Counterview

Counterview News  The latest update to Equality Now's flagship Words & Deeds report reveals that women's and girls' rights globally are facing a "strategic and coordinated rollback," with hard-won legal protections being weakened or deliberately undermined, though the report stresses this backlash is neither inevitable nor irreversible .

By Vikas Meshram*  About forty-two kilometres from Rajasthan's Banswara district, in the tribal heartland of Ghatol block, lies the small village of Ubapana. This is where Kalawati Ninama, her husband Dhulji, and their four children make their home. Their days unfold much like those of their neighbours—bustling mornings, long hours of farm labour through the afternoon, and evenings spent tending livestock. For this family, farming and livestock were once simply a means of putting food on the table. Today, they have become the sturdy foundation of something far greater: genuine self-sufficiency.

By Rajiv Shah   I was a little surprised to see how some of those whom I respect for taking a firm stand on patriarchal issues reacted to the manner in which they responded to the recent incident in Paris, in which women employees of the Eiffel Tower were asked to remain "invisible" on September 5 when 100 BAPS sadhus visited one of the world's top tourist destinations.

By A Representative   The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA), a constituent of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), has strongly condemned the recent circular issued by the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama faction led by Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar , which directs that women should not appear in public spaces alongside men and that young women should not be brought into gatherings with unrelated men.

By A Representative   In what rights advocates are calling a defining moment for India's sex workers' movement, representatives from six states gathered at the Calcutta Press Club to launch the Yaunkarmi Adhikar Manch — a national platform led by sex workers themselves to defend their rights, dignity and freedom.

By Rajiv Shah   One day after Janmashtami , to be exact, on September 5, during my stay in the US, I was taken to two separate celebrations in a town on the East Coast, ostensibly to keep me engaged among NRIs . While one of them had, apart from the ritualistic puja at a temple in the name of Radhe Krishna , located around a small pond on the outskirts, dance and song performances, it was the second one that interested me the most.

By Syed Ali Mujtaba*  The alleged assault of two female journalists by Delhi Police at the Saket police station on September 3, 2026, has become a talking point across the country. More importantly, it has revived a troubling question: Is there any dignity left for media professionals in India?

By Vikas Meshram*  Amuli Devi Dinesh Garasia, forty-four, lives in the village of Amlipada under the Tanda Mangla panchayat of Sajjangarh tehsil in Banswara district. For the past four years she has been making chemical-free, entirely natural soap in her own home. Today this modest effort has become the economic backbone of her family.

By Bharat Dogra   We are all familiar with how painful it is for a farmer to lose his land, so one can imagine the inner turbulence of a farmer who has not only been forced to sell his ancestral land due to economic compulsions but, in addition, is forced by continuing economic difficulties to accept temporary work as a landless farm worker on the same plot of land.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  There is a disturbing tendency among India's self-styled liberals to dig up the past not to understand it, but to score political points in the present. The latest target of this historical lampooning is the Rajput practice of Jauhar—the collective self-immolation by women facing certain defeat at the hands of invading armies. Those who denounce it today as barbaric or patriarchal are guilty of the same sin they accuse others of: viewing a complex historical reality through the narrow lens of contemporary politics.

By A Representative   Ahead of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, regional experts, jurists, and civil society leaders issued an urgent call to defend women’s and girls’ rights against an increasingly coordinated pushback fueled by narratives of family, tradition, and sovereignty. Speaking at a recent SHE & Rights session on gender equality, health rights, and human rights accountability, advocates highlighted the pressing need to turn established regional legal frameworks into lived realities while confronting efforts to erode protections across Africa and globally. The event was jointly hosted by the Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion and Citizen News Service alongside international partner organizations.

Counterview News   Dalit women's autobiographical writing in India is emerging as a formidable archive of political resistance, functioning less as personal memoir and more as collective testimony to centuries of caste, gender and class oppression, according to a comprehensive analysis by Professor Garima Srivastava . 

By A Representative   Dr Shujaat Ali Quadri , Convener of the Muslim Youth Organisation (MYO), has criticised reported remarks by Kanthapuram Aboobacker Musliyar in which Muslim women were compared to gold jewellery that should be kept safely locked in a box to preserve its shine and value. He also objected to the reported warning that women entering the public sphere could lead to “great destruction.”

By Osman Sher*  The recent fatwa issued by Mufti Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar , General Secretary of the Samastha Kerala Jam’iyyathul Ulama —calling for women to be confined to their homes and preserved like ornaments in a box—is deeply troubling. Islam does not treat women as objects. It grants them the right to inherit and own property, to enter marriage only with their consent, and to uphold modesty in appearance and behavior, just as men are required to do.

By Harsh Thakor*  Senior Maoist leader Motibai, widely known as Radhakka, died at the age of 65 on Monday evening, August 31, 2026, while undergoing treatment at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) hospital in Adilabad, Telangana. She had reportedly been suffering from a prolonged illness and had undergone regular dialysis in recent months. Her death was attributed to kidney failure.

By Shabnam Hashmi*  I was shocked to read a statement sent to me by a journalist friend. Mufti Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar, General Secretary of the Samastha Kerala Jam’iyyathul Ulama, has called for women to remain confined to their homes and suggested that women’s presence on public platforms causes “great destruction.”

By  Prem Singh  U.R. Ananthamurthy’s "Samskara" (1965) stands as a landmark of modern Indian literature. Set in a decaying Brahmin village in Karnataka, the novel dissects the moral crisis of orthodox Hindu society through the story of Praneshacharya, a revered scholar who breaks caste taboos. Yet for all its radical questioning of Brahminical ritual and hierarchy, the novel remains strikingly conservative in its treatment of women—an irony that becomes especially pronounced when viewed through the lens of Ram Manohar Lohia’s socialist-feminist philosophy.

Counterview News    In the rugged, resource-scarce hills of Gujarat’s Panchmahals district —one of India’s most underdeveloped regions, marked by high poverty, poor nutrition indicators, and large tribal, Dalit, and Muslim populations—women who once stayed confined to household labour and early marriages have forged a different path. Through ANANDI (Area Networking and Development Initiatives) and three grassroots women’s organisations in Devgadh Baria , Panam , and Gogamba , they have moved from isolated survival to organised collective power.

By Maisa Bascuas   On 20 August, during the 23rd edition of the Council of the Americas in Buenos Aires, Javier Milei concluded his speech to the business elite by blaming the 'little green scarves' and voluntary termination of pregnancy (VTP) for the declining birth rate, the slowdown in economic growth, and the crisis in the pension system. The tactic is politically effective: it reduces a global demographic trend to a local scapegoat.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   Ever since Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi spoke to female students in Maharashtra on August 22, 2026, urging them to “smash patriarchy” and reject the “Manusmriti mindset,” a storm has erupted in BJP circles. His assertion that women belong to themselves—not to their fathers, husbands or sons—has provoked a predictable rush among BJP supporters to defend the Manusmriti. This should surprise no one. For years, the politics of cultural nationalism has selectively elevated ancient texts as symbols of civilisational pride. But reverence becomes dangerous when it collides with the foundational values of a modern democracy.