Darshi Thoradeniya's book, A Critical History of Women's Health in Modern Sri Lanka, unearths the submerged and complicated history behind Sri Lanka's much-touted successes in “population control”, which enabled the country to reach replacement-level fertility six years ahead of schedule in 1994 One side to the story, the upbeat and positive, is well known: Sri Lanka has been a poster-child in United Nations development circles for many years for its near-miraculous achievements in the (…)

The election marks a new phase in the junta's attempt to legitimise repression at home while stabilising its authority across borders. Photo: Far from signalling a return to civilian rule, the election marks a new phase in the junta's attempt to legitimise repression at home while stabilising its authority across borders. This Sunday marks the final round of Myanmar's three-phase general election, yet it hardly resembles a democratic contest. Held amidst a brutal civil war, the process (…)

An estimated 658 abortions occur daily in Sri Lanka. The procedure is illegal except to save the pregnant person's life. Unsafe abortions account for ten to thirteen percent of maternal deaths. In December 2024, a thirteen-year-old girl from Mullaitivu died from an unsafe abortion after allegedly being raped by a family member. The National People's Power (NPP) government won election with pledges to implement the 2012 Law Commission's recommendations on abortion reform. It has proposed (…)

When I moved to Jerusalem in August, joining Signal groups to coordinate my first shifts of protective presence (the practice of standing with Palestinian communities in hopes of deterring Israeli state and settler violence), I felt intimidated. I had been to Israel and the occupied West Bank only once before, do not speak Hebrew, and was following reports of escalating state-backed settler attacks. Soon, I would be getting in strangers' cars to drive to small villages whose names I was (…)