Meena Kandasamy leaves no stone unturned when she wants to express herself. Probably that’s the reason why her anger and her angst reveal themselves in her poetry through her “dark and dangerous” language.  Meena’s poem, “Nailed”  from her book “Ms. Militancy” is a good example.

Irom Sharmila, an activist from the northeast Indian state of Manipur has been protesting against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the AFSPA, since over a decade now. In India’s attempts to maintain the sovereignty of its territories, the state has transgressed its authority several times, raping, looting and killing locals, leading to mass misery and suffering among common people living in these areas and providing added incentive to separatist movements. Irom, as she is commonly known, is now facing trial for going on hunger strike and trying to take her own life. An eye-witness account from Womentalk blogger Vishwadeepak.

“Kashmiri society seems to be turning intolerant towards the girl child. We seem to be nearing a society that desires to have an all-male population,” writes Rabia Noor.

Why does violence against women happen in the first place? Can one hold social and economic backwardness responsible? And what role does one’s upbringing play in creating the ‘Indian male?’ In her third blog in the series, Dr. Kanchana Lanzet speaks about how the male identity changes when a person migrates from his village to a big city like New Delhi.

Balochistan is one of the 5 provinces of Pakistan. It’s important for not only its geographical location but for its vast natural resources. Quetta is the capital city of Balochistan and is home to different communities including the Hazara.

For the last two to three years, Quetta has been under a severe security threat and thousands have lost their lives due to the significant level of terrorism. In the beginning of 2013, a suicide blast took the lives of hundreds of people in Quetta. Again, very recently another suicide attack killed more than 90 people.