Author Pervin explores South Asian women in science & sports, weaving stories of courage, quiet defiance, and value-based storytelling for children.
on Aug 28, 2025
Frontlist: You’ve written the “Women in Sports” and now “Women in Science” sets for the Learning TO BE series. What inspired you to spotlight South Asian women in science and sports? What binds these two together beyond their format?
Pervin: These books are, in many ways, an extension of my ongoing preoccupation with women’s stories. Particularly stories that have been buried under the weight of history’s selective memory. For instance, my first novel, Urmila, was a feminist reimagining of a forgotten character, set in contemporary India. I tend to write into silences. Into the gaps where voices should’ve been, but weren’t, either because they were ignored, or deliberately silenced.
So when AdiDev Press invited me to write about Indian women in science and sports, it felt like I was continuing a conversation that had always mattered to me. These are women who didn't just succeed; they succeeded in rooms they weren’t even supposed to enter. That defiance, that quiet audacity, is what binds these two sets together, and what binds them to me!