8 WOMEN'S VOICE
AsianVoiceNews
AsianVoiceNewsweekly
www.asian-voice.com
28 Aug - 3 Sep 2021
Sharing jewellery in our culture is
an expression of love Shefali Saxena The founder of Jewel Jar - Parneet Kaur – launched the business just before the pandemic after working in styling, image consulting and marketing for almost a decade. During childhood, Parneet suffered from body image issues and bullying that had a detrimental impact on her confidence. While clothes didn’t make her feel good about herself and caused anxiety, she learnt that jewellery made her feel beautiful and empowered – becoming her style and personality. She believes that jewellery is a form of selfexpression that empowers people to be experimental with their own style. Coming from an Indian heritage herself, she found that traditional jewellery was often limited to special occasions so set about bringing together an eclectic mix of jewellery with personality for diverse women to wear whatever the occasion. In an exclusive Q&A with Asian Voice, Parneet answers some pertinent questions: - Tell us a bit about your inhibitions about body image as a young person and how did you overcome them? During childhood, I suffered from body image issues and bullying that had a detrimental impact on my confidence. While clothes didn’t make me feel good about myself and caused anxiety, I learnt that jewellery made me feel empowered. It became my style and personality. I believe that jewellery is a form of self-expression that gives people the self-belief to be experimental with their own style. - Looking back today, what do you wish you'd have done differently or received a certain kind of counselling or assistance? I don’t regret anything because it was my journey and it taught me many things - most importantly the value of a healthy mind and
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body. It taught me to be strong and make changes to my life. There were tough times too. My mental health was impacted and I developed various complexes so it would have been good to know that help existed. - Asians love jewellery, but what's the right way to select the kind of jewels that suit you? Is there math behind it? As an image consultant, I would advise that face shape and skin tones play important roles. It’s all about balance. For people with a round face, hoop earrings may not work while warmer skin tones suit gold jewellery the best. Don’t let the jewellery take over your personality, simply wear items that add to rather than detract from your personality. - Our community has a habit of sharing jewellery within the family. Would you recommend that given we're still not out of a pandemic? Sharing jewellery in our culture is an expression of love as many pieces are family heirlooms. For fine jewellery, if disinfecting using warm water and soap, sharing could be an option. For artificial jewellery, it’s a lot trickier as water can damage the pieces. Options like UV sanitisers can be used to disinfect fragile or artificial jewellery. At the end of the day, it is a personal choice. - What's the best way to maintain the jewellery we buy? For artificial jewels, keep them away from water, moisture, perfume and hair spray. Store them in a sealable pouch or bag and do not store them on top of one another as they may scratch. Don’t wear them while exercising. Wipe items with a microfiber cloth if they need cleaning. - What do you think would be the postpandemic trend in jewellery? The pandemic has taught us to be cautious spenders and move towards slow fash-
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Parneet Kaur
ion trends. I advocate versatility and believe we should re-wear the pieces we love in several ways for several occasions. At Jewel Jar, I carefully handpick contemporary pieces that can be worn with both Indian and western outfits which offer much better value for money and you get to be creative! - As an entrepreneur who started before the pandemic, how did it impact your business and what kind of changes and challenges did you see? My initial aim was to showcase the collection through pop-ups and events so people could witness the quality of the collection in person, which is crucial for jewellery. I had to pivot to online a lot sooner than expected which was difficult in terms of readiness, resources and skills. Other than that, mental motivation to keep going and monetary resources were other challenges. However, as restrictions have now eased, I’m delighted to announce that we will be touring the country to stage a series of exciting pop-up events to introduce our beautiful jewellery to a wider audience on the following dates: York – 24 September Manchester – 30 September London – 23 October A virtual event will also take place on 17 October. For more information, please visit www.jeweljar.com
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no matter how small, can help make a difference.” You can donate to the UN Women UK website which will help their team find practical, safe solutions so that they can continue to operate and make a positive difference for the people of Afghanistan who have already suffered far too much and who deserve peace and prosperity. The organisation has also written a letter to the UK Prime Minister which says, “We call on Boris Johnson and the UK Government to immediately
assist Afghan women leaders, activists and negotiators who are now at imminent risk.” The letter published in The Guardian presents three salient points: “First, to work closely with governments of neighbouring countries and other international powers to ensure safe and legal exit from the country for women and their families at risk of imminent danger. “Second, we call on the government to extend the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) to include Afghan
individuals and their dependents at a heightened risk of persecution due to their activism on women’s rights. “Third, we call on the British government to guarantee attempts to protect these women in any actions taken in response to the situation. This includes leveraging multilateral avenues to safeguard Afghan women and girls.” You can show solidarity and sign this letter to protect the freedom and safety of Afghan women and girls.
