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India
Scores of Indian women have taken to social media declaring themselves "Happy to Bleed," after the head of a famous Hindu temple said he would consider allowing women in if there was a machine to check that they were not menstruating.
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Aarefa Johari is a journalist and an activist working to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Bohra Community in India. Her work has touched the lives of several families - some of whom have come back to Aarefa with the self-promise to the effect that they will not circumcise their girls.
Given the number of incidents one hears about, reads about, and watches reports of, on the news, it doesn’t take much effort to really arrive at the true conclusion: that safety is still elusive. Instead of sitting back and attempting to reach out to safety through measures doled out by another, Shruti Kapoor decided to get on the other side of the fence and make a difference for girls world over.
Life has been transformed for the 2,400 residents of Dharnai, a village in Bihar, India’s poorest state, by the completion of a solar-powered micro-grid, bringing them light and power for all their daily needs after 30 years with no electricity.
In Jammu and Kashmir state, mental illness is stigmatized, especially among girls and women...
Chintapakka Jambulamma, 34, looks admiringly at a solar dryer. It’s the prized possession of the Advitalli Tribal Women’s Co-operative Society- a collective of women entrepreneurs that she leads.
Shimmying up coconut trees to harvest coconuts was always a man’s job in India. But Lissy Thottiyil, a 43-year-old mother in southwestern Kerala state, is among a rising number of women bucking the trend.
The holy city of Vrindavan in India is known as a popular Hindu pilgrimage centre but it is also known as the 'city of widows', with an estimated 20,000 calling it home.
The ancient Hindu tradition of widows throwing themselves on their husband's funeral pyre to join his soul in death was banned by the British in 1829. Yet the long-held belief that a widow's fate is intertwined with that of her husband continues in many parts of India today. Many are shunned by their family and are seen as a financial drain.
Vilasini Ramachandra lilts through a field in delicate sandals in southern India's Kerala state, proudly pointing out the bounty she and her friends have teased from the rich earth: here the tapioca; there the elephant yams; farther afield, the turmeric.
Many Indian villagers blame evil spirits, and stigma still runs deep. As suicides soar, officials focus on training community-based mental health workers.
A woman in New Delhi speaks of a life lived in fear after the December gang rape and fatal beating of a 23-year-old on a commuter bus.
When Ayesha was 13, she fell in love with a man who promised to marry her and nurture her singing aspirations, but instead turned out to be a sex trafficker....