"Well there's the race layer as well. Indian woman are marketed to by companies selling skin lightening products, hair straighteners or in ways to make us as sexually repressed as possible so that we are pure and clean slates for our husbands. When I was a freshman in college someone told me I needed to get back to my initial shape when I entered college because, as an actor, I would be getting off the bus in New York City and competing with every other black woman for the same role. I'm not black. My first agent said to me, "I have to figure out how to market you as something other than the pretty woman who can sing." - Pallavi Sastry is a actor and filmmaker.
Dalychia Saah
"I was never told about masturbation. I was never told about the clitoris. My family is from West Africa and I had a lot of internal shame about my body and about my sexuality. My first orgasm was a life changing experience- I was determined to learn about my own body intimately before anyone else did." - Dalychia Saah is a sex educator, and the co-founder of Afrosexology.
Rahama Wright
"I was on an airplane with my family and was seated next to an older man. He asked me to play Go-Fish, and while playing his hand started going up my skirt. I stood up and moved to an empty seat next to my brother. I was twelve years old, going through puberty, and thought I was doing something wrong - I always felt I was running away from my body. I wanted to cover up to avoid all the predatory sexual advances from grown men. I'm working through that body stuff now and working on empowering women in through my work in Ghana." - Rahama Wright, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, is the founder of Shea Yeleen, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable economic development in rural Sub-Saharan Africa.