• Faced with an agonizingly long and often unproductive legal fight, some women seek divorce by Khula at Bahrain's Ministry of Justice building, effectively giving up their rights. Photograph by Biju Haridas. •

Fadhila’s case against her teen sweetheart was dismissed in court because according to the judge, meeting the sexual demands of her husband is a religious obligation. The judge also wasn’t convinced of his controlling nature. Her husband testified his jealousy kept him from giving Fadhila more freedom. His brothers, he explained, live with them at the family house and he just isn’t comfortable letting Fadhila use the toilet when they are around.

After the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) admitted to a major mistake in its 2007 report, which asserted the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, skeptics and opponents alike went on the offensive, using the admission as proof that climate change is a fabrication. Though the 2035 deadline may no longer be valid, global warming is surely having an effect on the ground and activists are now faced with an even tougher challenge.

Climate change has affected nearly every country in the world, irrespective of the role it has played in polluting the environment. Lying in the lap of the great Himalayas, Kashmir is one such place, and we are already feeling its impact.

The most emotionally and politically-charged documentary of the year is about a surprisingly original subject: the domestic pets that were lost or left behind in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Mine artfully portrays the class discrimination, utter chaos, and distress that surround one of the worst disasters to occur in the United States in recent history. At the heart of the film are the helpless pets that were forced to fend for themselves and then, after surviving Katrina, were not reunited with their owners.

This past weekend I was invited to keynote the Global Women’s Conference at CSU Fullerton. It was a great opportunity for me to reflect on the journey that we’ve been on here at The WIP and a chance to share the incredible hope that I feel.

For the first time in my life, I see a clear pathway to a future that is sustainable, safe, and free from oppression. Today I feel convinced, down to a cellular level, that the solutions and answers to every issue our global society faces – from the grave injustices committed against women and children to the severe effects of climate change and poverty – can be found in the global women’s movement – a movement that is growing, transformative, and one that I predict will take the world by force this decade.

Once one of Turkey’s biggest public producers of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, TEKEL has outlets and factories all over the country. But ever since the Turkish giant opted for privatization and terminated about 10,000 employment contracts, its former employees have been fighting for labor rights protection and equitable compensation. Left with nothing but a termination notice, the workers have converged in the Turkish capital of Ankara and launched what has become the greatest protest the country has seen for 30 years. Camped out in tents in front of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Union’s (TURK-IS) headquarters for more than two months now, the number of strikers continues to grow. Despite freezing cold temperatures and snow, the strike continues to gain momentum and support as more protesters join them daily.

Today Afghanistan finds itself in a state of collapse and at the center of a powerful network of global terrorism. Kabul is a city filled with anxiety, insecurity, instability, trauma, and uncertainty; lost souls at the mercy of warlords turned government officials and disillusioned by development aid that has only reached and made a small sector of society obscenely rich. Suicide bombs, corruption, military planes, armored vehicles, and convoys of tanks are a regular part of everybody else’s lives.

With her large flashing eyes rimmed with kohl and flowing hair, she is the quintessential dancer. Despite her chain-smoking, she is the picture of health and surprisingly agile. But then again, she has been breaking down traditional stereotypes for years as an acclaimed dancer in a country where dancing is frowned upon. Moreover, she has distinguished herself by performing "Hindu" dances in a country whose arch-rival is “Hindu India”.

The annual Bidhannagar Fair at Kolkata’s Central Park is a swarm of enthusiastic children and their parents. Amidst the tangle of toy vendors and the squeaking and jarring sounds of their toys, seven-year-old Khushi picks out a plastic doll. Brightly colored, the doll is Barbie’s clone, the only difference is that it costs a mere INR 30 (0.64 USD). It’s a cheap substitute for the popular brand and it’s dangerously toxic.

Barker is aware of her own complicated position as a colonial outsider in the bittersweet story she shares, and smartly uses her power to leverage an increasing awareness of the challenges faced by this small South Asian country that has been persistently ravaged by conflict and a recent natural disaster that stunned the world.

“The one thing you can never ask yourself is ‘why’, because with suicide there is never an answer.” Though my 83 year-old grandmother’s advice rings true, the question haunts me nonetheless: why did my cousin Kevin, a 26-year old Marine Lance Corporal, take his own life after returning from his second tour in Iraq?

I search for answers with his immediate family, but few clues are forthcoming. My father’s brother, a retired Navy pilot, is grieving quietly. My aunt, so proud of my cousin when he wore his dress uniform, is angry at him for being “so stupid.” Meanwhile, my own family stands lamely on the periphery – wanting to show our love and support, but incapable of entering that inner sanctum shared by those in the armed forces.

So goes the entirety of the 17th untitled poem in Vera Pavlova’s new collection, If There is Something to Desire: 100 Poems. A bestselling poet in her native Russia, with her work translated into 19 languages, this is the first full collection of Pavlova’s to appear in English (though her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, and Tin House). Born in Moscow in 1963, Pavlova studied music at the Schnittke College of Music and the Gnessin Academy before turning to poetry in her twenties. The change was a rapid one: Pavlova published 72 poems in Segodnia, a Russian daily, which started a buzz that she was a literary hoax.

In an unmarked meadow by the side of the road at The Geysers, the 30-square-mile steam field about 70 miles north of San Francisco, California, the air smells like sulfur. Clouds of steam drift up from fumaroles, or open holes of rapidly boiling brown water, and waft across the landscape carrying the smell of rotten eggs.

Rebel was the theme of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The message was everywhere: On screen before every film; on the front cover of the film schedule, which read “This Is Your Guide to Cinematic Rebellion”; and in the originality and creativity of almost every film selected by Sundance Institute President and Founder Robert Redford and Festival Director John Cooper for this year’s festival. Rebellion meant great films, particularly documentaries.

In addition to established competitive categories (U.S. Documentary, U.S. Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and Shorts) and non-competitive categories (Premieres, Spotlight, New Frontier, and Park City at Midnight), there was a new category for low-budget independent films appropriately titled Next. In every category, there were films whose themes seem particularly relevant for our time – films about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the recession and resulting unemployment, political revolutions, the search for environmental alternatives, and the incredible resilience of people when faced with extreme adversity.

Education remains an emotional subject in a poor and developing country like India, where it is seen as the primary means for social and economic mobility. Indian families are known to sell land and spend their life’s savings to educate their children, especially males. Such desperation means that any change in the sector is a highly debated subject.

As I sit and write this, a young man sits in County Jail awaiting his sentence. Three years ago he was involved in a fight while in juvenile hall for drug related charges. This fight made him eligible for Division of Juvenile Justice, formerly known as California Youth Authority (I prefer to call it Gladiator School). However, it‘s not the fight that will likely send him to DJJ - it’s the two drug tests he failed in a row.

My client is a drug addict; he has not committed another violent offense. Since his time with me, he has enrolled in adult school, has set his sights on college, and has survived circumstances that would make most of us lie down in the fetal position and give up. And yet this young man can still be sent to prison or spend extended time in County Jail for smoking marijuana. Since the beginning of my employment in the California Juvenile Justice System as a Social Worker, I’ve come to accept that most of the adolescents I work with are entrenched in a system that trains them to become better prisoners rather than productive citizens. I often find myself asking, “Is this justice?”