Former cricketer Imran Khan will also contest in this year’s elections

This was my first voting experience during the local government Elections in Karachi in 2007. All I wanted to do was cast my vote to the party whose Mayor had performed extraordinarily during his tenure. Interestingly or unfortunately, the person demanding my ballot paper belonged to the very same party. Much to my dismay, I was forced to give my ballot paper in front of the staff that was present there, the personnel of security agencies and Election Commission of Pakistan. These institutions later claimed that the election process was totally “free and fair”. That made me so upset that I decided never to cast my vote again.

Dalar, Uttarakhand, 11.04.2013

I have pondered for quite some time if I should write this article at all. So much has been said about the safety of women in India following the events on 16 December 2012 in Delhi when six men gang-raped a young woman who later died from her horrendous injuries that I feel the term “gang-rape” is used with an awful ease these days. Having spent the past 100 days mostly on my own in India, in places big and small, crowded and deserted, in people’s homes and hotels, on streets, trains and buses, I feel a need to express my view to other female solo travellers who might be concerned about whether India is a safe place to go.

The images of Amina Tyler, a 19-year-old Tunisian Muslim woman agitating against the  oppression of women in her society by  posing topless have gone viral followed by rumors of her arrest and being sent for psychiatric treatment. The incident simply calls for mobilizing support to save the woman from any possible backlash, but the feminists of our modern world seem to have gone bonkers.

Journalist Nadia Sharmin

The recent political turmoil in Bangladesh has taken various turns and twists in the last two months. I have spoken about the spirit of Shahbag, war criminals, atheism and so many other issues. I always think, talk and write as a human being. The joys I experience, the disappointments I face, successes that I achieve all are above any gender issues. I hardly consider myself to be different as a female. I am glad simply to have been born. It doesn’t give me extra pride nor doesn’t make me insecure about being a woman.

Simone Ludwig is a piano teacher and an author of children’s books. Her first book in German, “Pitt – The small Flea” has been immensely successful across Germany and is the story of a flea which lives in a piano.

Ruchi: 18 is not old enough

While premarital sex is still a taboo in the Indian society, doctors, lawyers and social workers believe there are several cases of premarital sex among teenagers and the numbers are increasing by the day. Many people believe that the laws need to be tweaked to fit in with the changing social norms.  Womentalk blogger Debarati Mukherjee spoke to five Indian women from diverse backgrounds and recorded their reactions to the changing laws.