Egyptian Women With HIV Hide From Social Stigma In Silence
Nearly five years ago, when Safaa* was 26 and a mother of two, she discovered that she had HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) – a disease which destroys the immune system of its host. To her, this was worse than a death sentence – it would force her to keep her medical history secret from even […]
The Stigma of Doing Things Alone
It was Thursday afternoon. I’d been invited to the soft launch of a new restaurant that evening, and I’d invited a guy I’d recently met through online dating to join me, only to have him cancel last minute. As someone who tries to live her life with a “no regrets” mentality, the choice was clear: […]
Immoral Hazard: The Gender Inequality Of Risk
Whilst the international media reported that over 800 people died in Haiti due to the impact of the recent Hurricane Matthew, a gender breakdown was not given even though your chances of surviving a natural disaster often depends on your sex. This inequality of risk is increasingly important in a world of more frequent […]
Why Female Role Models Matter
The conversation about feminism is currently experiencing a resurgence in mainstream media, pop culture and politics. What better time than now to acknowledge the women that laid down the path for our current conversations and look forward to the feminist issues that matter to us now and in the future? Telling a story has the […]
Generation Revolution review – After The Arab Spring
In the heady days of the 2011 uprising, it seemed as if Egypt’s youth, mobilising on social media and marching on Tahrir Square, had finally come into their own. When President Mubarak stepped down, I turned to my seventysomething Egyptian father, who had been on the barricades of the 1952 revolution, for words of wisdom […]
Crisis Of Values: Reclaiming Our Society
If we were to judge by the dominant tenor of headlines in the Nigerian media, we would come to the conclusion that the problem of our society is simply a question of formulating the right economic policies or fashioning a suitable political ideology. We can be forgiven for this assumption. Despite the undeniable importance of […]
The Science of Making Friends
I’ve been going on a series of dates lately. I exchanged numbers with the person sitting next to me at a Cabernet tasting at my favorite wine bar and went for a coffee with a neighbor I met walking my dog. I reached out to people from my past I haven’t seen in years, to […]
LOUD WHISPERS: Adults And Good Manners
Recently, I was in a cosmetics shop to buy some items. As I was browsing through the merchandise, I could hear a woman talking on her cell phone. It took me approximately twenty minutes to make up my mind about what to put into my shopping cart. All this time, the woman was still on […]
OPINION: ‘Are Women Human Beings?’
How far have we come as a species, in terms of our spiritual and intellectual development, if in the 21st century some can question: “Are women human beings?” The reality is that globally, whilst women may have made great strides, patriarchal attitudes prevail in a male-dominated world. The question ‘Are women human beings?’ is the […]
Mothers and daughters: a better or different world?
I am very much a modern woman – at the intersection of the pathways between new opportunities and old traditions. Navigating the old to the new, until they become older and very old and not so new. Mother, wife, career person, a citizen of Islam and of Nigeria. A Person. This is my most prized […]
Femi Diipo: 
Julie Roberts: 
Cordelia James: 
Olakunle Olajide: 
Flourish jacob: 
Bella Nifemi: 