Varisha Tariq

Varisha Tariq is a writer and politician interested in the intersectionality of gender, class and global politics with culture. She is an Alumna of Ashoka University, and founder of Helping Hands NGO, Lucknow. She has been published in an anthropological book ‘People called Lucknow’ and in news outlets like Vogue, Stylist Magazine, Fodor, CH-VOID, LiveWire, Your Story, Feminism In India and Hindustan Times. You can find all her published work here and her most recent article in Vogue here.

Why

In this book, Varisha Tariq is quoted while talking about Dalit Muslim Women and the lack of research on them.

Varisha Tariq, 25, is the Project Head at the Helping Hands, a Non-Governmental Organisation based in Lucknow Born and educated in Lucknow, she attended La Martiniere College. A graduate from Ashoka University she worked as a Resident Assistant and did two-year-long volunteer work with the Centre for Gender and Sexuality. As a Project Head of Helping Hand NGO she acts as an enabler to make government schemes more accessible to the economically and socially marginalized communities by creating awareness and aiding people in applying for schemes. She has been responsible for laying down company policies, mission, vision, making decisions on how the NGO will operate, hiring employees, deciding schemes, areas and schools to work with.

She also worked as an Associate Editor with the media start-up Xtraordinary Life. Her piece in the book People Called Lucknow was called "The Ever-evolving Anchor of Lucknow", which focused on bringing forth the rich cultural heritage present in Lucknow and how the city converses with the past, the present and the future. She has written several articles that revolve around deconstructing gender and patriarchy published in The Wire, Feminism in India, Hindustan time amongst several others.

She has also used the platform of browngirlgazin on Instagram to talk about body image issues. This has been covered by Scroll. in, Hindustan times, quartz magazine, Nari magazine and many others. Dove also used her pictures for an advertisement to promote body positivity. She has been an ambassador for healthy eating at Rostaa and has a line of clothing named after her at ExhaleLabel (also to promote healthy body image).

References/Sources

https://www.instagram.com/worryshah/
https://in.linkedin.com/in/varisha-tariq-8304a7133

“Everybody has this concept of what body type we should have and what weight we should aim for. I gained weight when I was 8 years old because I was on steroids due to a sinus problem. A couple of years down the line I began to feel the pressure that people put on me concerning my weight. As a result, I joined a gym when I was 12, weighed 60 kgs then. My parents put me there hoping it would help lose weight. I didn't do weights in the gym but I had to do a lot of cardio. Along with this I also w

Varisha Tariq was only in her first week as a student at Ashoka University in Sonepat, when a fellow student counselled her to run every day to lose weight and reduce her bust size. In a post on the Instagram handle Browngirlgazin, Tariq remembered: “When I heard that, I had to bite my tongue hard to stop myself from crying…I hated the comments that were disguised as healthy concerns and were sometimes aimed at my parents. I hated that everybody felt as if they had the right to comment on my body.” The comments on Tariq’s post showed that she was not alone in feeling

Questioning existing beliefs and speaking out is very important for Varisha Tariq too. A staunch feminist and student of Ashoka University, Sonepat, she says education for women was never given enough importance because it then becomes a tool that helps you think. When daughters rebel, the first thing that most families threaten their daughters with is that they will stop their education, and marry them off. Is this question ever posed to a son,” she asks.

A collaboration with Varisha Ghazala Tariq (@varisha_tariq) threw light on the struggle of coping with body shaming. Due to a health condition at the age of seven, Varisha was prescribed medicines that contained steroids and this resulted in weight gain. Unable to cope with body shaming, she started working out when she was barely 12. With her carefree childhood taken away from her, Varisha was consumed with hate – for herself as well as the people around her. During her first week in college, Varisha distinctly remembers biting her tongue very hard to keep herself from crying when a friend offered unsolicited advice to lose fat and reduce the size

of her bust. “I hated the comments that were disguised as healthy concern and were sometimes aimed at my parents. I hated that everybody felt as if they had the right to comment on my body. I hated how

affected I was. At the age when I should have been dealing with my biologically changing body, I was

focused on changing its appearance. And I think I broke myself a little in that process.” Varisha was tired of her worth being reduced to digits on a machine; she was made to fear the space she occupied. She became silent, conscious, felt suffocated and hated the person she was. The turning point came

when she began to accept her own body. “I love each and every inch of my body and I would not let another person stand in the way of that. I am living my best and my healthiest and have been that way since I was 12. People need to start dealing with the reality that books, movies, magazines do not, and I repeat do not and cannot represent me. It’s not a ‘lifestyle choice’. I love my body for everything it has been through and what it is. I don’t listen to comments any more because I am the ultimate worshipper of my body, nobody can ever come close to that. I’ll never stop working out, eating healthy food,

sleeping on time or staying hydrated but I will also not deny myself indulging in the good things life has to offer. No, losing weight is not a priority any more. Happiness is.”