Sumi Anjuman

Trigger warning – this article contains references to rape and sexual assault

Now based in the Netherlands, Sumi Anjuman was born in Bangladesh where, she says, growing up as a woman “entails navigating a maze of a complex patriarchal compass”. According to a report in the Dhaka Tribune, based on statistics compiled by human rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra, an average of four women and girls were raped every day in Bangladesh during the Covid-19 pandemic. River Runs Violet is Anjuman’s protest against this growing “Rape Culture”. Working with a rape survivor using the pseudonym Zana, Anjuman created a visual correspondence allowing both women to give their perspective via found images, embroidery, drawings, and text. In 2011, Zana was raped and assaulted by her schoolteacher for 36 days; the perpetrator was jailed for 13 years in 2015, yet laughed after the verdict was given. Zana was brought close to suicide by this experience, and writes that: “Some blood is not just a river that flows down one’s body; its wound turns violet and lives in the unconscious forever.”