BREAKING THE TABOO
AHAANA FEST RETURNS WITH ITS SOUTH ASIAN VERSION OF ‘THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES’
Just as Eve Ensler’s confessional play “The Vagina Monologues” took the taboo out of the V-word nearly 30 years ago, an offshoot version of the play called “Yoni ki Baat” has been shedding light since 2003 on the private and sometimes traumatic stories of South Asian women in America.
Similar in style to “The Vagina Monologues,” “Yoni ki Baat” — which translates to “talk of the vagina” — is an ever-changing series of original monologues told by the women who experienced them. The subjects range from sexual abuse to dating, sex, marriage, parenting, infertility, caregiving and more. The tone of the stories ranges from painful and cathartic to humorous and enlightening.
“Yoni ki Baat” (or YKB) arrived in San Diego in 2015, after “Yoni sister” Nanda Mehta moved to San Diego from Seattle, where she had been involved with that city’s long-running YKB series, first as a financial sponsor and later as a performer. That year, Mehta founded the Ahaana organization in San Diego, with YKB as its centerpiece.
The goal of Ahaana and YKB, Mehta said, is to raise awareness about women and help them recover from their struggles with mental abuse, rape, violence, identity crises and other issues.
Part of that healing begins in the YKB workshops that begin each year five months before the live performances. During those months, Mehta said the incoming Yoni sisters form a bond of nonjudgmental trust to create a safe space where they can share their private experiences with trauma, loss and joy. The culmination of that healing journey is telling these relatable stories at public performances in the spring.
San Diego’s YKB production returns this weekend after a three-year pandemic break, with one performance Saturday at the University of San Diego and a second performance Sunday in Tustin. It will feature four women sharing their YKB monologues. The second part of the program will be “MenOlogues,” which Mehta created in 2017, to offer South Asian men the same opportunity to share their
trauma with an understanding audience. This year one man will be presenting. All five presenters this year are San Diego and Orange County residents.
YKB originated in San Francisco in 2003, with the full blessing of “Vagina Monologues” author Ensler. In the years since, “Yoni ki Baat” chapters have popped up in cities all over America. While many of the stories the Yoni sisters perform are similar to those in “The Vagina Monologues,” Mehta said there are some subjects that are unique to South Asian culture that often surface in YKB. These include the stigma associated with women who choose not to have children; facing the challenges of an arranged marriage; and the tendency among South Asians to not discuss incest, molestation or other sexual abuse that occurs within the family.
Mehta said that while some monologues are about heavy subjects, she always lightens the 90-minute shows — which are performed in English — with a mix of humor and healing. Her own story, which she shared in Seattle in 2012 and again in San Diego in 2016, was about her ultimately successful yearslong struggle to have children, with the happy ending of adopting two children.
“At the end of the day there’s a commonality with everyone that is empowering,” Mehta said. “Ahaana’s mission is to talk about subjects that are taboo in society. Yoni means vagina, but it’s actually the word for a sacred space related to a woman’s womb. Many people have made it a four-letter word, and some people won’t come simply because of that name. My goal is to break that mold.”