Asias

When the house always wins

As Thailand makes casinos legal for the first time in decades, Tawan Manakul argues that moral outrage misses the point Gambling has been around as long as people have been

One man, one woman, one version of Hong Kong

Inside Hong Kong’s Legislative Council debate on same-sex unions – and what happens when homophobia becomes policy language On 12 February 2025, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council spent just over ninety

Legacies of solitude from Persian women

Amid Iran’s current turmoil, an essayist remembers two women in history, in an intimate reading of how their solitude birthed future movements of resistance In a moment when Iranian women

The wisdom of the Semende

How a land stewardship custom honouring eldest daughters has allowed a Sumatran indigenous group to flourish over three hundred years South of the shiny skyscrapers of Singapore and west of

Time is finally theirs to shape

Arab women in the diaspora discover new freedoms after fifty, liberated from the cultural constraints of their homelands and empowered to reinvent themselves on their own terms In this article

Essay by a Manchu girl in Tibet

A personal essay by a young Manchu woman attending university in Tibet, documenting the experience of being from an ethnic minority background in China. Recommended by: Jessie Lau “What does

Following the flowers in Yemen

A journalist follows Yemen’s nomadic beekeepers as they hold the pressures of climate, deforestation and war at bay Recommended by: Abdirahim Saeed The thorny Sidr tree, scattered throughout Yemen, is

Bamburu Awith (The wasps are here)

The film that still resonates in contemporary Sri Lanka, half a century after it was made

The rescue that never came

A harrowing investigation into how young people are trafficked into scam compoundsn in Southeast Asia, and the journey of one Chinese family seeking justice for their son

They danced on the ruins

Inside Taiwan’s underground rave scene, where music, mysticism, and fleeting trust pulse through the margins of the city At a crumbling temple on a mountain slope in Taoyuan, music begins

Wheels of inequality

Women motorcycle taxi drivers in Indonesia navigate exploitative digital platforms and structural gender bias Last month, on International Labour Day, Konde.co released a groundbreaking research report on the precarious conditions

Today, hope lies with the people

A Thai political activist reflects on the movement’s highs and lows since the 2020 protests, and why he believes that change – however slowly – is coming In the fading

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