Mary Akrami is the Executive Director of Afghan Women Skills Development Organization, which was founded in Kabul in 1999 for protecting women’s rights in Afghanistan. Women Talk Online blogger Beenish Javed met Akrami and asked her about the status of women in Afghanistan.

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Samina Baig is a 23-year-old Pakistani woman who created history earlier this year by becoming the first Pakistani women to climb the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest.  Samina will soon be embarking on an extraordinary journey in which she, along with her brother, Mirza Ali Baig will climb the seven highest peaks across all seven continents. Beenish Javed met Samina in Islamabad.

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I attended a few sessions at the India Week in Hamburg and in almost every event, a discussion began about the role of women in India and how they were treated by men. After the Delhi rape incident in December last year, I thought that women were unsafe in India more than in any other part of the world, but my opinion underwent a change.

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Why do some communities seem to tolerate or at least, serve as breeding grounds for sexual assault? What can victims do after the incident has happened?  How can a victim learn to deal with flashbacks and return to normal life? Women Talk Online blogger Beenish Javed spoke to Carolyn Worth, manager at the  South Eastern Centre against Sexual Assault Melbourne Area (SECASA), Australia. Her institute has helped rape victims from different parts of the world.

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The brutal gang rape of a 5 year old girl in Lahore has left Pakistan in a state of shock and dismay. Crimes against women are not uncommon in Pakistan but such a heinous crime against a helpless child raised serious questions about the way the country treats its women and children.

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Zinda Bhaag (which literally means “Escape alive”) is a Pakistani film that has been nominated by Pakistan for the Oscars. It is the first Pakistani film in over fifty years that has been submitted for the “Foreign Language Film Award” category. The film has been written and directed by Farjad Nabi and Meenu Gaur. Beenish Javed spoke to Nabi and Gaur about their film.

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The joint family system in India has been a part of Indian culture for centuries, but with rapid development and industrialization, this tradition is now being replaced by nuclear families.  At the Hamburg India Week, experts discussed on how this change of values is affecting the mindsets of Indians.

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