We have just learned of the passing on August 9th of Mariéme Helie-Lucas, an Algerian sociologist and feminist activist committed to secularism for decades. Mariéme was certainly better known in the English-speaking world than in the French-speaking world. As a tribute, we are reproducing the post written by her friend Harsh Kapoor. My former partner,… Read More Marième / Marie-Aimée Helie-Lucas (1939-2026)
Through vindictive edict after edict, these five years have brought an ever-escalating repression of Afghan girls and women – with far too little done by any outside authority to speak up or stand up against the most egregious denial of girls’ rights in the world today. Flora Drury & BBC Afghan Taliban police used live fire to… Read More Two reportedly killed as women take part in rare protest in Afghanistan (9 June 2026)
NB: In September 23 2023, a BJP MP used filthy slurs against a Muslim MP on the floor of the house. Using foul language is permissible for the members of the ruling party. Their army of trolls uses the most filthy abuses and threats against critics of the ruling dispensation. Now they have all become very sensitive… Read More How women protesters became targets after the Jantar Mantar protest
Women’s quota stir from July 20 with call to delink reservation from census, delimitation Pheroze L. Vincent Multiple women’s rights groups on Friday jointly announced nationwide protests from July 20, coinciding with the start of the monsoon session of Parliament, to push for a constitutional amendment delinking the 33 per cent women’s quota from the… Read More Women’s quota stir from July 20 with call to delink reservation from census, delimitation
Generations of organisers and dissidents have kept the Iranian struggle alive Sahar Delijani Source: EQUATOR A protest in Tehran against mandatory veiling, 1979 / Courtesy Hengameh Golestan and Archaeology of the Final Decade 1. A few hours after I was born, my mother and I were taken back to prison. It was September 1983, four… Read More Hope Against Hope
By implementing 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs in government jobs, V.P. Singh tangibly helped the intended beneficiaries. Mr Modi’s move was defeated before it could create even a single beneficiary. V.P. Singh lost power despite Mandal but changed the political terrain of India for good. Mr Modi’s gambit has changed nothing structurally Bharat… Read More Was Women’s Quota Modi’s Failed Mandal Moment?
Opposition accuses Narendra Modi government of using quotas as cover for redrawing electoral map Hannah Ellis-Petersen The Indian government has failed to pass a bill to increase female representation in parliament after being accused of using the plan as a guise to redraw the country’s electoral map. It was the first time in 12 years… Read More India fails to pass bill to boost women’s representation after delimitation row
NB: India’s current ruling establishment does not even have the courage to say, “we will not let you speak becuase we do not like your ideas.” They resort instead to phrasemongering about ‘technical reasons’. Indian democracy is being strangled before our eyes. DS The Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University in Mumbai has cancelled its 16th Neera… Read More SNDT University cancels lecture by feminist historian Uma Chakravarti
Anti-regime pictures Hundreds of gunshot eye injuries found in one Iranian hospital amid brutal crackdown on protests Maryam Namazie A new nationwide wave of protest has spread across Iran since 28 December 2025. Initially triggered by acute economic collapse (currency freefall, sharp price rises for basic necessities, and renewed scarcity), it has rapidly become a… Read More Neither turban nor crown, but Woman, Life, Freedom
Netra News obituary for the first female prime minister of Bangladesh She became only the second woman ever elected prime minister in a Muslim-majority country, leading a party that liked to cast itself as the centre-right antidote to the Awami League’s secular nationalism. By the time her Bangladesh Nationalist Party returned to power in 2001,… Read More Begum Khaleda Zia, the walking contradiction
After the truth-shower 