right now I'm trying to find all of Alyson's mentions and approval of the pairing. Until the CVX remake, we have to make do with this. I know it's early, and the tags might be empty. But some of us are setting up the party early for the floodgates of new content with the remake.

[bermudianabroad]

2023 Reading Roundup

Everything what I read in 2023

I read a whole bunch.

Heartily Recommend Visceral Bleh Reread *Audiobook*

Fiction

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (where is the fucking humidity in your swamp, Delia??)

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

Lot by Bryan Washington

Mr. Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

Trust by Hernan Diaz

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell (but everyone is called Thomas)

Verity by Colleen Hoover (awful but wacky and hilariously awful)

Katalin Street by Magda Szabo

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Animorphs #24 The Suspicion by KA Applegate (a trip)

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

The Island of Forgetting by Jasmine Sealy

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

The Trio by Johanna Hedman

At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge

Silence by Shusaku Endo

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Babel by RF Kuang (was so disappointed by this one)

The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld

Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen

The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles by Giorgio Bassani

Must I Go by Yiyun Li

The 1,000 Year Old Boy by Ross Welford

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

Memphis by Tara M Stringfellow

The Whirlpool by Jane Urquhart

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

A Country of Eternal Light by Paul Dalgarno

Yellowface by RF Kuang

The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani

The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

Game Misconduct by Ari Baran

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (sorry Naomi :/ )

The Foot of the Cherry Tree by Ali Parker

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Matrix by Lauren Groff

The Twilight World by Werner Herzog

Wild by Kristen Hannah

*The Fraud by Zadie Smith*

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

This Other Eden by Paul Harding

The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham (weirdly, one of the best depictions of a marriage I’ve read)

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abdulhawa

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht

Animorphs: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles by KA Applegate

Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

Animorphs #13 The Change by KA Applegate

Animorphs #14 The Unknown by KA Applegate

Animorphs #20 The Discovery by KA Applegate (snuck in two more under the wire… #20 is when shit REALLY kicks off. From there it gets darker and darker).

Poetry

Black Cat Bone by John Burnside

Women of the Harlen Renaissance (Anthology) by Various

The Analog Sea Review no. 4 by Various

The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

Non-Fiction

Besieged: Life Under Fire on a Sarajevo Street by Barbara Demick

Atlas of Abandoned Places by Oliver Smith

Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews

City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth Century London by Vic Gatrell

The Lazarus Heist: From Hollywood to High Finance by Geoff White (fully available as a podcast)

The Entangling Net: Alaska’s Commercial Fishing Women Tell Their Stories by Leslie Leyland Fields (very niche but fascinating. Transcribed interviews)

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir by Lamya H.

Freedom by Margaret Atwood (just excerpts from novels repackaged)

*Born a Crime by Trevor Noah* (Noah’s narration is superb)

The Slavic Myths by Noah Charney and Svetlana Slapšak (was expecting stories, but it was mostly academic essays)

Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels

Safe Area Goražde by Joe Sacco

The Way of the House-Husband, vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono

SAGA vol. 1-6 by Fiona Staples and Brian K Vaughan

Top of the Top:

Born a Crime was probably my favourite non ficition, and most of that probably is due to Trevor Noah's narration skills. It was very entertaining and heartfelt.

Less uplifting but just as gripping in a different way was Empire of Pain. Excellent book that went deep into the why and what and hows of Purdue Pharma. Anger inducing.

Lazarus Heist is great and available as a podcast. The book is more or less the podcast word for word.

Fictionwise: I read Trust at the start of the year and it was a bit soon to declare as favourite of the year, but it's stil made the final cut. Just very imaginative and intriguing. Just my kind of MetaFiction. Clever without being cleverclever.

Demon Copperhead I read right off the back of Empire of Pain so maybe that coloured my experience. I've not read any Dickens so loads of references no doubt flew past me, but the language was acrobatic and zingy. I loved it.

Wrapped up the year on a high with North Woods. That was so unexpected and entertaining. Again with the playful language, memorable characters and a unique approach to tying all the various stories together. One that sticks in the mind and makes the writer in me wonder how I can replicate his style (with my own personal twist of course.)

[peoplesing]

[ look down, look down, upon your fellow man! ]

PITIÉ, PITIÉ, POUR TOUS CEUX QUI N'ONT RIEN!

an independent mixed-media multimuse roleplay blog, by doe. originally established june 16th, 2022. currently under construction. see old information here.

mobile muse list under the cut.

main blog: @swede.

pinterest.⠀inbox prompts.

musicals and literature and movies ( mostly )

queen titania, a midsummer night's dream

puck, a midsummer night's dream

king oberon, a midsummer night's dream

'count' vladimir popov, anastasia

anya, anastasia ( imposter oc )

dmitri sudayev, anastasia

alice liddell, alice's adventures in wonderland

the mad hatter, alice's adventures in wonderland

betelgeuse, beetlejuice

miss argentina, beetlejuice

barbara maitland, beetlejuice

adam maitland, beetlejuice

delia deetz, beetlejuice

charles deetz, beetlejuice

countess carmilla karnstein, carmilla

laura blackwood, carmilla

velma kelly, chicago

roxie hart, chicago

lucy westenra, dracula

mina murray, dracula

elizabeth lavenza, frankenstein

persephone, hadestown and greek myth

hades, hadestown and greek myth

demeter, hadestown and greek myth

eurydice, hadestown and greek myth

orpheus, hadestown and greek myth

ophelia, hamlet

veronica sawyer, heathers

heather chandler, heathers

jason dean, heathers

claudia, interview with the vampire

meg giry, le fantôme de l'opéra

madame giry, le fantôme de l'opéra

erik / the phantom, le fantôme de l'opéra

la sorelli, le fantôme de l'opéra

little jammes, le fantôme de l'opéra

raoul, le vicomte de chagny, le fantôme de l'opéra

the daroga / nadir khan, le fantôme de l'opéra

éponine thénardier, les misérables

azelma thénardier, les misérables

gavroche thénardier, les misérables

fantine, les misérables

cosette fauchelevent, les misérables

enjolras, les misérables

marius pontmercy, les misérables

jean valjean, les misérables

inspector javert, les misérables

montparnasse, les misérables

donna sheridan, mamma mia!

