Ayesha Farooq made a big name as the first female fighter pilot in Pakistan and South Asia. Her achievement was widely covered by the national and the international media. While speaking exclusively to Deutsche Welle, the 26-year old-woman from Bahawalpur, a small district of Pakistan, said, “I always wanted to wear a uniform and the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) gave me this opportunity. Now I am serving Pakistan on the front lines”.

Indian author Sushmita Banerjee falls prey to an alleged Taliban attack, a Sudanese woman risks flogging to protest an anti-Taliban law, Coca Cola will empower five million women entrepreneurs by 2020 and Pakistan sees an increase in several forms of extreme violence against women. Read more to find about the latest in women’s news.

This campaign poster of Germany’s ruling party CDU says “Women for the CDU”

Women in Germany are quite enthusiastic about voting in the upcoming elections and believe that participating in elections can bring a change in their lives. Beenish Javed spoke to some women from different educational and professional backgrounds about what they expected from the leading candidates.

“Don’t allow your daughter to join horse riding,” advised my mother. The reason for this comment was coming out of her concern for safety- not of my seven-year-old daughter, but the safety of her virginity.

Meerzadi, driving her rickshaw

Meerzadi is a 24 year old woman from Pakistan. I call her on her phone while she is at her home in Moak Sharif, a small village in Sindh, Pakistan. She happily greets me on the phone. There’s enthusiasm and energy in her voice. Meerzadi comes from a poor family in Sindh. Her motivation to break the shackles of poverty forced her to follow a way of life that is not so common among women in her area.

A police car at Angela Merkel’s political rally

I wake up in the morning thinking whether it’s the right thing to go to a political rally in Bonn. There would be so many people- what if there is some terror attack? Since it’s Germany, the probability of attack is very low. So I convince myself that it’s completely okay and safe to attend a political rally here in Bonn.

In the tube in Bonn, Germany

Women empowerment is about many things. The right to education, the right to work, the right to making choices, but ever since I’ve come to Bonn, I’ve been thinking of one factor that could contribute to  making women more independent.