Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin is an asexual queer activist and researcher who utilizes fiction writing, film making and curation as tools to deepen her exploration of cultural movements. She believes that the most effective non-violent movements are those rooted in cultural transformation. Her work centers on the contemporary asexual queer movement and related art practices across Asia, emphasizing the preservation of artists’ dialogues with their times and reinterpreting historical narratives.

Yasmin challenges the global queer art scene’s pervasive allosexual bias, questioning compulsory sexuality and allonormativity. She seeks to construct asexual readings of queer art and foster new languages of activism through her curatorial practice. Her approach often involves reimagining roles—curators become artists, artists become curators—and hosting workshops that inspire the creation of new art. For Dipa, curation serves as an alternative educational methodology, connecting dialogue and visuals in profound ways.

One of her key curatorial projects, ANOAQA, exemplifies her belief that conversation itself can become curation. This initiative has brought asexuality to the forefront of global art, which previously marginalized it, by nurturing undiscovered talent and funding innovative art practices. Through this work, she has firmly established the Asian A-Spec queer art movement in Bangladesh and beyond.

Yasmin views the current era as the most democratic in art history, where life’s meaning and philosophy take center stage, free from the dominance of traditional hierarchies or mediums. She considers the most exciting aspect of curation to be its ability to provoke questions rather than provide solutions. Her curations ask critical questions about time, memory, relationships, and the act of viewing itself: Why this work now? Who is the audience? How does the process itself become curation?

Ultimately, Yasmin emphasizes the importance of writing the history of art—especially queer art—through the perspectives of those who live it. She asserts that keeping the responsibility of documenting and shaping this history in the hands of the community is essential for ensuring its authenticity and impact.

Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin is a Human Rights Defender and queer activist from Bangladesh, and the founder of the Asian Network of A-Spec Queer Activists. Her organization aims to create a network across Asia to document and report crimes against asexual and aromantic individuals. As a queer artist, activist, and researcher, Yasmin focuses on addressing discrimination, violence, and hate crimes targeting LGBTQIA+ communities. Having personally endured ace-phobic “conversion therapy,” her research began as a way to support her activism, confirming that her experience was not an isolated incident. She has since uncovered a broader, often overlooked pattern of violence within her community. Yasmin’s mission is to collect, document, and share these stories to raise awareness and drive change.