sophie sheridan, mamma mia!

wendy darling, peter pan

peter pan, peter pan

tinker bell, peter pan

elizabeth swann, pirates of the caribbean

juliet capulet, romeo and juliet

romeo montague, romeo and juliet

lucy barker, sweeney todd: the demon barber of fleet street

johanna barker, sweeney todd: the demon barber of fleet street

bella swan, twilight

edward cullen, twilight

esme cullen, twilight

comics and mcu / decu

doctor harleen quinzel / harley quinn, detective comics

cleo cazo / ratcatcher 2, dceu

raven / rachel roth, detective comics

natalia romanova / black widow, marvel comics

peter parker / spider-man, mcu-adjacent

michelle jones / mj, mcu-adjacent

loki, mcu-adjacent, norse myth

thor, mcu-adjacent, norse myth

sigyn, mcu-adjacent, norse myth

sif, mcu-adjacent, norse myth

ramona flowers, scott pilgrim vs the world

fairytales, disney, animation, horror, misc

ella tremaine, into the woods and cinderella

the baker's wife / sarah, into the woods

rapunzel's prince, into the woods

emily,  corpse bride

victoria everglot,  corpse bride

victor van dort,  corpse bride

edward scissorhands,  edward scissorhands

kim boggs, edward scissorhands

anna of arendelle,  frozen

elsa of arendelle,  frozen

sophie hatter,  howl’s moving castle

the beauty, la belle et la bête

the beast, la belle et la bête

san,   princess mononoke

eloise turner, last night in soho

rapunzel,   into the woods and rapunzel

aurora, sleeping beauty

arielle,   original interpretation of the little mermaid

clara stahlbaum, the nutcracker

dorothy gale, the wizard of oz

morticia addams,  the addams family

wednesday addams, the addams family

fester addams,  the addams family

sabrina spellman,  the chilling adventures of sabrina

prudence night,   the chilling adventures of sabrina

princess brea,  the dark crystal:  age of resistance

sally finkelstein,  the nightmare before christmas

shock,  the nightmare before christmas

thomasin,  the witch

nadja of antipaxos,  what we do in the shadows

original characters

lenore blackwood ( mute medium oc, ask for more info )

miss louisa ( living porcelain doll oc, ask for more info )

[gsasustainability]

t u r n i n g s: writings on residency

Lucy Rose Cunningham, MLitt Curatorial Practice at GSA

Sustaining sites of discussion, my work is a form of durational attentiveness. Through enabling time and space for conversations I forge close relations to practitioners; curating as a mode of learning from one another, of reflection and re-consideration.

Earlier this year I interned at Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, assisting in the running of the artist residencies there and learning more about such programmes. This period of work and active research, combined with being in residence previously at Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire, led to the production of my publication t u r n i n g s, designed in collaboration with Glasgow-based illustrator Saffa Khan.

t u r n i n g s seeks intimate encounters with artists and curators across the UK, to explore the open-ended notion of ‘residency.’ Through a combination of prose, poetry and interviews, co-authors Lily Lavorato, Eliza Coulson, Ruth Dorber, Cicely Farrer, Dr Sarah Forrest and Alexia Holt address hosting; connectivity; precarity in the arts and housing today; access and positioning oneself beyond familiar environs. This piece of collective research holds regard for what ‘residency’ might mean for people, and how spaces of reflection and communing can enable sustenance of both practices and wellbeing; interdisciplinary learning and outcomes; and cross-organisational relations.

The publication’s launch was celebrated this August at Glasgow’s Woodlands Community Gardens, a space of growth and community building echoing the publication as a site of dialogue and attentiveness. The launch featured an introduction to the project, followed by readings from contributors Eliza Coulson and Dr Sarah Forrest, inviting the audience to consider different approaches to ‘residency’ - residency as a reckoning with afforded time and space; as a connection or confrontation; a home-body. Residency as an object or feeling to bring, to hold, shaped something like a leisure centre, a bolt of energy, a waiting book - each page to inhabit and turn - together. 

by publication convener and editor Lucy Rose Cunningham,

MLitt Curatorial Practice at GSA

[mr-divabetic]

undefined

Sisters Crystal Wilson Blackmon and Penni Wilson, the singer-songwriter duo known as  Crystal Penny, have released a new song, “Standards,” a timeless R&B tune brought to life by their trademark vocal harmonies, an engaging melody and lyrics that praise the legendary divas of soul music.

Already embraced by UK audiences, Crystal Penny’s new single is a follow-up to their original soul classic recordings (performed under the group name The Lovations) that have gone viral and will be available on all music app platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon starting April 21, 2023.

The core sentiment of their new single is a celebration of the Queens of the Quiet Storm. Many of these legendary ladies’ personal and professional journeys hit close to home to the Wilson sisters. “The women mentioned in the song are our icons,” says Crystal Blackmon Wilson. “We grew up listening to Sarah Vaughan and idolized Etta James and Dionne Warwick. These women inspired us to sing in the first place.”

Crystal and Penni understand how love songs affect the way we love, live, and interact with one another. “Our favorite vocalists express the grand illusion of what love should be and what we should feel,” Penni adds.  “We hear it on the radio and strive to find it in our lives.”

