World

When I first arrived in Vienna, way back in 1982, I made a beeline for the city office of Solidarity. At that time the popularity of Lech Walesa, founder of Solidarity two years earlier in Poland, was at its peak. Not much was known about eastern European countries in those days. It was extremely difficult for people of those countries to travel abroad and foreigners found it almost impossible to visit. But there was so much to know about what was going on in that closed country. The question was how?

Bangladesh has erupted in massive secular protests demanding justice against Islamists who unleashed mass murder and rape during the liberation war
Syed Zain Al-Mahmood Dhaka

The Bangladesh upsurge is a watershed moment in the life of South Asian Islam which is accommodating, deeply secular and has enriched the culture of this region. Can Pakistan see a Shahbag?
Sanjay Kapoor Delhi

Despite the hawks on TV channels, it would be dangerous to let the LoC incident snowball — especially with elections nearing
Sanjay Kapoor Delhi

West or East, it seems that the plight of many women worldwide is depressing. In Europe, at least 45 per cent of women face physical abuse, and 10 per cent have suffered sexual abuse at some stage in their lives. European Union figures show that at least 1,000 women die every year due to domestic violence. For the same reason, European countries continue to struggle to put domestic violence at the centre of all reforms of national policies.

Women became second-class citizens in Iran after the Iranian revolution of 1979. After the revolution, the Islamic regime forced veiling, invoked polygamy, gender segregation, surveillance, and revoked laws under the Shah which gave limited space and freedom to women
Shakeel Anjum Delhi