The editors hope their magazine can contribute to a change in mentality

A number of female journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan are shaking up a male-dominated domain with a magazine that aims to highlight the problems and abuse many women still face. Melissa Tabeek reports from Sulaymaniyah.

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India’s elite is once again getting excited about a video. This time it is a 2-minute video starring Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone and 98 other women including famous names like Director Zoya Akhtar and actress Nimrat Kaur. Padukone’s video ‘My Choice’ is the latest in the series of the Vogue Empower campaign that aims to raise awareness about women’s rights in the country.

Despite legal support and public visibility, women are still paid less than their male colleagues in Germany – and at an alarming rate. On Equal Pay Day 2015, Germans took to the streets in protest.

In Karlsruhe, southwestern Germany, one young feminist has launched her own campaign against sexism and rape. Her unusual idea has spread through social media to inspire students in India.

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Is International Women’s Day a relic of days gone by? Hardly, says DW’s Sarah Hofmann. We need the day more than ever – not only to push for equal employment and pay, but as a sign of solidarity among women.

‘The Underground Girls of Kabul’ sheds light on the various facets, effects and outcomes of the practice Bacha Posh in Afghanistan, where girls are brought up as boys in families that have no male members. (Credit: ArmyAmber, Pixabay)

Sex is, by definition, illegal in Afghanistan: The marriage contract is what finally turns it into a permissible act between husband and wife. Many a time, Afghan women joke about the unfortunate “chore” of being in bed with their husbands. But this “chore” becomes unbearable for women who have spent their entire childhood thinking they were boys. Bacha posh, or girls raised and presented to the world as boys, is a ‘hidden’ Afghan custom.

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Matrilineality is a societal system in which a person’s descent is traced through their mother or maternal ancestors. In a matrilineal society property, such as land, is handed down from mother to daughter. Owing to this system they sometimes have a unique tradition that cannot be found in a patrilineal society.