Standards’ catchy hook is a list of famous divas’ names, including Etta James, Sarah Vaughn, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Chaka Khan, Phyllis Hyman, and Patti LaBelle. These women taught higher standards of romance to generations of Quiet Storm listeners.

Discover the inspiring artist’s music on Spotify and Facebook at the following link  https://www.facebook.com/CrystalPennyMusic. Follow the artist’s official social media page on Instagram for updates on newer music. For interviews, reviews, collaborations, and bookings, reach out through this mrdivabetic@gmail.com.

ABOUT

Crystal Penny is the dynamic duo of singer-songwriter sisters Crystal and Penni Wilson, who have shared the stage or recorded with such icons as Rick James, Barry White, Maurice White, Lou Rawls, and Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions, among many others. Their sweet harmonies accompany the late maestro Barry White on his classic hit “Practice What You Preach.” The two also appeared on OWN network’s Realty TV show, “Flex & Shanice,” starring Crystal’s daughter, Grammy-nominated recording artist Shanice Wilson, her husband, actor and comedian, Flex, and their children.

Sisters Crystal Wilson Blackmon and Penni Wilson’s five decades in the music industry are filled with sweet vintage soulful tunes. They started singing young, growing up in a family of gifted singers. Their music is a brilliant source of support for all listeners. These two eclectic stars have singing in their blood which makes them the perfect duo to listen to!

[gadgetsforusesblog]

When Sara Ali Khan said to the director, take me out of the film, what was she afraid of? - Sara ali khan was afraid to do atrangi ray named anand l rai to replace her after love aaj kal failure tmova

Sara Ali Khan is in talks these days about her upcoming movie ‘Gaslight’. The actress not only promotes it loudly, but also talks openly about the mistakes made in her previous films. During an interview, Sara talked about how nervous she got when she saw her own acting in her flop movie. Sara called the director and asked him to remove himself from his upcoming movie. Sarah discovered her own…

[amitanand]

It was a day filled with interviews, meeting the mentors in person and getting introduced to the task 3 of our mentorship programme. We also met the incredible India and South Africa representatives Sonia Khan and Bridget Harrison respectively. @florimaunders and I chatted away about our experience so far and our reflections of writing for grade 1 piano and music in general. It was lovely to meet Sarah Watts and Alan Bullard in person too. #abrsm @abrsmmusic #interview #talking #discussion #contemplation (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cly7iBoteLB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ukrfeminism]

The government is gaslighting women by pretending misogyny in the police force doesn’t exist

The man who raped me wasn’t one ‘bad apple’ but someone I knew – there was no time to call 888; no well-lit street to defend me

One of the biggest ironies of the government response to the issue of women’s safety following the murders of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa and countless others this year is that they appear to have employed a tactic survivors like me are all too familiar with: gaslighting.

This form of manipulation is often used by perpetrators to silence the “buts” and “ifs” of their victims, keeping them in a state of perpetual confusion and forcing them to question their realities.

Three weeks after the sentencing of Wayne Couzens, the conversation still revolves around how women transport themselves from A to B without being murdered. We have Sadiq Khan bringing back the night Tube. We have seen plans scrapped for a female-only taxi service in Glasgow City. We have an 888 number for women to call if they believe they are being followed that allows the police to track their movements right to their front door. And yes, we have our street lights.

Despite the odd inquiry, requests made by the Women’s Equality Party for the police to stop managing male violence and get to the root of the problem – men – have largely gone ignored. The fact is, the majority of male violence that happens against women in Britain does not happen in the streets at all, but in our homes, in the places we work. Our perpetrators are not random strangers, but people we know well. Partners. Family members. Bosses. The scale of the problem is so staggering, the ONS reports that 1.6million women experience domestic abuse every year. Rape Crisis figures indicate that one in five women in this country are sexually assaulted over the age of 16. This figure climbs for the under-19s – school girls, in other words – to one in four.

What keeps this happening is a culture of misogyny that is so tightly woven into the fabrics of our society, the systems meant to protect us often end up inflicting more harm. Misogyny is so baked into our police forces, it even influences how they respond to women reporting crimes.

Perpetrators of domestic abuse and rape can also be police officers, and most of them, recent reports suggest, get away with it and keep their jobs. But we are screaming out for complaints of police misogyny to be taken seriously too. We are red in the face and exhausted by our efforts, while policy makers sit down with the very same people who are part of the problem and deflect the blame back at us.

Let me give you an example. The man who raped me in 2013 wasn’t one “bad apple”, or a creep waiting in a park, but someone I knew who crept into my bed one night and raped me while I slept. No time to call 888. No well-lit street to defend me.

The officer who interviewed him wasted no time in telling me what he thought of the man. “He’s very charming, isn’t he?” he said. The blood drained from my face and my stomach dropped. This person was leading my investigation.

It took a year for charges to be brought. The court dates were moved repeatedly into the future. When I was asked to review the video of my witness statement, then made two years previously, I was called into the police station to watch it. A group of male officers ate pizza and drank beer and laughed in the background. The case was thrown out days before I was due to take the stand.

And I am far from alone. I spoke to several survivors with similar testimonies of police misogyny – some of which could have cost them their lives.

“I was walking home one evening on a busy road in London, and a young guy started heckling me,” Lori says. “Eventually he came over and got angry that I was ignoring him so started being really aggressive. Someone came over to help and he then put his cigarette out on that man’s face so that’s when I called the police.

“He ran off so I went home and left it at that. About an hour later the police arrived at my front door with the guy in the back of the police car asking if I wanted to press charges. I felt like I had no choice but to say no, because he now knew where I lived. I tried to get this across to the two male officers that it wasn’t appropriate to bring him to my home and they just batted away my concerns. That’s when one of the officers said to me, ‘What do you expect when you live in London’?”

Domestic abuse survivor Rose found the police at her door after neighbouring flats had called 999.

