{"id":3794,"date":"2018-08-25T09:53:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T09:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daastan.com\/blog\/?p=3794"},"modified":"2020-08-17T19:21:37","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T19:21:37","slug":"trailblazers-the-revolutionary-writer-with-a-bow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daastan.com\/blog\/trailblazers-the-revolutionary-writer-with-a-bow\/","title":{"rendered":"Trailblazers: Daastan’s Outcast Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coming back with another exciting feature of the Trailblazers series, where we focus on writers and individuals of our family who spread their wings and took off towards heights previously unthought of and uncharted.  In this feature we will be writing about another graduate of the second batch of our Literary Fellowship program<\/a>, Fatema Bhaiji<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fatema Bhaiji And Our Outcast Magazine:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before she joined our fellowship, Fatema had already made herself known and left a mark on us, by participating in and becoming one of the top finalists of The Stories Untold season two<\/a>. Her story, titled \u201cHolding her Hand<\/a>\u201d, was in perfect accordance with the theme of our story writing competition, \u201cA War Within\u201d<\/a>. Our phenomenal writer Fatema, in her book, addressed very boldly the dilemma of having feelings for an individual of the same gender. The havoc it causes on our emotions and inner stability, all the while living in a society which in no way tolerates this. Her book was put up for crowdfunding, and through the help of our community, was brought to print. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outcast Magazine Makes Rounds:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With this booming introduction, Fatema came to join the Editorial department of our fellowship program. Halfway through the program, Fatema came to the team with her idea of forming a queer lit magazine. A magazine targeted towards the South Asian community that zeroed in on increasing the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community through art, poetry and stories.
In the beginning of the fellowship, graduates were encouraged to pursue projects on their own with full support from Daastan<\/a>. Despite all the criticism, Daastan stood strong. And so, the Outcast magazine<\/a> \u2018came out\u2019 – its website was launched a month after the idea was rolled out, and its first digital issue came out a month later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fatema Bhaiji was invited as Panelist Speaker at the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum in Kathmandu, Nepal <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Acclaim and Applause:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Outcast Magazine was later on endorsed by a global platform, i.e. Commonwealth Writers<\/a>, who conducted an extension of our Stories Untold Season 4<\/a> on their forum. The LGBTQ+ community were encourages to put to words any abuse they might have faced, directly or indirectly. Outcast went on to announce a Micro Fiction competition<\/a> of their own in collaboration with Daastan and White Falcon Publishing<\/a>. The first issue was released in print the very next year. Fatema was invited to many events as a speaker, one of which was \u201cSalzburg Global Forum<\/a>\u201d held in Nepal and powered by UNDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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