The Masala Podcast Tackles Taboos Women Face in South Asian Culture

Masala Podcast, the award winning South Asian feminist podcast, has today unveiled its brand new UK campaign that aims to tackle the cultural taboos that many South Asian women aren’t ‘supposed to’ discuss. 

Created by RAPP UK, The Campaign We’re Not Supposed to Talk About features fiercely proud South Asian women and long-term Masala Podcast fans and listeners, pictured alongside provocative and challenging headlines that relate to their personal, lived experiences around the themes of sexuality, mental health, periods, sex and more. The campaign publicises the podcast as a safe place for South Asian women to have a voice that, historically, they haven’t always had. 

Coinciding with South Asian Heritage month, the powerful campaign features attention grabbing OOH, specifically in postcodes with a substantial South Asian community and,  crucially in locations women are known to congregate. The campaign, which is also running on social media aims to reframe the shameful slurs often used against South Asian women. Offering alternative definitions of words – like ‘besharam’ which means ‘shameless woman’ re defined as ‘a woman brave enough to live her own life’ and ‘chee chee’ which means ‘dirty’, now re-defined as ‘a woman who isn’t afraid to love herself’. The campaign gives South Asian women an opportunity to take ownership of words once used to hurt them. 

Commenting on the campaign, Sangeeta Pillai, founder of Masala Podcast said, “South Asian women are one the UK's most marginalised groups. Despite 2.75 million of us living in this country, we have barely any media representation. That's why Masala Podcast (featuring the voices and experiences of South Asian women) is incredibly important, serving as a safe space for us to tackle cultural taboos: from sex, sexuality, periods, mental health, menopause and more. 

Our podcast has quite literally changed the lives of our listeners: some women say it makes them feel less alone, others feel inspired by it and for one listener, it gave her the courage to leave an abusive marriage.

It’s been such a blessing to work alongside RAPP UK, and to have the opportunity to include some of our brilliant listeners who modelled for the OOH ads alongside issues relevant to them personally. We wanted the campaign to be as authentic as possible in portraying the experiences of South Asian women in the UK today, and I believe that we have done just that.”

Al Mackie, chief creative officer of RAPP UK said, “As an agency, we passionately believe in the power of Masala Podcast to change the lives of so many people. Sangeeta and her team are doing amazing work and we were all inspired to do this justice with a stand-out and boundary breaking campaign. 

The Campaign We’re Not Supposed to Talk About comprises powerful and challenging OOH alongside digital assets to kick off an array of important conversations for the South Asian community. Using both precision and empathy in this work, we couldn’t be prouder to help such important conversations reach a greater audience.” 

Masala Podcast features some of the world’s best known South Asian women like musician Anoushka Shankar, TV Presenter Anita Rani, British comedian Shazia Mirza as well as personal reflections from creator Sangeeta Pillai. Its most recent American season features exclusive interviews with influential American South Asian women, including Hollywood stars, producers, music icons, Vogue editors, and more. 

Find out more about the Masala Podcast here.