“They said they wanted to talk to us separately,” she says. “One of the officers took me out to the flats landing while the other stayed inside and spoke to my partner. The officer went through what seemed like a checklist and I begged him to take me with them, even if it meant putting me in a cell.

“The officer inside came out and said he was done and asked the other officer if he was. The guy replied, “Yes”, and they both walked off. I was too gobsmacked to say anything after that and then my partner appeared at the door and I figured it wasn’t safe to make a scene.”

“When I was 20 I was in a very violent relationship,” Freya recalls. “My best friend had been the one picking me up and taking me to hospital every time I needed it. One day, after I told her my ex had threatened to kill me with a kitchen knife, she told my family. That day they staged an intervention and called the police. That evening a lone male police officer showed up and asked to speak with me alone.

“He proceeded to describe my personality, and said the reason he knew me was because I was a ‘victim’ and all victims are the same. He then went on to ‘explain’ that ‘a victim and abuser will find each other in a crowded room’ and therefore I had to take responsibility for choosing him and putting myself in that position – because I was a victim and that’s what we do.

“He said he was happy that I had a good family, and I was young and pretty and he was confident I wouldn’t make that choice again. Therefore he said he would not report. He didn’t give me a choice – he told me what he was going to do and what he believed I would do.

“I believed him. I blamed myself. I had made that choice.”

Freya’s ex was later convicted of a brutal assault on another woman. She blamed herself for that, too.

Thousands of similar testimonies were read outside the steps of Scotland Yard recently, as women came together to grieve all that we have lost to male violence and misogyny at the hands of the police. We know this does us mental harm and places us in physical danger. It also does society harm by adding extra barriers to our individual pursuits of justice and further eroding public trust. The fact is, almost all rapists get away with raping women. And most domestic abusers go on to abuse again – often fatally.

We shouldn’t have to keep sharing one traumatic experience after another to make the point that misogyny is so rife in our police forces, it conditions how they respond when women report violence or abuse. It influences how they do their jobs – which are supposed to be about protecting the public.

Yet for Freya, Rose, Lori and myself, the police weren’t protecting us – they were protecting the men who had harmed us. And yet the government and police continue to behave like this isn’t happening, insisting instead on piecemeal measures and shifting the blame to a few “bad apples” rather than dealing with the heart of the issue – the criminal justice system’s rotten core.

Until they can admit that among them there are perpetrators too – that this isn’t a case of monsters and men, but a toxic culture that can only be eradicated if they start listening to what we are saying – nothing is going to change.

Hold violent men to account, whether they are officers or members of the public. Believe women. And take misogyny seriously as the gateway to violence it really is.

[godzilla-reads]

Read Women

Children’s Books

“The Mitten” by Jan Brett

“Let the Children March” by Monica Clark-Robinson

“The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams

“The Proudest Blue” by Ibtihaj Muhhmad

Young Readers

“The Dragon Masters” series by Tracey West

“Dealing with Dragons” by Patrica C. Wrede

“Shiloh” by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

“Malala: My Story of Standing Up for Girls’ Rights” by Malala Yousafzai

YA Novels

“Dear Martin” by Nic Stone

“Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” by Becky Albertalli

“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas

“Red, White & Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston

Classic Literature

“Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen

“The Mysteries of Udolpho” by Ann Radcliffe

“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker

“The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Auto/Biography

“Bossypants” by Tina Fey

“When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” by Patrisse Khan-Cullors

“Lakota Woman” by Mary Brave Bird

“Woman at Point Zero” by Nawal El Saadawi

Nonfiction

“Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation” by Kyo Maclear

“Whatever Happened to Margo?” by Margaret Durrell

“Seeds of Hope” by Jane Goodall

“Sunshine State” by Sarah Gerard

Fantasy

“A Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula K. Le Guin

“Fledgling” by Octavia E. Butler

“Wolf-Speaker” by Tamara Pierce

“The Bear and the Nightingale” by Katherine Arden

Fiction

“The Accidental Alchemist” by Gigi Pandian

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

“When Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston

“Sappho’s Leap” by Erica Jong

Poetry

“Dog Songs” by Mary Oliver

“Wild Embers” by Nikita Gill

“Love & Misadventure” by Lang LEav

“The Black Unicorn” by Audre Lorde

LGBTQ+

“The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller

“Marriage of a Thousand Lies” by SJ Sindu

“Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown

“The Off Season” by Amy Hoffman

Horror

“The Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice

“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley

“The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson

“Into the Drowning Deep” by Mira Grant

Personal Favorites

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou

“And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen

“Hawkes Harbor” by S.E. Hinton

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Marasmus

Marasmus only has a handful of fics left at Gossamer, but you can find more X-Files fics at AO3 (as finisterre). Some of my favorites of her stories I've recced here before, including one of the most clever fics you could read, Cellphone (here at AO3), and the lovely, London-set A Candle for Katherine (here at AO3, bonus commentary at LJ). Big thanks to Marasmus for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Mine, yes, older XF in general, no — some of that stuff is amazing. Though I wonder how well fandom operates now there is not a plethora of rec sites. I know of yours and one more Tumblr blog and that’s it.  I find it really difficult to find good stories in any fandom unless someone whose taste maps to mine recommends something.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

I look back on it fondly, but it was one of the first things that really hammered it home to me that every grouping throughout life follows the pattern of school.

A lot of people are really talented and funny and kind. Then there are absolute ego-rampaging nightmares who act like lady bountiful in public but do cruel things in private, or chuck their toys out of the pram at the least provocation.

And like school, fandom brings together a disparate group of people who you’re friendly with, but once you leave, the ones you stay in touch with are your friends.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

Thank God.

