World Embroidery Day 2026: How Hyderabad’s women artists rework embroidery
Emerging women artists in Hyderabad are redefining traditional embroidery by incorporating social and architectural themes into their work. Artists like Dulam Sahetya use unconventional materials, such as sanitary pads, to explore topics like femininity, trauma, and social stigma.
Why it matters
This highlights how contemporary art is being used as a tool for social commentary and the reclamation of bodily autonomy in traditional societies.
The art of embroidery often evokes images of colourful floral motifs and decorative patterns. Moving away from this traditional approach, a group of emerging women artists in Hyderabad are using thread to explore social and architectural themes.
Masters of Fine Arts graduate Dulam Sahetya, from the Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University (JNAFAU) in Masab Tank, draws from her memories, emotional wounds and the landscape of Telangana. When she began experimenting with embroidery, a new medium for her, two years ago, translating deeply personal experiences onto a sanitary pad, her first canvas, came instinctively.
Dulam Sahetya transforms thread into emotional narratives | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Stitching her voice onto it felt like an “act of resistance and reclamation,” says the artist, who works with embroidery, fabric, beads, sanitary pads and handmade paper to explore femininity, menstruation, bodily trauma, healing and collective memory.
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