Artists have something to tell you! On Wednesday, Nov. 12, the Wellesley Pakistani Students Association hosted Pakistani actor, writer and journalist Mira Sethi ’10 for an immersive conversation on the role of storytelling in shaping socio-political structures. Her work, rooted in feminism, transcends borders. The afternoon featured a beautiful conversation on the role of art and the nature of creativity with a side of Kashmiri chai and samosas. The conversation was led by PSA’s President, Maha Yawar Khan ’26.  

​Sethi graduated from Wellesley College in 2010, studying English while minoring in South Asian studies and French. She is an accomplished writer, with works published in the New Yorker and a hit book with a collection of short stories titled Are You Enjoying? Stories. Sethi is also a brilliant actress serving in prominent roles across Pakistani dramas such as Kuch Ankahi and Chupke Chupke. Her work has a global reach, with audiences from East to West. We dove into the intimate nature of art and explored how it can be both personal and political.

Sethi utilizes her creativity as a tool for driving female empowerment within Pakistan. She shared how this instinct complicated her career.

Recalling how speaking publicly about issues that hold importance to her caused obstacles, Sethi said, “You are best when you are silent, and you are best when you are a projection that is lit by other people’s fantasies. That is actually what actors do. We were sort of the vehicles for the projection of other people, which is why heroes do really well and nobody wants to be a villain.”

​Tired of facing continued misogyny in the media and entertainment, Sethi chose to convey her concerns through her craft. “I then sort of just accidentally, one day overnight, had a voice,”  she added, describing how she decided to refuse to work with misogynists.

Sethi shares how lonely it can feel to be an artist with a distinct voice in a country of so many people. “What is truly terrifying in Pakistan and where people feel lonely is that you’re not allowed to say certain things. You’re not allowed to say things that society finds blasphemous. You’re not allowed to say things that society finds inadmissible … and so I think art can be very, very powerful because it can change hearts, actually … it can sort of move you in an inexplicable way.”

She hopes that people in power are aware of the vast impact of media, words and broadcast messages. Utilizing the example of major media group Hum Network Limited, Sethi shares how easily rhetoric surrounding the treatment of women can be shifted — recently, the channel banned the direct display of abuse towards women. Pakistani and global audiences absorb messages on a daily basis through media, which directly manifest in society. By advocating for better treatment of women on screen, the hope is that the practice will be adopted in household settings.  

​Sethi is unafraid to break barriers by staying true to herself. She shared, “I think the greatest despair in life is not being oneself, and I’ve never struggled with that. I have been myself and I hope I continue to be myself.”

​“I think that my identity as a woman is a big, vast and capacious identity. Equally, I think my identity as a Pakistani is a capacious identity. I think my identity as a writer is a bigger identity. I think my identity as a Muslim is a big identity. I think my identity as somebody who is secular is a big identity,” she adds.

​Sethi’s identity is multitudinous. She represents an amalgamation of intersectional identities in both global and local media, spanning from her identity as a Pakistani, a Panjabi, a Muslim, a woman … [and] a Wellesley woman. She shared that there is no right way to represent something, because identity is all-encompassing.

​A lot of our conversation revolved around the creation of art and what it means to be a writer and creative. “When a writer — or certainly somebody who writes fiction — sits down to write, you don’t sit down to write a reform manifesto, because that is not the impulse or the instinct of an artist. When I sit down to write fiction, I don’t roll my sleeves up and think, ‘Aha! Now, I’m going to write about misogyny, and I’m going to write about the curtailment of free speech …’” Sethi shares. “That is already in me. My politics is a part of me and it’s in me and it comes out when I sit down to write, but that’s not the instinct.”

​Perhaps art is something more innate and visionary. Art is essentially a collection of emotions, sights, sounds and moments in time.  

​“So much of writing fiction is just groping in the dark,” Sethi conveys. “Initially, you know, the first two or three drafts, it’s sort of like a vomit, but you have to be okay that you’re going to be swimming in a vomitarium for the first stage of the writing process because it’s so mysterious.”

​Sethi’s vomitorium metaphor captured the reality of being creative. It can be lonely, sometimes horrific and even limiting.  

​When asked about self-doubt in the creative spaces, Sethi shared that, “Wwriting is iterative, it’s emergent, and you have to have faith that in the iterations you will find your voice.”

​“If you want to pursue a creative degree, just really sit with yourself at the age and stage that you’re at, and just ask yourself, very honestly, do I want a creative life?”

​If the answer is yes, you should pour into your craft.

​“It’s really tough in the arts because the arts don’t pay well…” Sethi adds. “You have to have a lot of conviction that you have something to say. Writers want to just talk. That’s a good impulse.”

​During her time at Wellesley, Sethi found Wellesley to be a wonderful space for incubating original thought.

​“I didn’t know at the time, but I think the fact that it’s so isolated physically from the world, it’s very beautiful, but it can also mean that you’re sort of a bit lost sometimes … but I think those were all things that led me to breed a certain writerly sensibility.”

​Sethi is currently working on her second book, set to come out in the spring of 2027. She shares her excitement about the project, but still keeps fans in anticipation.

​What I have learned from Sethi is that art requires conviction. Staying true to one’s vision is scary, but can be fruitful at the very least on the personal level. Speaking with her felt deeply comforting, as I saw a sibling represent Wellesley’s values on the global stage. Sethi reminded me that being a writer is ever more important amidst modern geopolitical and social chaos. What we as women have to say is important; what we as creatives have to say is important. Sethi has crafted a space for women in South Asian media and continues to serve as an inspiration going forward.