I watched the show pre-widespread internet and mostly when I had almost no money. I didn’t have regular internet access until the third season, and that was only at my incredibly conservative workplace. I didn’t get home internet access until midway through season six. You couldn’t download episodes easily, you couldn’t stream, you just had to wait until it aired overseas. I decided I didn’t care if I was spoiled and that worked for me. In fact for some particularly annoying episodes, I was glad.

I was a newsgroup and mailing list sort of person. Never really did message boards unless a newsgroup counts, though I had a Haven account.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Mostly, how talented people are. I know some are now professional writers, but so many people who didn’t do it as anything but a hobby were also amazing.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

I always liked science fiction, oddness and urban legends, so it was kind of made for me. But it was the relationship between Mulder and Scully that kept me around, and after season six, it was the fandom that kept me around. I loved Scully in particular, cos let’s be honest, Mulder can be kind of a twerp at times.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I hung out on alt.tv.xfiles.analysis (a newsgroup), which was one of the smartest boards I’ve ever been on. The threads were full of well-read, erudite people. That led to a site which collated reviews of XF episodes. They mentioned alt.tv.xfiles.creative, and I got there the summer after Gethsemane, which was pretty optimal timing.

I’d take floppy disks into conservative workplace and quietly download the most gloriously filthy fanfic onto them for reading at home on my ancient second-hand Mac.

After that I joined Scullyfic, a mailing list, which was a lovely place to hang out for a while, and got stories through a couple of other mailing lists.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Like my relationship to ice hockey: glad that activity exists and that some people enjoy it, but not watching and not involved myself.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

Reading, yes, and writing the odd bit of feedback, but any other fandom involvement didn’t really take. I’ve never found a bunch of people I liked as well as I liked some of the people in XF.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

I am usually more interested in female characters than male ones (the Doctor, Mulder and Jack O’Neill notwithstanding), which is why I only read a bit of m/m slash. I usually develop a perverse dislike for any woobie the fandom loves.  

Some favourites are: Samantha Carter and Jack O’Neill, Granny Weatherwax, Furiosa, everyone from The Good Place, Donna Noble, Sarah Jane Smith, Martha Jones and Yasmin Khan, Maia from The Goblin Emperor, Cordelia Naismith and Miles Vorkosigan, General Leia Organa, Rey and Finn, and lately all of The Old Guard, even Booker...

I like nerds, pining, best friends discovering feelings for each other, second chances, redemption narratives, people being sneaky for good ends and stoics who stay stoic through all kinds of misery, only to crack and start crying when they get a happy ending.

Basically, you know Eleanor at the end of the Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility? That.

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

No. I had about four years there where I made up stories about Mulder and Scully on any commute where I’d forgotten a book, but that’s gone now. I watched two episodes of the revival, but it wasn’t for me.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I occasionally wander in and read a bit on AO3, but nothing that deals with anything past season seven. Not interested in William, not interested in domestic fiction, not even interested in post-col any more, which was 100% my crack during XF fandom days. I did read By the Dim and Flaring Lamps [Lilydale note: by @sunflowerseedsandscience] earlier this year. Love a bit of AU historical.

I read lots of different fandoms, though I am between intense enthusiasms at the moment, which always feels a bit odd.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

Yes, but they’re all about 20 years old. Is there such a thing as fandom classics any more?  There used to be a litany of stories that ‘everyone should read’. I wonder how well they hold up now.

I think there are waves of writers who come into a fandom and then leave again: I think I was part of a second wave, with the first wave being Mustang Sally, RivkaT, Karen Rasch, Lydia Bower, Nascent etc.

Then there must’ve been a third wave for the revival (and mini-waves in between). I don’t know that group of writers, so I am probably leaving out people who are really good.

One of my favourite Scully voices is Five Years and One Night [Lilydale note: by Shalimar], because of the contrast between her inner monologue as written and how little she actually says.

I really like quieter, thoughtful authors like Michelle Kiefer, Cecily Sasserbaum, Scullysfan, Cofax, Anjou, Maria Nicole, Kipler.  Love everything Kel ever wrote.

At one point there were also about three authors called Rachel who were knockout. I like to think Rachel Howard is writing professionally because it’s a waste of talent if she’s not. Rachel Anton had a crazy gift for pacing and wrote a good Krycek.

I really liked Branwell’s strange AU novels, which riff off The Field Where I Died (a wretched episode but so much good writing came from it.) [Lilydale note: Condemned to Repeat It by Branwell is a really long story involving The Field Where I Died.]

Everyone who is reccing other people’s stuff here is also a good writer. (and their taste in recs is — mostly — excellent): http://www.thebasementoffice.com/museaxfnet/museans/TitlesAF.html

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

I like The Flexible Concept of Tomorrow. I loved trying to work out the timelines. I like the one about airships and cross-dressing which only exists on my iPhone and in my imagination right now.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

Only an AU, if ever. I am completely at sea with canon.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

In my head. Mostly AUs. Everyone has daemons! It’s an airship! They’re exploring space! It’s mediaeval Slovenia!

Most of my creativity is sucked away by work. Which is good I suppose, as writing fanfic never paid my Netflix subscription.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

Reading long-form journalism and non-fiction books.  

What's the story behind your pen name?

Well, I changed mine. The first one was picked out of a magazine article about Branwell Bronte, and I liked the shape of the word. Then I got to feel uncomfortable with it because it was a real illness that made people suffer. The current one comes from the shipping forecast when I was a kid.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

No, and also absolutely not. Over my dead body. Over YOUR dead body.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

I took my stories off Gossamer but I don’t remember why. They’re on AO3 now and there are probably stray copies on some archives out there.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

I have made all of these mistakes. All of ‘em.

— On no account offer unsolicited concrit. In fact, do not provide concrit EVEN IF THE PERSON ASKS FOR IT, unless you know them reasonably well and it’s in private.

