Womentalkonline wants to hear what you have to say! The DW Global Media Forum is focusing on education this year and our readers are invited to write a blog of around 300 words on their experiences at school.

Manasi Gopalakrishnan

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy’s iconic novel on his famous female protagonist begins with the now popular quote: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Much of it is true for women – happy women are happy because they like who they are, regardless of being single, married or in a relationship. Unhappy women may be unhappy with their lonely lives as a singleton in Berlin, a partner in a troubled relationship in Bonn, a daughter in a big family with a million physical restrictions in a small town in India, a teenager suffering physical violence in Pakistan, a woman in Kashmir waiting for the curfew to get over so she can buy groceries. As cliché-ed as it may sound, suffering women across the world have a thousand problems they could list, which is precisely why we choose to address these issues specifically in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan at womentalkonline.
South Asia is at a turning point. Modern-day life and rapid industrialization is taking its toll on old cultural practices and on the role of men and women. The challenge for women is enormous: they are more educated than ever before, they have aspirations, they want a life and a career. At the same time, religious and cultural restrictions are causing tension and forcing women to redefine their