Is it alright to be called a 'Colored Woman'?

The British Minister for Works and Pensions, Amber Rudd, used the term 'coloured woman' this week. She was, paradoxically, drawing attention to the way a fellow MP, Diane Abbott, has suffered racism for being a Black woman when she used the term 'coloured woman'.

But it came across like a double negative own goal instead. Quite understandably, Amber Rudd has come in for criticism. It is indeed an outdated and offensive phrase notably because it is historically linked to slavery and apartheid. Episodes in history that were based on outright racism.

Yet, the word 'coloured' trips off the tongues of White people rather too easily in this day and age. Even after the efforts of people of colour to speak up about racism it still feels like a head and brick wall situation. With Amber Rudd it was a case of White woman from the sisterhood tries to speak up on behalf of a woman of colour but ends up botching it all due to her ignorance of the sensitivities of race.

Feminism cannot be a collective if it doesn't recognise all our intersectionalities. Otherwise it becomes a battle within rather than a battle for feminism.

Asian feminism is a badass vehicle

Asian feminism is a badass force to be reckoned with as it grows to embrace so much more than the traditional fights.

While once it embraced women's rights to simply speak up about what they thought would make their lives better, autonomy in other words, Asian feminism now is a broad church. A quick scan of Asian activists on social media sites like Instagram demonstrate fights against colourism, Chinese 'slit eyes' stereotyping, impressions of women from the Asian continent being 'tight' and 'tiny' and 'doll like' and, even, encompassing racism against Black women.

How far we have come. When I was growing up Indian women were cautioned against 'speaking up' and this was often meant in the literal sense. Speaking loudly was seen as a sign of a maverick woman. A loose cannon female would never find a man to marry her and this was considered to be the ultimate in the land of shamedom. 'Shame' and being Indian were firm friends. 'Shame' was a useful patriarchal tool used to keep us low down in the pecking order of social hierarchies.

What better way to fight the stigma of shame which places our so called 'foibles' in the private sphere than to go public with what makes us feminists.

When Asian women of all nationalities speak up our stories combine to create a rich and varied tapestry of our feminisms. We intersect at various points and the unifying factor is our fight for equality.

Each and every one of us who believes in Asian feminism ought to tell and keep retelling our story. A combined effort will be one of our greatest achievements in making breakthroughs.