The Human Impact

Earlier this week, Benedetta Arese Lucini, the general manager of Uber’s operations in Italy, woke up to news that someone had hung a banner near her home in central Milan, calling her a “slut” and revealing her home address.

This week was nothing short of historic for the Americans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and, in particular, transgender.

On a muggy, warm late morning at the end of an unusually cool summer, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of New York City to demand action on climate change.

The customs and traditions of our forefathers – performed during festivals and on special occasions such as births, weddings and funerals – can be beautiful, reminding us of a life past.

Shame.

It’s a word I often hear when speaking to women in India, where a combination of patriarchy, misogyny and extreme conservatism makes women feel ashamed of the crimes being committed against them.

Covering women’s rights issues for so many years in India, I still find the number of ways women and girls are abused and discriminated against unfathomable.

A landslide in western India that has killed more than 100 people and left scores missing may have been a man-made disaster caused by deforestation to make way for farming, experts say.

Sara, a bright young woman studying for a masters at Tehran University, is a lesbian – but if the Iranian authorities had their way, she would change her sex and become a man.

Three years ago Steven walked into a police station in the British city of Cardiff and asked to be arrested even though he hadn’t committed any crime. When the police refused, he asked if it would help if he insulted an officer. They refused again.

When London-born Jay was a teenager her mother suggested she join a secret women’s society in Sierra Leone. There would be a big party, new dresses and she would be treated like royalty.