"You mute the colors to keep the emotions there, because that is what matters most in a place like Kashmir." Mumbai-based photographer Avani Rai first traveled to the Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir five years ago.…
"I knew that they have just one goal: they want to see me out of journalism." The calls came to Tajik journalist Humayra Bakhtiyar at her sports club, at the shopping center and at home.…
"You really feel like your country has betrayed you." Sonali Samarasinghe remembers the last words of her husband, Lasantha Wickrematunge, on the day in 2009 when he was killed: “Don’t worry, I got it under…
"Work is something that brings back confidence." Shiro Oguni had ordered a hamburger, but he wasn't all that surprised when his server brought him a plate of fried dumplings instead. The Japanese television director was…
"We're sort of aware of that we're in a building that's on fire." When she was eight, Pamela Longobardi nearly drowned in the Atlantic while bodysurfing in New Jersey. A riptide sucked her towards an…
"It just makes you feel like it's a kind of punishment growing up." Taboos around menstruation remain strong in India. In some parts of the country, women having their period can't sleep in their homes,…
"The problems started when I did not confess to any crimes and when I refused to wear the prison uniform" Dang Xuan Dieu has paid a heavy price for resisting the Vietnamese government. A community…
An Indian sociologist has made ending open defecation his life's work Try to imagine: you feel the urge to relief yourself. But instead of your normal routine, the first thing you have to do is…
"She was supposed to get married at 13 to a boy that she never met before." For many couples across the world, marriage is a romantic union between two people ready to embark on the…
In January, a Japanese woman in her sixties filed a lawsuit against the government seeking compensation of 11 million yen ($100,000) for being forcibly sterilized as a teenager under Japan's Eugenic Protection Law. The suit,…
