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Saturday, October 17, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
PAKISTAN: New Wage Hike a Mere Palliative, Say Labour Advocates
Imran Ali, 23, has no reason to complain. His monthly take home pay of 8,600 Pakistan rupees (about 102 U.S. dollars) as a government employee allows him to augment his family’s meagre income.
PAKISTAN: Lack of Access to Contraception, Abortion Persist
Perween Riaz, 36, waited till after she gave birth to her sixth child before she finally got herself sterilised.PAKISTAN: Law May Drive Trade in Human Organs Underground
Already on dialysis, Sukhil Johal was told by her doctors in the United States that she needed a kidney transplant. But they also told her that it would probably take 10 years before a suitable one could be found for her.PAKISTAN: Prosthetics Give Needy A New Lease on Life
Thirty-something Shazia could not contain her joy as she watched an artificial leg being strapped on her right leg, just below her knee.
SOUTH ASIA: Water Shortage Calls for Second Look at Indus Treaty
Climate change and the probability that a current water shortage would worsen may make constantly bickering neighbours, India and Pakistan, take a closer look at a 50-year-old treaty under which they share rivers originating from the Himalayas.
RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Woman Politician Wins Even by Losing
Earnestness is still on her sunburnt face as she faces throngs of people just days after her defeat. Indeed, even as threats continue to come her way, Mai Jori has not given up on her dreams to help empower the women from her region and vows to contest the forthcoming local bodies’ elections.
PAKISTAN: In More Ways Than One, Bollywood Dancing Creates Waves
Saleha Firdaus, a mother of two teenage children, has been moving to the Bollywood beat at a dance studio for over a year now and "loves every moment" of this personal time. For her part, 22-year-old Maheen Jafri was a "bedroom dancer" until she discovered a Bollywood and hip-hop dance studio and "shed my inhibitions totally."
Q&A: 11.8 Seconds That Broke Taboos for Women
Dressed in an abaya (long, loose gown worn by women to cover their dress) and a headscarf, Naseem Hameed cannot be recognised as she alights from a crowded, rickety public bus to reach her destination – the sports stadium.PAKISTAN: Emergency Contraception More Popular, But Myths Abound
The first time he and his wife had an ‘accident’, 40-year-old Kamran Rehman worried that they may have inadvertently paved the way for child number three. A chemist he consulted, however, recommended that his wife try the emergency contraceptive pill (ECP).
PAKISTAN: Smoke-free Stoves A Godsend for Village Women
Forty-something and unlettered, Sona Siddiqi never imagined she would become the most sought-after woman in her village of Ramzan Katiar.
PAKISTAN: Transgenders Make Their Presence Felt at the Workplace
Dressed in women’s attire and a nose-pin errantly positioned on one nostril, 38-year-old Shahzadi adjusts her ‘dupatta’ (scarf) over her head as she enters the office of Cantonment Board Clifton, a provincial government bureau that recently hired her.PAKISTAN: Backlash Rises against Bill on Sexual Harassment
As a bill against sexual harassment of women inches closer to becoming a law in Pakistan, it is drawing fire from male politicians and conservative groups that have called it anywhere from un-Islamic to one that would lead women astray.
PAKISTAN: Anger Seethes Over Siddiqi Verdict, Questions Remain
Upon hearing that her daughter Aafia Siddiqi had been found guilty of shooting U.S. officers in Afghanistan in 2008, her mother Ismat distributed sweets in her home neighbourhood in this southern Pakistani city.PAKISTAN: Community Midwives Gain Recognition But Concerns Remain
As Kanwal Gul, 25, lay on the delivery table a year ago, preparing to give birth to her first child, she made sure the traditional birth attendant (TBA) assisting her knew exactly what to do. Put on the gloves, she instructed her.
PAKISTAN: Mental Illness among Women: Gender-Driven?
No sooner does a visitor step into the facility than a surreal scene unfolds: The sound of laughter, the sight of ready smiles and vigorous, pumping handshakes mix with the acrid odor of an unwashed human body and the unbearable stench of neglect that in turn combines with the heavy smell of medicine.PAKISTAN: Home-Based Workers Struggle to Climb Out of Poverty
Razia Khatoon, 36, crouches over a huge wooden frame, her eyes squinting in the dimly lit room inside a squatter settlement in Orangi town in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Not Quite a Happy Ending for Freed Fishermen
Tears streaming down his face, Abdul Karim, 40, stepped onto Pakistan soil for the first time in almost two years. He has just been released from prison for the crime of encroaching on India’s waters.PAKISTAN: War-Displaced Lament Poor Conditions
Wracked by intense violence in 2009, Pakistan has seen an unprecedented displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, which persists to this day.PAKISTAN: ‘Eye for an Eye’ Judgment Hailed, Denounced
For Fazeelat Bibi, 21, the last few days of 2009 have brought her some retribution, if not cheer. "Justice has been delivered," said the young woman, her voice void of any feelings.RIGHTS: Glimmer of Hope for Detained Pakistani Fishermen
Mai Asi has never stopped mourning for her two fishermen sons. They have been held behind bars in India for poaching in the waters of neighbouring Pakistan—a crime for which they were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.Q&A: Military Activity Driving Rapid Glacier Melting
For the past several years, water expert Arshad H. Abbasi has been calling attention to the environmental degradation of the Siachen Glacier, one of the Himalayan glaciers and the largest in the world outside of the polar regions.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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