Last week I was in Tahiti (yes, I know) for PIPSA, the biannual Pacific Islands Political Science Association conference, to discuss China's role in the region and the influence Pacific island governments have in negotiating Chinese financing (more on that research in a forthcoming post).

When Afghan taxi driver Sara Bahai has male passengers in her cab, she takes the chance to lobby them on female rights — and she hopes the country’s next president will also listen to her.

Bahai has been driving the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif city for 10 years, during which Afghanistan has experienced huge changes, including limited improvements in the lives of many women after the harsh years of Taliban rule.

India's 16th General Election has been the most expensive exercise of its kind in the country's history. One estimate puts the figure at Rs 30,000 crore, a tad shy of the bill notched up in the 2012 US presidential polls. What does this tsunami of money power that brought Narendra Damodardas Modi to power mean for the faceless, voiceless Indian? The answer will unfold over the next five years, but what is clear is that for India's women, the more things change the more they remain the same.