Indian 'auntie' superhero series pays tribute to struggle of British Asian immigrants
LONDON -- A British artist has created a series of cartoons paying tribute to the struggles and sacrifices of British Asian immigrants.
Artist Kully Rehal created cartoons around "superhero aunties," drawing inspiration from her own experience growing up in the UK where she says she was "nurtured by traditional Desi parents".
In Indian culture, an "auntie" refers to older women who are typically a similar age to your parents, or who belong to the generation above you.
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"When I started my superhero aunties series, I simply reminisced about the typical stereotypical surroundings which I grew up in the mid-'80s and wanted to shed light and pay tribute to the struggles, sacrifices and success stories after moving from their motherland's to UK from a British Asian perspective," Rehal told Mashable.
Rehal says the series is a way of paying tribute to the women who've experienced various types of struggles after moving to the UK; "the racism, sacrifices, domestic and verbal abuse and hard labour that they had to endure after moving from their homes from overseas".
"I am truly blessed to be surrounded by our yesterday's 'auntijis' to learn the true value of living through the struggles and strengths they had faced, and to see that they still continued to smile," says Rehal.
"This series was however a light-hearted tickle," she said.
"I have utter respect for those to have been through hardship in life as it's them I'd turn to for support."
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Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
