Dancing is considered an art and dancers the world over are respected for their artistic performance, but many women who opt to dance in Indian bars often get harassed by people around them. Public dancing in bars is considered unethical and eight years back the government of India’s western state, Maharashtra, banned their act.

Which colour would you like to wear on the most important day of your life? I say peach. But unlike me, most women in Pakistan would prefer wearing black, according to a Gallup survey in Pakistan. The empirical research was conducted to mark women’s day and was released recently. It studied several women’s issues, including their favourite colour and forms of violence they had been subjected to.

Tahrir Square was transformed into a huge party venue on Wednesday for those celebrating the ousting of President Morsi. Fireworks lit up the night sky and the crowds were ecstatic. This time, the battle was not against a dictator but against a democratically elected government. President Morsi was overthrown by the military with the support of the people who had resolved not to let Islamists take over their country.  He pushed to impose Islamist views of the Muslim Brotherhood and this was against what the Egyptian liberals stood for. So they took to the streets and called for a revolution. However, this revolution has a dark side.

A Dalit group in Karnataka offers prayers to the local goddess Yellamma

Imagine a society where some members are not allowed to speak to others, except from a distance of 100 meters, where generations of these ‘untouchables’ are banished to the village’s outskirts because they clean out the garbage and who are physically beaten up if they do not follow their community’s norms. If you took a trip to Tumkur in southern India about 30 years ago, you would have seen this happening with your very eyes.

58-year-old Kaveri Ammal works as a domestic help in a neighborhood in Chennai in southern India. She leads a hard life, travelling 15 kilometers everyday to work in different neighborhoods and earning a salary of about 2,500 Rupees or around 50 dollars every month. Her work usually involves washing the dishes, cleaning the laundry, ironing, sweeping and washing the floors. Between her cleaning assignments, she takes a nap in a temple close by or visits her daughter or friends who live in the area.

Kaveri’s hardship doesn’t end here.

Living as a woman: does it have to be so tough all the time?

Last year, a woman was raped in a moving car in Kolkata. She was coming out of a five-star hotel on Kolkata’s posh Park Street when five young boys kidnapped her and later raped her. The victim, a mother of two daughters, did not find any compassion with the police in Kolkata. Today, she is working with an NGO which provides help for traumatized women. She spoke to DW correspondent Prabhakar Mani about her struggle to come to terms with her life.