What Do Indian Women Want from This Election?

They’re Voting in Historic Numbers. But It Might Not Make Them Happier or More Prosperous

Since April 19, the day general elections began in India, voters have queued up outside polling booths, braving a muggy, scorching heatwave. The mood appears mostly upbeat. Voters talk to TV news reporters. They articulate wishes for change or belief in the incumbent leader.

This year’s election is the largest, and longest, in India’s 60 years of increasingly fragile democracy. Nearly a billion people are eligible to vote, in seven phases, over 44 days.

In voting thus far, women have outnumbered men in several states, and have made up nearly half of …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Iranian Artist Sahar Ghorishi

The Fig Is Connected to My Family and My Country

Sahar Ghorishi is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist based in London and Los Angeles. The founder of a creative directing platform Journey of/to Dawn, she is a resident artist at the …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Author Porochista Khakpour

I’m Most Proud of Helping People in My Life

Porochista Khakpour is the author of several books, including The Last Illusion, Brown Album, and Sick: A Life of Lyme, Love, Illness, and Addiction. She is senior editor at the …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Anthropologist Pardis Mahdavi

I Love Tahdig

Pardis Mahdavi is an anthropologist and provost and executive vice president of the University of Montana. Her academic career has focused on diversity, migration, sexuality, and human rights. Before sitting …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Atlantic Council’s Holly Dagres

I Listened to Britney Spears in Tehran

Holly Dagres is an Iranian American analyst and commentator on Middle East affairs with a focus on Iran. Currently a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, she has written for …

A Feminist-Led Uprising Brings the World to Iran’s Fight | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

A Feminist-Led Uprising Brings the World to Iran’s Fight

This Time Around, Social Media and Youth Fuel the Call for “Women, Life, Freedom”

Last night, a quartet of Iranian women took the Zócalo stage to discuss the uprising in Iran, where a general strike has entered its third day and protests persist after …