— Avoid the wank. If you have the perfect riposte to something awful, write it and file it to drafts for two days. If you still want to send it after that, godspeed.

— Write anything you want, and when you start keep going. You can edit later.

— Never put any story into the public sphere unless you’ve had a second pair of eyes on it, preferably the eyes of someone who is willing to say “are you SURE about that?”

Finally, just have fun. Being in the grip of love of story is a wonderful thing, and you never know how long it will last.

(Posted by Lilydale on September 29, 2020)

[jed-thomas]

St. Helier Scene

This morning, an unidentified person wearing a bicorn and a high-vis jacket was caught on camera firing a musket towards the harbour from the ramparts of Elizabeth Castle. They are believed to be a member of a Jersey Militia re-enactment group.

Letting off bright red and orange flares on a choppy sea, between sixty and one-hundred French fishing vessels crowded the harbour at St. Helier. It was a protest. Post-Brexit licensing decisions taken by the local authorities have been unexpectedly stringent, according to Paris.

Her Majesty’s Ships Tamar and Severn departed for Jersey’s capital in the small hours of the morning. Boris Johnson PM ordered their presence as a defensive measure. A French police boat and patroller have also arrived at the harbour.

In 1337, on the orders of King Edward III, the Royal Militia of Jersey was established. In 1953, its descendant unit was disbanded, to be re-established in a considerably altered form as a regiment of the Territorial Army some 30 years later. The true descendants of the historical militia are, however, the island’s re-enactment groups. They organise on Facebook.

Jersey officials are currently meeting with the protesting fishermen in pursuit of a diplomatic solution. Speaking to the BBC as external relations minister, Jersey senator Ian Gorst expresses faith in “talk and diplomacy”.

Almost two months ago, in his first interview as Prime Minister in a European newspaper, Boris Johnson PM stated, referring to the world-historical Parthenon marbles:

“But the UK government has a firm longstanding position on the sculptures, which is that they were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time and have been legally owned by the British Museum’s trustees since their acquisition.”

There have been threats from the French government regarding the supply of electricity to the island if the dispute is not resolved amicably. Represented internationally by the Crown, Jersey is nevertheless self-governing.

Ashore in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, voters are deciding appointments to local office. In London, the campaign of Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, whose grandfather, a British veteran of World War II, migrated to the UK from Jamaica in 1947, focussed on cuts to the Metropolitan Police Service introduced by Labour’s incumbent Sadiq Khan, whose grandparents migrated from Pakistan in 1947 following the partition of India.

In mid-March, four were arrested by the Metropolitan Police Service at a vigil for Sarah Everard which doubled as a protest against misogynistic violence. One placard asked: Why do you fear witches but not the men who burn us? Almost a year ago, one-hundred were arrested as protestors clashed over historical monuments in Trafalgar Square during Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Loic Farnham, a Jersey fisherman, commented on the scene at St. Helier to the BBC, saying of his French counterparts:

"They are professional fishermen, the same as we all are, we'd like to keep it all amicable so we can have access to the markets and they can carry on earning a living in our waters."

[drawdownbooks]

AVAILBLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW!⁣ Inside Out & Upside Down: Posters from CalArts, 1980–2019⁣ Available at www.draw-down.com⁣ ⁣ A book featuring over 500 CalArts posters from the past 40 years. Featuring 70 unique covers designed by CalArts students, alumni, and faculty. Many of the featured posters were not meant to function purely as posters but were produced as experimental works. Produced for a narrow audience, most of the posters have existed outside the mainstream, barely engaging with the visible canon of design. Often produced in small—even singular—editions, they also were produced outside the traditional designer/client relationship. The posters break rules, misbehave, and are sometimes an unruly mess. The collection reflects a belief that the creative process is as important as the product, and outlines a history of pedagogy at CalArts.�� ⁣ With essays by graphic designers Colin Frazer, Sarah Gottesdiener, Ian Lynam, Jennifer McKnight, and Louise Sandhaus. Also include interviews with Mark Allen and Gail Swanlund; Kary Arimoto-Mercer and Shelley Stepp; Ed Fella, Jeffery Keedy, Lorraine Wild, and Michael Worthington; Yasmin Khan Gibson, Jérôme Saint-Loubert Bié, and Jon Sueda; Daniela Marx and Tuan Phan; Joe Prichard, Stuart Smith, Gail Swanlund, Scott Taylor, and Michael Worthington.⁣ ⁣ #MichaelWorthington #InsideOut #UpsideDown #PostersfromCalArts #GraphicDesign #Design #PosterDesign #CalArtsDesign (at CalArts School of Art) https://www.instagram.com/p/B99My2_nJd9/?igshid=9gqh2u9o2pfh

[dottiep]

Happy Valley (series 3)

The long-awaited third series of Sally Wainwright’s Bafta-winning crime drama had previously been expected to finally air in 2019, however it’s looking more likely to hit screens in 2020, with Sarah Lancashire reprising her role as no-nonsense copper Catherine Cawood.

Last Tango in Halifax (series 4)

Derek Jacobi, Anne Reid, Sarah Lancashire and Nicola Walker will all return for four more episodes of the much-loved comedy drama, written by Sally Wainwright. The Bafta-winning drama tells the story of former childhood sweethearts Celia and Alan who have rekindled their relationship later in life, as well as following the lives of their respective grown-up daughters.

Glass Houses

The Vicar of Dibley star Dawn French is set to play a dangerous village gossip in Glass Houses. Her character Maggie Connors is a busybody who gives an indiscreet interview to a local radio interviewer that sparks off a series of unexpected happenings in the fictional town of Thurlbury.

Jan 22nd

Created by and starring Michaela Coel of Chewing Gum fame, Jan 22nd promises to be a “provocative” series exploring the question of sexual consent in today’s world, where gratification is only a dating app away.

