News and views from the Blavatnik School of Government community 
Friday, 20 January 2017, marked the beginning of a new era in American politics and global history. Thousands gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the inauguration of Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, and participate in the festivities of the day. Inauguration Day is […]
Martha’s daughter was only 12 years old when a group of men raped her in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. The police arrested one of the attackers, but did not refer the case for prosecution – an outcome that, Martha believes, had a lot to do with her inability to […]
Groping is not punishable by law, and the ‘no’ of a rape victim does not suffice for rape to be punishable as such. This disgraceful situation needs to change. The great wave of groping in Germany continues unchallenged, everyday and beyond ‘Cologne’. One in three women in the EU experiences […]
Dark Clouds. Downpour. Determined still. To brave it all and listen to the woman who elaborated Why Women Still Can’t Have It All. Brandishing a fractured wrist in a bandage, Anne Marie-Slaughter recounted how phenomenal her female nurse in Davos was and well, how her replacement male nurse was not […]
On November 24, 2015, the National Assembly (NA) of Vietnam passed a new Civil Code which allows Gender Transformation in Vietnam. This Code, which consists of 27 chapters and 689 articles, will take effect from January 1st , 2017. Like in other countries around the world, homosexual behavior and transgender […]
In Rwanda there is a saying. “The woman is the heart of the house, so if your heart is working well the whole body is also to benefit.” Many people in Pakistan may only relate Rwanda with the 2004 Hollywood flick, Hotel Rwanda, which tells the compassionate tale of a […]
On a balmy Bangalore morning, amidst flower sellers and office goers, as my driver stopped the car at the raised hand of the traffic police woman, he remarked confidently that even if he sped past her she would not do anything. When I asked him why, he reduced the volume […]
Last week, I launched a campaign to contest the Canadian federal nomination for the New Democratic Party in my hometown riding of Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan. Canada is preparing for a federal election in October, and after almost 10 years of Conservative rule our multi-party political system is primed for an […]