Stories about South Asia from February, 2014
[Photos]: Birds Of Bangladesh
For a foreigner it’s hard to identify birds in Bangladesh as local books often have the wrong names in English, and Western books don’t have the Bangla names. The Face of Bangla blog and Jacob and Sanna's blog tried to help by posting popular birds’ pictures with both Bangla and...
Film Documents America's “Invisible” Drone War in Pakistan
"We speak to journalists, activists and experts inside and outside of Pakistan about the consequences of the strikes in the tribal FATA region."
The Only Pakistani at the Sochi Olympics Taught Himself to Ski on Wooden Planks
While he has growing up in northern Pakistan, close to some of the highest slopes in the world, Mohammad Karim taught himself to ski on home-made equipment made by his uncle from wooden planks. Now he is his Pakistan’s sole representative at the Sochi Winter Olympics. More about his journey in this...
Controversial Sindh Festival Accused of Risking Ancient Ruins for Flashy Kickoff
The festival celebrating the rich and vast cultural heritage of Sindh drew ire from some for its decision to hold the theatrical opening ceremony at the ancient ruins of Mohenjo-daro.
An Info-Activism Tool-Kit on Women's Rights Campaigning
The Women's Rights Campaigning: Info-Activism Toolkit by Tactical Technology Collective is a new guide for women's rights activists, advocates, NGOs and community based organizations who want to use technology tools and practices in their campaigning. This has been developed in collaboration with advocacy organizations from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Kenya and...
Tanqeed's Bi-Weekly List of Recommended Readings On Pakistan
Tanqeed, a quarterly magazine on politics and culture on Tumblr, is an experiment in critical reflection on Pakistan. It is a blogzine, a scrapbook and a reporters’ notebook. This year, Tanqeed is accepting recommendations of lectures, essays, articles, videos on a range of subjects including politics, culture and society from...
India's Solar Vision Promises Clean Energy And Happy Farmers
The Indian government is aiming to replace 26 million diesel-powered groundwater pumps with more efficient solar-powered irrigation models. The country also plans to build the world's largest solar power plant.
Veteran Sri Lankan Journalist Murdered in Her Home
Mel Gunasekera was the founding editor of the Lanka Business Online, an online financial news service website, and a former reporter for French news agency Agence France-Presse.
Legalizing And Regulating The Sex workers in Sri Lanka
Shilpa Samaratunge, a development worker, discusses in Groundviews about the problems surrounding the sex workers in Sri Lanka. Instead of abolishing and criminalizing them, which is the path Sri Lanka currently is on, she suggests to legalize the profession and impose regulation and provide health-services for the sex workers.
A Video That Made 50 Schools Safe
Video Volunteers Community Correspondent Amit Topno from Torpa Block, Jharkhand talks about making a video that brought about a positive change that had potentially saved the lives of 5000 people across 35 villages in his state. When his video explaining the problem of lightning strikes and the inaction of the...
Pakistani Superhero Ms. Marvel
It's a comic book. And yet, while I did a lot of laughing [it's got a lot of funny moments] I also couldn't stop the tears. Because I was so happy to see a version of myself reflected before me, not sensationalized or stereotyped. Blogger Aisha Saeed posts a review...
Anniversary of The Shahbag Movement
February 5th marks the one year of the Shahbag Movement in Bangladesh. A three day long event (5-7 of February) was celebrated in the country and abroad to mark this movement. Images and information of the celebration can be found in the Gonojagoron Moncho Facebook page.
Pakistani Journalists on Taliban Hit-List
The Taliban have issued a fatwa against some Pakistani media houses and prepared a hit list with the names of two dozen journalists and publishers.
Taliban Play Trump with Peace Talks in Pakistan
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said regardless of the recent deadly attacks by the Taliban, Pakistan hopes that its talks-first approach will help end the violence in the country.
Hollywood-Style Bank Heist in Bangladesh Ends in Arrest
A pair of men managed to steal 169 million Bangladeshi taka (about 2.2 million US dollars) from a bank vault by digging a 30-foot-long underground tunnel leading to it.