The 22-year-old Devki had a dream: She wanted to be a taxi driver in Delhi, a city marred by violent crime against women and touted as the “rape capital of the world.” Film director Manuela Bastian accompanied this journey and spoke to WTO blogger Roma Rajpal Weiss.

Bhutan is often described as the last “Shangri-La” in the world. The country is undergoing a tremendous modernization process. There are better roads, schools and healthcare. More people are receiving an education.

My dad was downstairs watching the news, and I was upstairs pacing back and forth, dreading the very request I was about to ask: “Pa, can I try out for the high school basketball team?”

When I take a look around the world on “International Women’s Day” I am filled with horror.  Millions of my fellow women are fighting for sheer survival. Fighting for a life free from permanent violence, free from fear of their male surroundings. Fighting for an independent existence on a par with the male part of the population. And they are doing all this without much real hope of immediate success.

Women’s Day isn’t much of a thing in Germany. This is a pity considering that the holiday is the perfect occasion to highlight how far the country has come – and what still needs to change in terms of gender equality.

Seema Azis is one of the most prominent business leaders in South Asia. However, she is mostly known for her work in improving the education sector of Pakistan. Aziz runs more than 700 English medium schools in Pakistan for the underprivileged.

“Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it. It’s very confusing.”