What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape

Drawing on her own experience, her research, her work with hundreds of survivors at a rape crisis center in Boston, and three decades of grappling with the issue as a feminist intellectual and writer, Sohaila examines the contemporary discourse about rape and rape culture, questioning our assumptions and asking how we want to raise the next generation. She interviews survivors whose moving personal stories of hard-won strength, humor, and wisdom collectively tell the larger story of how societies may begin to heal. The book is not a memoir but it is a thoroughly personal take on a painful subject.

Other Non-Fiction

Sohaila writes for hire: articles, speeches, reports, proposals, web copy, brochures and blogs for clients including major newspapers, the Office of the Mayor of the City of New York, Sesame Workshop International, the World Health Organization and other UN agencies.

Mind The Gap

Sohaila wrote a front-page column for the Indian newspaper Mint for three years. She had a grand time holding forth on everything from skateboarders in Afghanistan to breast-feeding pods in American airports.

Profit and ruin along the Western Ghats: "Scientists discovered 14 new species of dancing frogs here. Some males blow out their throats while perched on a rock, and wave their legs alluringly in the air. Just the thought of it drives me mad with desire, so I can imagine what it does to the female frogs."

Finance, tribal style: "Funny how big corporations can get away with forgetting about crores of rupees, and yet we stubbornly think of men in suits as trustworthy and barefoot Adivasis as irresponsible."

On the Rio Grande: A Texas story: "Maybe we were wrong all along in our armchair analysis of men who ride large motorcycles. Maybe they’re not looking for giant penises. They want to ride giant uteri."

Helping the most vulnerable of Syria’s refugees: "Desperate people making desperate choices to flee danger are obviously very different from birds following their evolutionary blueprints and soaring across continents. Forced migration is neither beautiful nor natural. I put them together here because both are journeys to survive, as individuals and species."

13 reasons why we are still minding: "My male cousin has two wives. I’m not allowed even one in India."

Climate change and its ripples: "Our children might only be able to imagine polar bears, penguins and possums. Storms, sudden strange flowers, Bollywood sunsets…climate change is a universal drama."

Coming of age, again: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, time is marching on, death is approaching, blah blah."

Archived articles can be found here.