NAWAF Al-SABAH WRITES– Rahaf Al-Qunun captured international attention at the beginning of the year as she sought to escape her allegedly abusive family. Rahaf, who is Arabian, barricaded herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room to prevent Thai authorities from deporting her. She had been detained at the Bangkok airport…
CHELSEA SALAC WRITES– On December 17 last year, Catriona Gray won the Title of Miss Universe 2018. “It’s our Superbowl. The level of support that Filipinos give the arena of pageantry is phenomenal,” 25-year-old beauty queen Catriona Gray explains. The Philippines, a country that dominates International Beauty Pageants, has produced…
(Certain names in the story have been shortened to protect the person’s identity.) AASHNA MALPANI WRITES– I hear a piercing wail in the background. My source puts the phone on hold for a minute, then returns with apologies: “Sometimes I wish I never had him.” She sounds exasperated, complaining about…
ANAS ALZAHRANI WRITES — While countries around the world are buying into the “this is what a feminist looks like” mentality, China still seems to maintain its distaste for the movement. Yet despite strict regulations to curb radical voices, activists refuse to stay quiet: especially the Feminist Five. The group…
AASHNA MALPANI WRITES – In the streets of Hyesan city, North Korea, a woman in her forties makes ends meet by selling clothes and textiles to local markets. A guard or a police officer stops her, demanding she follow him to an empty room or other such location. She complies.…
TOM PLATE WRITES — Chinese authorities who fret about a Cold War with the U.S. might also want to analyze – unemotionally – another possible threat to domestic tranquility: a kind of brewing ‘cold’ war between the genders – at home, upfront and personal. One vista of future shock was…
SHIRI FISHMAN WRITES – The United States has been witnessing an epidemic of sexual harassment allegations in Hollywood and elsewhere. In October, movie producer and Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein was fired by his own company amid sexual assault claims from numerous women. Similar accusations were subsequently leveled at gay actor…
