I am a writer and editor. My stories explore how people’s lives are affected by culture, religion and politics. Injustice moves me to write and my protagonists are very often women.
Latest Reads
New books in South Asian studies
2025 | Essay
Farah is interviewed by Zana Mody, an English DPhil student at the University of Oxford who works on postcolonial Indian literature and art.
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Period Tracking Apps (PTAs): Reconstructing Bodies And Eroding Rights
2025 | Essay
Currently, hardly any PTAs address the urgent sensitivity of menstrual data with regard to law enforcement in their privacy policies and offer safeguards for users’ data against legal threats.
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What Remains: Voice and the Poetry of Forugh Farrokhzad
2025 | Essay
Farah Ahamed remembers what it was like to lose her voice as a result of personal tragedy, and relates to the poetry of Iran’s classic 20th century poet, Forugh Farrokhzad.
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Feminism is Humanism: Why Period Art Matters
2025 | Essay
In 1970s, Judith Chicago was considered a radical artist. She explained: ‘I am trying to make art that relates to the deepest and most mythic concerns of human kind and I believe that…feminism is humanism.’
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Bashali: A Place of Freedom
2025 | Essay
In northern Pakistan, menstruating women can choose to retreat to a bashali, a sacred space only for women on their period or about to give birth.
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Interview with Jordan Elgrably
2024 | Review
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Period Matters
Period Matters: Menstruation in South Asia
Published by Macmillan
Publication date: 28th June 2022
A pathbreaking anthology on the diverse experiences of menstruation in South Asia
Menstruation, despite being a healthy and fundamental bodily process, is a topic often buried in fear and shame, and its discussion is even taboo in many societies. But a worldwide effort to bring conversations about menstruation and menstrual health into the open is now firmly underway.
Period Matters carries this important endeavour forward by bringing together a breadth of perspectives from well-known figures as well as those whose voices are missing from the mainstream.
Essays, artwork, stories and poems from policymakers, entrepreneurs, artists, academics, activists, as well as interviews with those at the margins, such as the homeless and those living with disabilities, explore myriad aspects of how menstruation is experienced in South Asia.
A collection of breathtaking scope and significance, Period Matters illustrates with power, purpose and creativity both the variances and commonalities of menstruation.
Edited by Farah Ahamed. Contributors include: Rupi Kaur; Anish Kapoor; Lyla Freechild; Sarah Naqvi; Lisa Ray; Tishani Doshi; Ayra Indrias Patras; Granaz Balochi; Meera Tiwari; Shashi Deshpande; Srilekha Chakraborty; Tashi Zangmo; Zinthia Ganeshpanchan; Alnoor Bhimani; Shashi Tharoor; Victoria Patrick; Aakar Innovations; Goonj Foundation; interviews with transwomen, homeless women and the co-founder of Menstrupedia.
Period Poverty
In addition to my work as a writer, I am a human rights lawyer and an advocate for ending period poverty.
Together with my sisters, I run the campaign Panties with Purpose in Kenya which helps raise awareness about menstrual hygiene. Since 2011, more than 50,000 pairs of underpants have been distributed to 12,000 girls in over 100 locations across Kenya.
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