Avantika Mehta

Avantika Mehta is a Delhi-based writer. As a journalist, she reports on law, gender rights, LGBT+ and culture. She’s written for various Indian and international publications including Vice, SCMP, Hindustan Times, Scroll.in, Times of India and IndiaSpend. Her fiction appears in The Asia Literary Review, Out of Print Magazine and Bangalore Review among others. She also edits and writes on her website The Ladies Compartment.

The impact of Karnataka’s hijab ban

Six students challenging the ban in court have faced intimidation, harassment, and assault.

Oct 18, 2022

The crackdown on comedy

In India, it’s not clear who has the last laugh.

May 10, 2021

On the periphery

India’s sex workers were vulnerable even before the pandemic.

Dec 09, 2020

Latest Articles

India’s slow-burn affair with Israel heats up

Azad Essa’s 'Hostile Homelands' explores the ideological convergence of Hindutva and Zionism, and the consequences for Kashmir and Palestine – but there is much more driving India and Israel’s deepening ties

Disillusioned with the Taliban, Pakistan reverses its four-decade Afghan policy

As Kabul refuses to act against the TTP and Baloch militant groups, Pakistan is ending the support it has extended to the Taliban since 1994 and its welcome to refugees from Afghanistan since the 1980s

The limited genius of Geoffrey Bawa

‘Geoffrey Bawa: Drawing from the Archives’ allows an exploration of the rift between the celebrated architect’s vision for nation-building in Sri Lanka and the country’s present reality

Interview: The precarity of Afghan migrants in Pakistan

Political scientist and author Sanaa Alimia speaks of the long history of racial profiling, harassment and deportation of Afghan migrants, in the context of Pakistan’s recent crackdown