• What the Women Say: Elusive Peace, Pervasive Violence: Sri Lankan Women’s Struggle for Security & Justice Spring 2013- The 8th brief in ICAN’s “What the Women Say” series focuses on women in Sri Lanka’s northern provinces in the aftermath of war. Drawing on a survey conducted in ten war-torn districts and discussions with over 450 women, it reflects on women’s legal gains and their activism for peace and human rights while also highlighting the critical security, economic and social risks that many women face. The recommendations we offer to the Sri Lankan government and the international community reflect the survey findings and priorities outlined in the 2012 Sri Lankan Women’s Agenda on Peace, Security and Development. (International Civil Society Action Network, Spring 2013)

• Arunima Sinha, who had lost a leg after being thrown off a moving train, today created history by becoming the first amputee to scale Mount Everest Sinha said her elder brother encouraged her when she disclosed her willingness to climb the world's highest peak, after getting an artificial limb. (OutlookIndia.com, 21 May 2013)

• A marriage of 22 years, a union of 3 months, and a struggle of two decades. Devinder's only "fault", Navneet says, is that he was an engineer and professor who felt strongly about his students who went missing during the dark days of militancy in Punjab. And that he spoke openly about it. She calls him Professor. In the 22 years of their marriage, they have been together just three months. As the 48-year-old battles courts and governments to hold on to a husband who is slowly losing his mind, it speaks perhaps of a yearning that things had turned out differently. (Pritha Chatterjee, 26 May 2013)

• Working to Stop Violence Against Women Two activists spoke with India Real Time about violence against women and what people can do to help fight the problem and change attitudes. (India Real Time, May 13, 2013)

• Identity and Home in Meira Chand's novels Anu Kumar writes about Meira Chand's body of work, from her first novel in the 1970s to her most recent. (for Sawnet, Jul 2011)

• Meira Kumar to be India's first woman speaker Ms Kumar, who has been elected to parliament five times, is the daughter of the late Babu Jagjivan Ram, a prominent Dalit leader and former deputy prime minister of India. (BBC World News, 2 June 2009)

• Stripped Assam woman in poll bid A tribal woman who was stripped and assaulted in India's north-eastern state of Assam is to contest the parliamentary elections. (BBC World News, 10 Mar 2009)

• Widows: the world's forgotten women Widows are mistreated around the world and have little protection. (NewsBlaze, 4 Feb 2009)

• Pakistan's girl band creates a stir The Lahore-based Zeb and Haniya are Pathans who write their own music which is influenced by American folk, swing, jazz and blues, Bollywood, Turkish and Lebanese music and the homegrown qawwali and ghazal. (Listen to their music online at http://www.zebandhaniya.com) (BBC News, 22 Dec 2008)

• Bhutanese take divorce in their stride Bhutan differs from its neighbours India, Nepal and Bangladesh in that divorce and love marriages are common. (BBC News, 24 Dec 2008)

• Pizza Grannies Two women in their 70s run a flourishing pizza business in Bangalore. (Women's Feature Service, )

• Daughters in the Parent Trap Madhu Kishwar writes about their experiences with abused women who are encouraged to return to their husbands. (Women's Feature Service, )

• Afghanistan's top policewoman shot dead Lt-Col Malalai Kakar, head of Kandahar's department of crimes against women, was shot in her car as she was about to leave for work. (BBC World News, 28 Sep 2008)

• Nepal’s ASMITA Brings Women Powerful Advocacy ASMITA was the first-ever public media presence to give voice to Nepalese women’s human rights. Surprisingly, ASMITA was able to launch its media presence because women’s rights in Nepal at the time were silenced and forgotten. Asmita website. (Women News Network, 10 Jan 2008)

• Wealthy New Yorker jailed for keeping slaves Varsha Sabhnani, 46, was convicted with her husband, Mahender Sabhnani, in December of forced labour, peonage, harbouring aliens, document servitude and conspiracy. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison for keeping two Indonesian women as slaves, forcing them to work up to 20 hours a day for years after confiscating their passports. (Sydney Morning Herald, 27 June 2008)

• A Nation's Lowest Women Work Under Severe Degradation In spite of the modernization of many parts of India, the age old custom of using dry -- non-flush -- toilets have exposed many bio-hazards to women in India who work as manual scavengers. (Women News Network, 12 May 2008)

• Fahmida Mirza elected first woman speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly The former doctor was elected by 249 out of 342 votes. She is a veteran politician from Sindh and a loyalist of Benazir Bhutto's PPP party. (Dawn, 19 Mar 2008)

• Taslima Nasrin "exiled again" Protests by Muslim groups forced her into hiding in Nov 2007. After months of confinement she has decided to move to Europe. (BBC World News, 19 Mar 2008)

• The story of the £9 jeans Fred Pearce tracks the origins of his jeans to a group of sweatshop seamstresses in Dhaka, who work long hours producing clothes that are sold in Wal-Mart and Gap, H&M and M&S, Sears and Asda. But they also gain a measure of financial independence. (Independent, UK, 28 Feb 2008)

• 160 refugee Sri Lankan women workers return Sri Lankan women who were working in the Middle East sought refuge in embassies, citing citing harassment, non payment of wages, abuse by employers and agents and the like. At least 160 will return to Sri Lanka. (Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka., 28 Feb 2008)

A random selection of previous news items..

• Haryana boys heading south in search of brides A shortage of women in Haryana and poverty in Kerala leads to Haryana-Kerala marriages. (Hindustan Times , June 2007)

• The Algebra of Infinite Justice. Arundhati Roy in the Guardian, 29 Sep 01. See also counterpoint by Salil Tripathi.
  I told a Pakistani friend not to stand up in the plane. Kamila Shamsie in the Guardian, 27 Sep 01.
  I'm not the enemy. Reshma Memom Yaqub in the Washington Post, 13 Sep 01.
  I want to be protected from the intolerant. Radhika Yeddanapudi in Rediff, 13 Sep 01. Sep 2001)

  Every Act is Political Shauna Singh Baldwin interviews Samina Ali 2004)

  The Myth of Matriliny. Empowerment still eludes Meghalaya's women. (indiatogether.org, Apr 2002)

  Trapped on an H-4 visa Well qualified, English-speaking Indian women come to the U.S. to join their husbands who are H-1B visa holders. What follows next, for some, is a cycle of extreme abuse. The Hindu. Also see H4 wives often adjust to isolated lives sans paychecks. India New England. (Both articles by Shivali Shah, June 2006)

  Holders of the Word Interview with Bharati Mukherjee ( in Jouvert, 1997)

  Message to Vijay: Tee off, don't sound off. Roopa Unnikrishnan writes a response to Vijay Singh's dismissal of women in golf. (Rediff, May 2003)

  Scimitars in the Sun N. Ram interviews Arundhati Roy about a writer's place in politics. (Frontline, Jan 2001)

  Bharati Mukherjee on Mother Teresa as part of Time's 100 Most Important People of the Century. (Time, Dec 1999)

  Stranger in a familiar land. While the governments of Pakistan and India are struggling to resolve their differences, the people of the two countries have more in common than they might imagine, as Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie discovered when she went to work in Madras. (Guardian, Feb 2004)