Call the Midwife

The midwives of Poplar return for another series (plus a 2019 Christmas special) which starts in January 1965 with the funeral of Winston Churchill, and sees Nonnatus House “entering a bold and innovative era”. And there’s good news for Midwife fans – the drama has been green-lit for a further two series so will be on our screens until at least 2022.

Killing Eve (series 3)

Killing Eve will return to screens in 2020 with a new female showrunner at the helm: Suzanne Heathcote. But who will be reprising their roles? Well, it largely depends who survives series two.

Gentleman Jack (series 2)

Suranne Jones will be back to bring the remarkable story of Anne Lister to life in a second series of the period drama, which was recommissioned after just two episodes of the first season had aired.

Unforgotten

DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) and DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) dig into another historic crime in this critically acclaimed series from writer Chris Lang

[farahdamji]

Justice and Women’s Rights Campaigner, Farah Damji  - Heroine or a Villain?   ~   by Jazz Kaur

“The aphorist Christopher Spranger wrote: “The author who possesses not only ideas of his own but eloquence with which to clothe and adorn them cannot avoid cutting an impudent figure in this world.” Spranger might have been describing Farah Damji when he wrote those words. For she is such an author, creative, eloquent, and most definitely impudent. And it’s the impudence that makes her memoir Try Me so delightful to read….And oh! What life she led. The kind of life only a very few women have lived. Women like Cleopatra of Egypt, the Queen of Sheba, Theodora, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe. Women who had style, imagination, élan and a lust for life.”

Randall Radic, ex-con, ex-priest

Farah Damji is a woman in conflict with the law. Since 2010 Farah has dedicated her life to social justice issues. She actively campaigns for the rights of women in the criminal justice system which has often lead to her being at loggerheads with the institutions that damage and fracture women’s lives.

She has previous convictions for perverting the course of justice and theft of services by fraud 2005. These convictions are spent.

A forensic report by Dr Tony Nayani, obtained at the time these offences were committed confirmed a diagnosis of underlying mental health conditions which should have triggered support. Instead, she was handed a severe custodial sentence. She pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. She served 21 months of a 42 month sentence and was released under supervision in the community by probation services.

During that sentence she was studying for an OU degree but a friend who was a fellow inmate, Lilly, was being raped by a governor at HMP Downview. No one took her complaints seriously. She was released on home leave to attend a university lecture but she didn’t return to the prison. In the knowledge that she would not be sent back to HMP Downview, she handed herself in to Plymouth police.

When she was finally adjudicated for this absconding offence and embarrassing the Ministry of Justice, the punishment was loss of canteen, loss of association etc suspended, so effectively, nothing. The governor was later sentenced to 5 years in prison.

In 2008 she fell into an abusive relationship and was bullied and coerced into claiming a higher amount of housing benefit from the local authority, because her then partner Franco Miccolupo. The judge, HHJ Marron QC should have accepted her version of the facts at this hearing because the CPS were unable to produce their star witness, the former partner who had fled the country. The fact that she had been a victim of domestic violence was not taken into account by the courts. Most of the 10 month sentence imposed was spent in the community on home detention curfew.

In 2010 Farah Damji set up a social enterprise called Kazuri Properties which supported and housed 136 women returning to the community from prison, care or domestic violence refuges. This was successful until 2013 when the housing benefit rules changed. The company managed and / owned almost 90 properties. It operated as a regulated Social Enterprise, a Community Interest Company.

In 2010 Farah commissioned King’s College inter alia to conduct a literature review of all the evidence available concerning trauma and women in the criminal justice system. In 2011 she helped to draft an article for Lord KK Patel on women in the criminal justice system and mental health issues for House magazine the parliamentary in-house magazine.

She has also commissioned a report on women in the criminal justice system co-authored with Imran Khan Flo Krause and Julia Gibby, and this was launched in Parliament. This report led to an amendment being proposed by Baroness Joyce Gould for a gendered approach to women in the criminal justice system, as a statutory obligation for the Ministry of Justice. For the first time, trauma was acknowledged as a being a driver for many women’s offending behaviour and Farah was instrumental in bringing that home, in spite of the nurtured complacency of the Women’s Unit in the MoJ (since disbanded).

In 2012 She organised a panel event with the support of Garden Court Chambers with panellists including Eoighan McLennan Murray, the former prison governor and Secretary of the Prison Governors’ Association, Jonathan Aitken and Imran Khan, the human rights solicitor who is renowned for his support of the family of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent Macpherson enquiry into racism within the Metropolitan Police. At this event, Imran Khan described Courts and Prisons as systemically misogynistic. Short clips from the event are available to view on Kazuri’s YouTube channel here.

In 2012 when the Armed Forces bill was being debated in Parliament, she asked Imran Khan and Lord Carlile to help draft an amendment to the Bill, seeking parity in the Military Court Martial system, and the civilian justice system for the person accused to establish, through a fair assessment process whether there were underlying mental health and substance misuse issues. This was so that the accused could be properly diverted to existing mental health and substance misuse programmes, rather than being court-martialled and then slammed into Colchester prison. Baroness Finlay of Llandaff proposed the amendment in the House of Lords and Farah help to write a speech which is available on Hansard. She spoke in private to the Armed Forces Bill team charged with the smooth progress of this bill in Parliament. This amendment lead to significant change in the way the MoD deals with service men and women with mental health issues or substance abuse abroad. They finally acknowledged that PTSD is a real condition, causing real suffering which they had tried to deny previously.

