The Lab Community

Afshan D’souza-Lodhi was born in Dubai to Indian and Pakistani parents and was lost in Manchester. She is a queer (Muslim) writer of plays, prose, performance pieces, and passive-aggressive tweets. Afshan’s first degree was in Philosophy, and her Masters was in Post-Colonial Literature and Culture. Afshan writes from a place of anger, often trying to right the world’s wrongs through words and humor. Her most recent play, Santi & Naz, described as “tender yet sharply political” by The Guardian, puts female friendship against the backdrop of the partition of India and Pakistan. Through light and humorous touches, the piece comments upon homosexuality and its recent legalization in India. Though Afshan has spent the majority of her life successfully carving a place for queer people within Islam, she is currently questioning her own faith and finding solace in other faith practices. As well as her own writing, Afshan is keen to develop other younger and emerging artists. She sits on the boards of the Manchester Literature Festival and Pie Radio. Afshan also sits on the steering committee for the Northern Police Monitoring Project, an independent campaigning and advocacy organization that challenges police harassment and violence.