Traveling, safety and power are deeply interlinked in the populous, diverse and inherently patriarchal country of India. Because of this complexity, women have often refrained from traveling by themselves. In Kerala, however, things may be changing.

Make-up artist Solongo Batsukh competing in the Miss Universe Mongolia competition in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Though she fell short of representing her country at the Miss Universe contest in Thailand on December 17, her participation shed another light onto a group living on the edges of a deeply patriarchical country with conservative views about sexual orientation.

Dr Valarmathy with the three other founders of the project, Chloe (in blue), Farah Ainn (back row, left) and Winnie (back row, right), with volunteer Olivia.

MOST people would probably feel that picking up trash is an unappealing activity, but not the eye doctor and nature lover Dr. Valarmathy Vaiyavari.

Questions have been asked time and again about the real person behind the myth that was Marilyn Monroe. A new exhibition gives fresh insight into the blonde bombshell’s private life.

read more

Women knit during a Christmas workshop to teach embroidery in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth, December 6, 2018. Picture taken December 6, 2018.

As Nazareth was decked out for Christmas, a group of weavers gathered in the cobblestone alleys of Israel’s largest Arab city, intent on preserving their Palestinian heritage at a time when their communities feel under pressure.

Formin Akter, a Rohingya refugee girl, smiles as she poses for a picture before heading to Chittagong to attend school at the Asian University for Women, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, August 24, 2018. Picture taken August 24, 2018.

On the first day of the school year at the Asian University for Women in southern Bangladesh, groups of teenage girls in skinny jeans, sleeveless tops and T-shirts chattered, their laughter carrying through the sticky air.

A beautician arranges products for sale at an aestethic clinic in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on October 30, 2018.For three years, Mosul’s women were covered in black from head to toe and its men had to keep their beards long. Salons were shut, and plastic surgery considered a crime.