Crime

When Your Daughter Sells Her Pics

In Malaysia, a growing wave of self-produced pornography — often mixed with real exploitation — is forcing society to confront uncomfortable truths about youth,...

Shame, Faith and the Law

In Malaysia, few words carry the explosive charge of liwat—the Malay term for sodomy, a concept that sits at the crossroads of law, religion,...

The Politics of Touch

Japan’s political world is once again under a stark, unforgiving light as sexual-harassment scandals involving governors and mayors continue to erupt, testing the country’s...

Asia’s Femicide Crisis

Every ten minutes, a woman in Asia loses her life at the hands of someone she once trusted—be it a partner, a family member...

Have the “Bangkok Rules” Changed Asia’s Prisons?

The Bangkok Rules are back in the spotlight as the world marks their fifteenth anniversary, and there has never been a better moment to...

Female, Devout, Radicalised

The typical image of a jihadi operative has long been that of a burly man wielding a gun or planting a bomb. But in...

Okinawa’s Unfinished Battle

The island winds carry more than the emerald sways of palm trees—on Okinawa, where more than two-thirds of all U.S. military facilities based in...

Porn, Power, and the Badge

New Zealand has always liked to think of itself as a country where clean institutions and public trust go hand in hand. But the...
Auntie Spices It Out
Commentary

Millions of Parents Turn to Apps to Marry Off Kids

February 27, 2026

Oh darling, of course the parents downloaded the app. You really thought the generation that survived ration coupons, housing reforms, exam wars, property bubbles, and the one-child policy was going to sit quietly while their precious only son announces he’s “focusing on himself”? Please. These aunties did not endure thirty years of sacrifice for their family tree to end in a one-bedroom rental with a houseplant named Kevin. Let’s be honest: this isn’t about romance. It’s about security, face, continuity, and the deeply rooted belief that adulthood equals marriage. For...
Commentary

Lesbians vs. Trans Women: When Minorities Fight

February 27, 2026

Ah, sisters. We have this extraordinary, almost Olympic-level ability to divide ourselves and fight the wrong battles while the house is literally on fire. Look around the world. Women’s bodily autonomy is being rolled back. LGBTQ people are criminalised from Kampala to Kuala Lumpur. Authoritarian governments are policing classrooms, bedrooms, and wombs. Economic inequality is widening. Domestic violence shelters are underfunded. Online misogyny is algorithmically turbocharged. And yet here we are — sharpening our claws for each other. I’m not saying these questions about sex, gender, identity, and lesbian space...
Commentary

Family WhatsApp Groups Are Watching Us

February 26, 2026

Let me tell you something about family WhatsApp groups, darlings. They are not innocent. They are not “just for updates.” They are mini-parliaments, surveillance hubs, emotional labor factories, and occasionally — digital crime scenes. I belong to several. Of course I do. Big Asian family, remember? Aunties, uncles, cousins, nieces, the whole orchestra. Every morning: flowers, blessings, good-morning GIFs that sparkle like they were designed in 2003. And who sends them? The women. Always the women. Because apparently even in cyberspace, it’s our job to keep the peace, keep the...
Commentary

A Day in The Life of a Patpong Girl

February 26, 2026

I have walked through Patpong more times than I can count — in heels, in flats, in righteous feminist anger, and occasionally just in anthropological curiosity. And let me tell you something: if you think a “Patpong girl” is a fantasy character invented for lonely men on holiday, you have understood absolutely nothing. She is a migrant worker. She is a remittance machine. She is an informal economist with better negotiation skills than half the men in Bangkok’s financial district. When people say “bar girl,” I always want to ask:...
Commentary

Club Bosses: Asia’s Nightlife Queens

February 25, 2026

I have a soft spot for women who own the night. Over the years — from Manila’s humid backstreets to Bangkok’s neon arteries and Jakarta’s stubbornly defiant dance floors — I’ve met many of them. Some became sources. Some became drinking buddies after closing time. A few became lifetime friends. And let me tell you something: these women are among the toughest people I know. You don’t survive decades in clubs and discos by being delicate. You survive because you can read a room in three seconds flat. Because you...
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