In 2013 Farah commissioned and co-authored a report on the way very vulnerable women are treated under the Home Office’s Compass contract. This provided housing for women and children awaiting the outcome of their asylum applications. G4S and Serco were the contracted providers for housing and support services. The report was published in parliament with the support of Julian Huppert MP, Geoffrey Robinson MP, Sarah Tether MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP. It was then submitted to the Public Accounts Committee members for the scrutiny and examination of contracts. This in turn led to the uncomfortable questioning of the managing directors responsible for these contracts at G4S and Serco, by the Home Affairs committee and the Public Accounts Committee. Major reform of the way these contracts have been tendered and are commissioned was a result of the inquiry.

Also in 2013 Farah was an active campaigner against the legal aid cuts to services and the privatisation of probation services. She edited and contributed to Mike Turner QC’s weekly Monday Message newsletter when he was chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, for a year. She continued to write, including a draft of an article for Karl Turner MP for Hull East for House magazine. This was a piece about women in the criminal justice system and the need for more gendered approach. This led to a debate in Westminster Hall.

In 2014 Farah founded Uprise Community CiC social enterprise providing affordable housing options for local authorities particularly for vulnerable women and their children on the housing list. The company was launched in Parliament with the support of Stephen Timms and Oliver Colvile MP.

Farah has also organised and delivered resilience training for frontline workers in local authorities, chief executives in the third sector and private companies. The resilience training program consists of mindfulness training and proven methods deployed to counteract secondary trauma in the supervision of people who work with severely traumatised veterans at rehabilitation centres in the US. Resilience training has been very well received and was acknowledged in a notable mention in The Spectator magazine after Melanie McDonagh attended as session and found it interesting.

In May 2016 Farah successfully completed the Mayor of London’s Landlord Accreditation Scheme. In May 2016 Uprise bought its own first development site at 312 Hackney Road and Farah raised £1.17m for the purchase price and additional £50,000 in fees. When she was imprisoned on the harassment charges, negotiation was underway with London Borough of Tower Hamlets to provide some of the units proposed for post refuge accommodation for which there is a dire recognised need for post refuge accommodation for women. Women in refuge accommodation in London are turfed out and meant to just supposed to get on with life in the private rented sector with no support. Farah produced the Construction Management Plan, submitted to the local authority describing how the site will be managed and run.

In March 2016 Farah organised a conference the Quaker Friends Meeting House on Euston Road, about the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2013. Partners included the Daily Mail, the FT, the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet Office, the children’s charity Barnardo's, the YMCA, Nacro, King and Shaxson Investment bank and Big Issue Foundation.

In April 2016 she organised a conference specifically addressing the housing crisis in the capital. The four main candidates were invited to South Bank University, the event partner, to discuss only their plans for housing in London and how they planned to finance these ideas. Over 100 people attended. The report from the conference was hand delivered to the chief of policy at the Treasury and Number 10 Downing Street and London Assembly Members to pave the way forward with practical ideas for raising investment and building new homes. You can hear an interview about Plan A (for Affordable) Housing on Share Radio here.

In August 2016, she was sentenced on 3 counts of S4(a) harassment, to 5 years imprisonment, in spite of two forensic reports stating that she should not go to prison, that mental health diversions in the community were available, by HHJ Timothy Lamb QC at Kingston Crown Court for 18 months, 18 months and 2 years to be served consecutively. Friends of Farah are crowdfunding on CrowdJustice to raise funds and profile for these matters to be taken back to the Court of Appeal on fresh evidence. The matter is now with the CCRC which is considering the safety of the convictions.

She received no mental health support in prison although she repeatedly requested support. She has asked Dr Anton Van Dellen of Goldsmith Chambers in London and renowned forensic medical practitioner Dr Koseen Ford to bring a case against the Ministry of Justice and its providers for failing to provide her with any mental health support, in spite of their knowledge of her diagnoses. This neglect constitutes a breach of Article 3 of the ECHR , in the State’s failure to provide any mental health intervention, in spite of being diagnosed with conditions under the Mental Health Act, and the State’s duty to provide the services for treatment and rehabilitation under UN , European and domestic law. A conference in the House of Lords, supported by MPs and peers from all parties is being organised for the end of October 2018, to discuss these issues and launch Beyond Reason, the experiences of 130 women who have been denied services, with recognised mental health disabilities. The aim of the conference is to look at new ways to provide better services for women in prison, to meet their mental health and rehabilitative needs and to hold the Government accountable for the £500m it spends yearly on justice health contracts. A steering group will prepare amendments for parliamentarians to bring pertinent issues to the Domestic Abuse Bill, due to be debated in parliament in May 2019. You can hear Farah’s interview with Jerry Hayes, leading criminal barrister and talk show host here, discussing the issues of mental health and the criminal justice system.

She is also asking the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, the Judicial Appointments Committee and the Judicial College to review the way that judges repeatedly ignore the Sentencing Guidelines meant to protect vulnerable or mentally disordered offenders and how they fail to take into account the recommendations of forensic experts. The judge in Farah’s case tried to blame her for not having sought CBT when it was not what the forensic reports suggested, and there being no court ordered intervention previously. He decided he was not only a judge, he was also psychologist. Farah is asking for a Mental Health Ombudsman to be appointed with an army of investigators, for every Crown Court, to sit in on proceedings where mental health has been identified as an issue, and to ensure that the Court is abiding by its Public Sector Equalities Duty towards disabled people.

In March 2017 Farah contributed to the Joint Committee on Human Rights enquiry on Mental Health and Deaths in Custody. In November 2017 she compiled a response with several other women prisoners for the Public Accounts Committee into Mental Health in Prison describing the dearth of services let alone any parity of services as would be found in the community. Farah continues to highlight injustice and wrongdoing in the women’s prison estate.

Farah’s explosive report on the sexual harassment to which women in the criminal justice system are subjected was published by the Women and Equalities Select Committee in July 2018. She is due to give evidence in camera to the Committee shortly.

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