Sexual Health Educator Seema Anand On Why Women Must Speak Their Own Stories

Stories shape our lives. This is what sex health educator and storyteller Seema Anand has been advocating her entire life.

This year, stories and storytellers were an important part of SheThePeopleTV's Small Screen Fest. Built on the theme of women storytellers, Small Screen Fest invited authors Seema Anand, Yasmin Sait and Meghna Pant to discuss the need for stories and women can change their narrative through purposeful storytelling.

Seema Anand on Smallscreen Fest 2023

You have seen her reels, you have watched her gracefully narrate stories of the kama sutra, and pull out ancient texts on pleasure, sexual health educator Seema Anand has finally managed to claim a space and found an intersection between women and pleasure in everyday conversation.

She is a storyteller, a mythologist specialising in women’s narratives, an award-winning author and a corporate guru. She uses stories for entertainment, therapy, education and positive action change. Her research on ancient Indian folklore is affiliated with the UNESCO initiative for preserving endangered oral traditions as she works to bring ancient Indian texts back into the public space, translated and reworked to reach multi-cultural audiences.

Her journey was filled with challenges that made it difficult to achieve her goal. Problems in securing funding for her research and acquiring the necessary training stood in the way. However, the most significant challenge was the lack of understanding and recognition of her profession.

Women often lack the space to tell their own narratives.

They often find themselves overshadowed by the men in their lives, have their words cut off mid-sentence, or sometimes are not even deemed significant enough to be included in decision-making processes. This is why it is of the utmost importance that women create their own space.

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Seema &t=29s">believes that “we as women make our space just by being.” She established her own space by telling her story and letting her voice get louder. When she started her career, people (mostly men) often ridiculed and shamed her. They would “cut her down” and not let her speak. However, instead of letting them discourage her, she allowed her voice to become stronger and bolder until it was finally heard.

Seema Anand emphasises the need of fighting to get your voice heard.

She imparts us with a very valuable piece of wisdom: “If you want your voice to be heard, you have to just keep speaking. You have to keep telling that story.” Speaking up and creating your own space is definitely not easy, however, it is necessary to stand up for ourselves. And you can do so by just hanging in there.

Her final, and perhaps a most important piece of advice during the panel was, “Don’t let anybody take your voice.”

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