What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape: An Evening with Sohaila Abdulali

Thoughtful, provocative and intelligent, Sohaila’s game-changing book looks at sexual assault and the global discourse on rape from the viewpoint of a survivor, writer, counsellor and activist. Drawing on three decades of grappling with the issue personally and professionally, and on her work with hundreds of other survivors, Sohaila explores what we think about rape and what we say. Most importantly, she asks: does rape always have to be a life-defining event, or is it possible to recover joy?

Sohaila will be in conversation with Winnie M Li, also a survivor, author, and activist, who chose to write fiction to address her stranger rape in her award-winning debut Dark Chapter. Together, they will discuss the choices they’ve made both as writers and as survivors in order to prompt a more productive public conversation about rape and sexual assault. 

Sohaila Abdulali is a journalist and writer who was born in Mumbai and now lives in  New York.  Her book What We Talk About When We talk About Rape has been an international bestseller and she has appeared at literary festivals and events around the world.  

Winnie M Li is the author of Dark Chapter (Legend Press 2017), a fictional retelling of her own rape from victim and perpetrator perspectives. It won The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize, and was nominated for an Edgar Award and the Best First Novel Award. It has been translated into ten languages. Her PhD research at the London School of Economics explores media engagement by rape survivors as a form of activism. Winnie has appeared on the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4, Channel 5, The Guardian, The Times, The Mail on Sunday, BBC Woman’s Hour.  She has an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland in recognition of her writing and activism.

Clear Lines is the UK’s first-ever festival dedicated to addressing sexual assault, abuse, and consent through the arts and discussion. It seeks to replace shame and silence with insight, understanding, and community. Since its founding, Clear Lines has become a grassroots success, entirely volunteer-run, yet attracting hundreds of participants.  Thus far, it has run two multi-day festivals in 2015 and 2017 and a series of regular events in London.