Click! My Grandmother’s Resistance

“How am I going to manage without you?” my maternal grandmother Pata wailed at the viewing of her husband’s recently deceased body. As a precocious and carefully inscrutable 12-year-old, I remember ...Read More

Dear USAID: Afghan Women Aren’t “Pet Rocks”

While most of the world is preoccupied with a number of major catastrophes, women’s rights in Afghanistan are slowly slipping through the cracks. Last month, we saw that proposed rules could essentially ...Read More

Afghan Women Entrepreneurs

I first traveled to Afghanistan in December 2005 to report on a new phenomenon: A young generation of Afghan women entrepreneurs who had emerged in the years following the Taliban’s fall. Many people ...Read More

Dear Bangladesh: Our Women are Dying

The last few months have been tough on the women of Bangladesh. What a sad irony it is that the land that gave the world the notion of Shakti, the fabled manifestation of feminine energy and creative ...Read More

The Afghan Patriarchy Does NOT Know Best

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day, Afghan women may have less to celebrate and more to fear–at least if a proposed law to bring women’s shelters under government control ...Read More

India’s Poorest of the Poor Bring Gender Politics to the Dinner Table

In countries rich and poor alike, the burden of struggling to make ends meet often falls on the woman of the household, who in turn has to stretch resources in the face of income inequality and gender ...Read More

Murder Investigation Opened in Bangladeshi Girl’s Death

A murder investigation has been opened in the death of Hena Begum, the 14-year-old old Bangladeshi girl who was publicly flogged after being accused of having an affair with her cousin–who ...Read More

Bangladeshi Rape Victim Flogged To Death

Hena Begum, a 14-year-old old Bangladeshi girl, was publicly flogged recently in Shariatpur, 35 miles outside of the capital, Dhaka after being accused of having an affair with her 40-year-old old ...Read More

Now YOU Can Experience Buying a Girl! (Don’t Worry—It’s for Charity!)

Today in totally misguided philanthropy, we have “The Girl Store,” a presumably well-intentioned girl empowerment project that—for some utterly illogical reason—masquerades as a child ...Read More

Bibi Aisha and the Voiceless Victims of Afghan Tradition

The tragic story of an Afghan teenager who was brutally tortured and maimed by her husband recently caught the attention of millions around the world. Thanks go to Time magazine for sharing Bibi ...Read More

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