Safina Nabi

Have a story to tell, nuanced insights or expert analysis to share with a regional (i.e. Asia), even global, audience? Want to weigh in on specific issues afflicting humanity while the deadly virus rages on and wreaks havoc on our old ‘normal’? We’d love to hear from you.
We run features, op-eds, analyses, and other original contents that probe issues around human rights and civil liberties, and illuminate the challenges of democratic governance in Asia as states and societies cope with the C...

India’s hosting of the G20 Summit in the Indian-administered region of Kashmir brings both anticipation and concern, particularly regarding the region’s environment. This event will serve as the third G20 working group meeting on tourism held in Kashmir and will bring dignitaries from across the globe. While tourism promises substantial economic benefits and a needed boost to the region’s economy, there are legitimate concerns about its potential impact on the local environment.
India current...

I met a group of young women acid attack survivors who live together in Delhi’s Noida area. These women have not only endured pain but have faced rejection and humiliation from the public and their own families after they were attacked with acid. Their determination and efforts to rebuild their lives are impressive.
Together these girls support each other in their tough times and run a small cafe. This cafe is not only a business but a ray of hope for those acid attack survivors who have lost...

bout three hours of arduous driving and hiking from Nepal’s capital is a village nearly bereft of men. In Bethan Chowk, which is part of the municipality of Bethanchowk southeast of Kathmandu (see interactive map below), Madan Parihar is the only male resident who is no longer a teenager and who is always around. In truth, if he hadn’t suffered a stroke three years ago, chances are the 63-year-old, whose wife had died while he was in India, would be working far from the village, like the rest...

The deaths of children and young people related to contaminated cough syrups made by Indian companies have exposed India’s lack of regulation, which is also enabling the over-consumption of over-the-counter cough syrups in the country.
After completing her household chores, 42-year-old Shameema Akhter was tending to a cow outside her home in Shangas village in southern Kashmir. It was drizzling but the January sun had started to come out after a heavy snowfall. Akhter crossed the apple orchar...

On a frigid January afternoon, I traveled through the narrow lanes of downtown Srinagar in Kashmir to meet Shaista Bano. As I crossed tiny lanes filled with dirt, I asked people to direct me to her house. After following the flurry of instructions, I reached her house and knocked on the door. Bano peeped out of a small kitchen window, then stepped out to talk to me. Sitting on a parapet on the banks of the Jhelum River, the woman in her late 30s started speaking slowly about how she had sudde...

Social media and complex AI newsroom tools are combining to produce a toxic environment in which dangerous misinformation is flourishing
Two decades ago, science researchers and journalists would receive hard copies of professional journals and browse through them regularly to keep up with developments and the latest science news.
These days, anyone interested in science can find articles online using search engines and social media. The result has been a worrying rise in misinformation, whic...

These survivors have gotten tough — because their former traffickers remain free, and are lurking close by.
The road to Canning, a town in the southernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal, is narrow and lined on both sides with small ponds where residents breed fish. The houses along the route are mostly single-story mud dwellings with thatched roofs.
Canning is the site of a compound belonging to the NGO Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra, which fights human trafficking and is known loca...

The Drop

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Facing wicked problems in the environment and global health, these rising scientists have their eyes on solutions.

When 27-year-old doctoral candidate Ayushi Chauhan first heard of the Falling Walls Science Summit held in the vicinity of the old Berlin Wall, she knew she had to participate. Held annually since the 20th anniversary of the wall's histo...

New Delhi:

Paulomi Biswas had been married for only two weeks when her husband stunned her with a sudden announcement: He was leaving for Canada the very next day – without her.

“The news came as a shock. It was difficult for me to accept it as a newlywed bride,” recalled the 30-year-old. “That was the last time I saw him.”

Anay Kumar Biswas had seemed like a great candidate for an arranged marriage – working in Canada, with a permanent resident application already in progress. But things did...

Demand for electricity erases a way of life in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Shama Begum is sitting with her back up against her kitchen wall. She wears a traditional Kameez Shalwar, her head draped in a pink headdress, as she recalls how beautiful her former village was and how she enjoyed working in the fields and tending to the cattle.
Begum was born and brought up in the Kishtwar district, a region of dense forest nearly 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Jammu, the winter capital of ...

Female journalists from different regions speak out

It has been five months since Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli forces while covering army raids in the West Bank's Jenin.

Her death prompted global outrage as the veteran television correspondent for Al Jazeera was wearing a press vest when she was killed and was not in close proximity to any violent conflict. The incident triggered a new focus on the increasing number of attacks against women journa...

Paulomi Biswas had been married for only two weeks when her husband stunned her with a sudden announcement: he was leaving for Canada the very next day – without her.
“The news came as a shock. It was difficult for me to accept it as a newlywed bride,” recalled the 30-year-old. “That was the last time I saw him.”
Anay Kumar Biswas had seemed like a great candidate for an arranged marriage – working in Canada, with a permanent resident application already in progress. But things didn’t quite g...

Aimed at generating 5,190 megawatts of hydroelectricity, these projects will, however, affect the lives of over 20,000 locals, including members of Indigenous communities who depend on the forest for survival.
Sewarbatti was a small village with only 36 households. Only construction workers now occupy the lands and the once-bustling village is a ghost town. These families together owned 230 kanals of land, which was acquired by the government to construct the Dungduro hydropower project with ...