I am a woman trying very hard to prove my worth and standing up against patriarchal mindsets every day. One of the peculiarities I have developed in this quest is the adoration of female super heroes. A woman icon who kicks butts reminds me of my own alter ego and indirectly satisfies my sick fantasies of throwing a punch or two at some men I have experienced. 

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If asked to relate Pakistan’s political situation to a literary work or character, my first suggestion would be, something Orwellian. Or maybe, an Aldous Huxley novel. What I would not compare it to, is Dickens’ Miss Havisham from Great Expectations; the old, frigid woman who is impossibly fixated on her past and refuses to let go. On the eve of elections 2013, however, I came across an article that did just that.

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Which colour would you like to wear on the most important day of your life? I say peach. But unlike me, most women in Pakistan would prefer wearing black, according to a Gallup survey in Pakistan. The empirical research was conducted to mark women’s day and was released recently. It studied several women’s issues, including their favourite colour and forms of violence they had been subjected to.

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Lady Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, has given birth to a baby boy. Acid attack victims in the past will not benefit from a latest law against the crime passed by the Indian Supreme Court and more than 30 million girls face genital mutilation in the next decade, says the UNICEF. Click to find out more about what women’s themes made it to the headlines.

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16-year-old Malala may be a heroine in her own right, having survived an attack by the Taliban. However, people in her country think there is a huge hype around her created by the local media. Afghanistan’s parliament is scheduled to discuss a law which will protect men who have committed crimes against women and bar dancers in Mumbai are getting back their jobs.

Find out which women’s themes made it to the headlines in South Asia.

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“Don’t kill me please… I have done nothing wrong… I was just enjoying the rain, I don’t want to die… please … for God’s sake, brother, don’t kill me!”

I was begging and trying to hide myself behind my mother who was also begging for my life. She was asking my cousins to pardon me for bringing shame to the family. We kept pleading, but they shot me. I was dying, as the words “family honour” kept flashing across my mind.

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A woman’s body is sin. Her existence invisible.

A man’s body is free. His existence supreme.

This is what the so-called advocates of Islam have said in many words. According to them, a woman raped is a woman scorned, as she herself is responsible for inviting a man to violate her. Her manner of inviting -stepping out of the house, not covered in layers of black cloth and not being with a male protector. And of course…

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