Binti celebrates 7 year anniversary by launching national menstrual curriculum in The Gambia Binti International celebrates its 7 year anniversary by announcing a partnership for menstrual education with the Gambian government. The first of its kind on a global level, The Gambia will become the first government to roll out a national menstrual curriculum throughout all schools and colleges across the country beginning next month. Binti has worked closely with the government to look at the long term impact that menstrual knowledge has on mental health, physical health and education as a whole. Binti founder Gill explained, “Having worked with young people in The Gambia over a number of years, we were able to really understand the core of
PREMIER LEAGUE GETS ITS FIRST SOUTH ASIAN WOMAN
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UN Women UK comes forward to help Afghan women In a sincere attempt to help women who are stuck in Afghanistan amid the terrifying regime of the Taliban, the UN Women UK has said, “Women in Afghanistan are facing violence and uncertainty. Whatever happens in the coming days, we hold true to the idea that women can and should help shape the future of Afghanistan. Our international community of supporters matters now more than ever. We've put together a list of actions you can take today to show your support. Every action,
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their needs as a community. Through our grassroots work, we know that the ripple effect of inadequate knowledge of menstrual health is a barrier for education in developing countries and increases the dropout rates for girls when they start their periods. This, compounded with a lack of period products, is directly linked to health issues
such as increased risk of cancers, reproductive and gynaecological health issues and absenteeism of 10-20% of school days. We are delighted that we have the support of Hon. Claudia Cole, Minister of Basic and Secondary Education to start teaching young people about the importance of menstrual health and creating impactful change for communities throughout the country”. Hon. Alhagie Jawara MP for Lower Baddibu said, “One of my passions is to transform the lives of Gambians and I strongly feel that starting at one of the root causes to health and development of young girls in the country starts with education. Binti has already transformed the lives
of young people by rebuilding a school roof, which will allow over 1200 students and staff access to at least one wholesome meal a day. The impact of that is that they will stay in school longer and complete their education. I look forward to seeing the growth and transformation of young Gambians through the menstrual curriculum that Binti is going to provide”. With menstrual trainers working across 5 continents and in over 13 countries, Binti is excited for what the next chapter of this award-winning charity brings. Binti is in the last stages of finalising a curriculum that will be available for schools across the UK and globally to access via a digital platform.
To increase diversity in the boardroom, Brentford has added Preti Shetty to the Premier League in non-executive director roles. According to a publication, “Shetty is set to become the only British South Asian woman in a Premier League boardroom, with the CEO of technology-based social enterprise company Upshot having spent a decade working in football, most notably at the Football Foundation.
THE STIGMA OF COLOUR In an Op-Ed in the Stylist magazine, Youtuber, Podcaster and Author of What Would The Aunties Say? Has brought up the issue of colour shaming in the community and the stigma related to it. She accepted that dark sinned girls are suppressed with social stigma and in relationships as well. She wrote, “Darker-skinned girls face so many problems in brown communities. Due to societal stigma, they have reduced chances of friendships, romantic relationships, employment and sometimes even basic safety”
UK MAKES A HEARTY DONATION TO THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME TO HELP WOMEN AND CHILDREN The UK has donated £788,000 to the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) on behalf of the British government to help women and children in Nepal who have inadequate nutritional support. This money will help atleast 100,000 people. "The WFP welcomed today an additional contribution of £788,000 (NPR 130 million) from the Government of the United Kingdom towards its nutrition support for vulnerable families in Nepal," the UN's food assistance arm said in a release.
WOMEN EARN LESS, SAVE LESS The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has demanded the appointment of more women and non-white minorities to the leadership of Britain’s largest firms. FCA has proposed that women should make up at least 40% of the boards of all listed companies, there should be at least one senior position held by a woman, and at least one board member should be from an underrepresented group. According to the UN’s report, Policy Brief: The Impact of Covid-19 on Women: “Across the globe, women earn less, save less, hold less secure jobs, are more likely to be employed in the informal sector. In addition, they have less access to social protection and are the majority of single-parent households. Their capacity to absorb economic shocks is, therefore, less than that of men.”
