5SR - August 16, 2023

Hitha on the girls of Iran, the fall of strongman economics, and my favorite Instagram account

Author

Hitha Palepu
August 16, 2023

Today’s curator is the founder of #5SmartReads, Hitha Palepu. She’s a consummate multihyphenate - CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, author of WE’RE SPEAKING: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris and How to Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip, and professional speaker. Hitha is an unabashed fan of Taco Bell, Philadelphia sports teams & F1, romance novels, and is a mediocre crafter. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

A lot has been reported about the brave women in Iran defying the hijab requirement. The girls of the country are just as brave, and continue to rebel against the clerics however they can.

These stories deserve to be told, and these girls honored and respected for their fight for freedom. But the piece unpacks the bigger story of girls’ rights - particularly their access to education - over the course of Iran’s modern history, and I learned a lot about how education and girls’ rights have been used as a political bargaining chip by whoever was in power.

It’s easy to move onto other news stories, especially given how our media companies amplify the stories that grab our attention unwittingly. But I implore you to keep some of your attention to the women and girls of Iran, who put their lives on the line every day for the basic freedoms we take for granted. And this piece is a phenomenal work that connects the past to the present, and helps imagine a better Iran for its women and girls, and a better world for us all.

I’ll preface this with a confession - I’m not a Bollywood devotee, but a dabbler. I love a Bollywood film for the spectacle, the music and dancing, gorgeous costumes, and ultimately a happy ending. I don’t watch them with a critical eye, but if you do, you will likely appreciate The Juggernaut’s review of Rocky Aur Rani over this piece.

For my fellow Bollywood dabblers, I personally LOVED this film. I appreciate how it tackled a lot of issues that’ve been upheld or glossed over in your typical Bollywood blockbuster while preserving all the things I love about these films.

This is a spoiler-free interview with the film’s director Karan Johar, but I had a deeper appreciation for these insights he shared after watching the movie - especially this reflection:

“If I had to take a mainstream family film with a large cast, if I didn’t bring in some new elements, some subversive politics, my take on patriarchy, entitlement, fat shaming, gender role reversal, if I didn’t do that in an organic fashion, and it’s not in a way that’s on the surface and on the nose, it’s very much embedded in the fabric of entertainment – it was very critical for me to do that. Because otherwise you lose an audience when you try and be extra preachy and try and give a sermon that doesn’t actually connect to you in an emotional way because you’ve got to love the people, then love what they say.”

Karan Johar

There are a lot of businesses that operate as a nonprofit that, in my opinion, just shouldn’t be.

Like hospital systems that deny life-saving reproductive healthcare and saddle their patients with exorbitant, confusing bills.

A nonprofit newsroom makes sense to me, given how I believe the news is a public utility and should be accessible to all (the quality of the news is just as important, but that’s for another day).

I’m a big fan (and donor of) The 19th*, who launched as a nonprofit from the beginning and provides detailed, in-depth reporting on issues centered on women (especially women of color) and the LGBTQIA+ community.

I really loved this peek into the business of The 19th*, especially how committed they are to their mission of in-depth reporting and creating a sustainable model with different revenue streams to support this.

Are you following Nelini (better known as @rhopol)?

Nelini has created my favorite Instagram account that’s the perfect blend of politics and Bravo and brings me so much joy. And I loved her answers in Interview’s Search History series - it’s smart, irreverent, and makes me want to curl up on my couch to a Housewives marathon while scrolling Reddit.

This is how you deliver an interview. And go follow Nelini because she’s just awesome (and I am dying to attend one of her Philly-based Housewives viewing parties).

“The U.S. economy isn't perfect. Neither is democracy. But compared to the other systems on offer, having the ability to vote out erratic and ineffective leaders seems to be serving us pretty well.”

And the numbers don’t lie:

  • the ruble value against the dollar has dropped nearly 40% over the past year, having dove again earlier this week.

  • the Turkish lira has lost 70% of its value against the dollar over the past 3 years, and is facing immense inflation

  • Chinese central bank cut rates this week on the heels of a powerful financial entity (tied to the country’s housing industry) missing payments to investors.

Life isn’t perfect anywhere - but things seem a lot better in the United States compared to the rest of the world.

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