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.

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.

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.

Being in your late 20s and choosing to be single is a challenge even in the year 2013. For a few years, I blamed the Indian focus on traditions and marriage until recently when I realized that women from other cultures think being single during one’s “marriageable age” is unusual too.

Everything was a failure that day,” says Jyoti’s companion on that fateful ride. From the taxi drivers who ignored the rules to the police “not working properly,” to the hospital facilities, which were “very poor”, to the indifference of the passers-by. In her last blog in the series on the rape incident that occurred last year in December in India, Dr. Kanchana Lanzet tries to capture the plight of the average Indian citizen.