Life

Putting people at the heart of the story.

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Sep 02, 2020 • 11 min read

LGBT rights Playing with pride: Meet Cambodia’s oldest LGBT women’s football team

By Alexi Demetriadi • Sep 02, 2020
A documentary is in the works about a football team with a difference – the Kampong Chhnang Women’s Under-21s. The difference? The team were the first dedicated to girls of all sexual orientations, to win not just trophies but to change perceptions in the Kingdom

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Sep 02, 2020 • 2 min read

Khmer Rouge Head of Khmer Rouge torture prison dies aged 77

By Agence France-Presse • Sep 02, 2020
The former chief interrogator and torturer for Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his alias Duch, died early on September 2 in hospital in Phnom Penh

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Sep 01, 2020 • 7 min read

Covid-19 Virus woes forces girls across Asia, from India to Vietnam, into child marriage

By Aishwarya Kumar, Haeril Halim and Tran Thi Minh Ha • Sep 01, 2020
Child marriage has long been common in communities from Indonesia to India and Vietnam, but numbers had been decreasing as charities made inroads in access to education and women's health. Now the practice is once again on the rise as families attempt to alleviate poverty during the pandemic

Life • Aug 31, 2020 • 4 min read
Press freedom

Off the air: Top Philippines broadcaster shuts regional stations

The closure of 53 regional ABS-CBN television and radio stations that broadcast in six languages will deprive millions of Filipinos of their main source of local news and entertainment
By Ron Lopez and Cecil Morella/AFP • Aug 31, 2020

Life • Aug 31, 2020 • 9 min read
Analysis

Not just young brides: Education and women’s empowerment in Laos

Laos has the highest rate of young brides in Southeast Asia – but education is the pathway to female empowerment says Christine Redmond, as she offers lessons and insights from Aide et Action's women’s entrepreneurship project in the country
By Christine Redmond • Aug 31, 2020

Life • Aug 27, 2020 • 11 min read
Covid-19

Hanoi’s growing homeless population struggle with lockdown measures

For people living on the capital's streets, Vietnam's Covid-19 lockdown has made basic survival even more difficult. Now, as the country rides a second wave of infections, vulnerable people and their advocates are holding tight to what they have
By Ashley Lampard • Aug 27, 2020

Life • Aug 26, 2020 • 7 min read
Opinion

One small step at a time, one giant leap for Thai democracy

Student protestors in Thailand are venturing into uncharted territory, with radical calls for reform of the monarchy and government, but student activist Francis Bunkueanun Paothong of Mahidol University believes the movement must aim small to achieve big change
By Francis Bunkueanun Paothong • Aug 26, 2020

Life • Aug 25, 2020 • 8 min read
LGBTQ rights

Myanmar’s LGBTQ armed revolutionary continues fight two decades on

Former armed revolutionary and current human rights activist Aung Myo Min establshed Equality Myanmar 20 years ago last month. But even after inroads, equality for the LGBTQ+ community in the staunchly conservative country remains a distant reality
By Alexi Demetriadi • Aug 25, 2020

Life • Aug 24, 2020 • 5 min read
Human rights

12 days for assault: Fury at Singapore’s penalties for attacks on women

Sexual harassment and assaults against women are not being taken seriously enough in Singapore, activists warn, after students at elite universities were given punishments criticised as too lenient for their crimes
By Catherine Lai/AFP • Aug 24, 2020

Life • Aug 24, 2020 • 9 min read
Covid-19

Homebound predators and hard-hit families: Filipino child abuse on the rise

With increased demand for child pornography during the pandemic, and the severe economic downturn hitting many families hard, reports of the online sexual exploitation of Filipino children have ballooned during the country's five month lockdown
By Tabitha Payne • Aug 24, 2020

Life • Aug 21, 2020 • 10 min read
History

Not settling for less: Anti-opium movements in the Straits Settlements

While opium addiction emerged as a region-wide scourge in the 19th century, abolitionists in the small British colony of the Straits Settlements took on the imperial government and played an instrumental role in bringing about a worldwide ban
By Wanpen Pajai • Aug 21, 2020