After 10–0, Bangladesh Improved Against South Korea. The Asian Gap Is Still Clear
Bangladesh reduced the damage from their record defeat to North Korea but still lost 6–0 to South Korea at the Asian Games. Two matches against continental heavyweights have exposed a bigger question: what must change for Bangladesh’s regional success to translate to the highest level in Asia?
A Dhaka Dance Workshop Treats Women’s Bodies as Archives, Not Objects
A feminist dance-theatre workshop opening in Banani on Thursday will ask performers to explore how women carry memory, labour, faith, regulation, conflict and joy through the body. Its premise shifts the female body from something audiences look at to something that remembers and speaks.
Swagata’s Career Makes a Case Against Telling Women Artists to Pick One Lane
Zinat Sanu Swagata has worked across acting, music, modelling and presenting since childhood. A piece of advice from Abdullah Al Mamun helped shape that path: becoming an actor did not mean abandoning directing or music. Her career shows why women’s creative identities do not have to fit one label.
Swagata’s Career Makes a Case Against Telling Women Artists to Pick One Lane
Zinat Sanu Swagata has worked across acting, music, modelling and presenting since childhood. A piece of advice from Abdullah Al Mamun helped shape that path: becoming an actor did not mean abandoning directing or music. Her career shows why women’s creative identities do not have to fit one label.
Runa Laila Is Alive. The AI Death Hoax Shows How Easily a Cultural Icon Can Be Turned Into Clickbait
AI-generated videos and images falsely claiming that Runa Laila was dying or dead circulated online this week. Her daughter confirmed the singer is healthy and urged followers to report the accounts. The episode raises a cultural question as much as a technology one: who protects an artist’s identity when anyone can manufacture a convincing false version of her life?
Being Heumann Brings a Disabled Woman’s Political Strategy to the Centre of the Frame
Siân Heder’s new drama about disability-rights organiser Judith Heumann premiered in Toronto with a large disabled cast. Its importance lies not only in representation but in showing accessibility as the outcome of organised political pressure, not benevolence.
Postpartum-Psychosis Case Returns to Court With the Medical Emergency Still Misunderstood
Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer has asked a Massachusetts judge to acquit her after a mistrial in the deaths of her three children. The unresolved criminal case should not obscure a clear clinical fact: postpartum psychosis is rare, treatable and requires immediate emergency assessment.
Pooja Sengupta Marks 12 Years of Turongomi by Turning Tagore’s Tree Hymn Into a Climate-Era Dance Work
Turongomi marked 12 years with the fifth staging of Dhora Toru Kabyo – Nature’s Tale, conceptualised and directed by Pooja Sengupta. Inspired by Tagore’s Brikkhobandana, the work uses dance to ask what happens when the human relationship with nature becomes exploitation.
Why Can a Male Character Be Dangerous While a Woman Is Condemned for Being Difficult?
A fresh Bangladeshi pop-culture commentary asks why audiences routinely give morally compromised men narrative complexity while women are punished for being annoying, ambitious or unwilling to please. Bangladesh’s own celebrity culture shows the double standard does not stop with fictional characters.
Yuja Asks What Virtuosity Costs When a Woman’s Appearance Competes With Her Music
Lorna Tucker’s documentary follows pianist Yuja Wang through performance, practice and isolation. Its most urgent cultural question is why coverage of a woman musician can still make clothing as visible as artistic command.
Amsterdam’s Kusama Retrospective Becomes a Posthumous Reckoning With Her Radical Career
The Stedelijk Museum’s two-floor survey opens four weeks after Yayoi Kusama’s death at 97. By returning to her formative Dutch and European connections, the exhibition can move attention beyond spectacle to the labour, exclusion and persistence behind her work.
Amsterdam’s Kusama Retrospective Becomes a Posthumous Reckoning With Her Radical Career
The Stedelijk Museum’s two-floor survey opens four weeks after Yayoi Kusama’s death at 97. By returning to her formative Dutch and European connections, the exhibition can move attention beyond spectacle to the labour, exclusion and persistence behind her work.
Momo Boyd Refuses the Narrow Genres Assigned to Black Women
The Infinity Song member’s solo work places rural Michigan, soft rock and Black womanhood in the same frame. Her new profile is less a celebrity update than a case study in how genre labels decide who is permitted complexity.
The Bayeux Tapestry Returns to England—and So Does the Question of Women’s Work
The British Museum is preparing to display the 70-metre embroidery in England for the first time in nearly a millennium. Its battle narrative contains only three women, but the labour of women may be embedded in nearly every stitch.
Southeast Asia’s Girl Groups Are Exporting Identity, Not Imitation
BINI, no na, 4EVE and DOLLA are gaining audiences beyond their home markets by combining global pop formats with Filipino, Indonesian, Thai and Malaysian languages and sounds. Their rise challenges an industry that often treats Asian pop as shorthand for only three countries.
Bangladesh Women Face Sri Lanka With a Semifinal Place—and a Bigger Goal—on the Line
Bangladesh’s women face defending champions Sri Lanka tonight knowing a victory could secure their place in the Women’s Asia Cup semifinals. But for Nigar Sultana Joty’s side, the ambition is bigger: after repeatedly reaching the last four, they want to finally return to the final.
Seven Goals, One Statement: Bangladesh’s Young Women Open Junior Asia Cup in Style
Bangladesh’s U-20 women’s hockey team began its Junior Asia Cup campaign with a commanding 7–0 victory over Chinese Taipei. Beyond the scoreline, the result comes at an important moment for a sport trying to build a stronger pathway for Bangladeshi girls.
Emma Reyes Enters London’s Canon Without Surrendering Colombia
White Cube has opened the first UK solo presentation of Colombian artist Emma Reyes. The exhibition brings a self-taught woman’s six-decade practice into a major commercial space while asking who gets recognised internationally—and who controls the story after an artist’s death.
They Told Fatema Surfing Wasn’t for Girls. At 17, She’s Taking Bangladesh to the Asian Games
Seventeen-year-old surfer Fatema Akter from Cox’s Bazar is heading to the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games after six years of training through criticism, financial pressure and limited preparation opportunities. Her journey shows both how far Bangladeshi girls can go—and how much more support they still need.
Daisy Chain Fields Turned an All-Women Lineup Into $20 Million—And a Safety Lesson
The inaugural California festival connected 45,000 music fans with organisations working on women’s health, legal rights and economic justice. Its fundraising succeeded, but heat-related criticism shows that an inclusive cultural space must also be physically safe.
Maggie Gyllenhaal Opens Venice With a Challenge to Who Defines ‘High Art’
The Venice jury president says women directors still face systemic barriers to finance and recognition. With only two of 21 competition titles directed or co-directed by women, the festival’s selection gives her argument immediate evidence
Final Days: 23 Women Artists Refuse to Let Suffering Define Womanhood in ‘Lobongolotika’
A major group exhibition at Edge Gallery brings together 23 women artists to explore autonomy, imagination, desire, joy and creative power—challenging the idea that women’s strength must always be defined through suffering or sacrifice.
A New Tournament Will Give 37 Grassroots Women’s Football Academies Something They Need: Matches
Thirty-seven women’s football academies from across Bangladesh are set to compete in a new nationwide tournament beginning with regional knockout rounds and ending in Dhaka, creating something grassroots players often lack: regular competitive exposure and a clearer route toward elite football.
Women’s Hockey Drive Opens in Khagrachhari With a Focus on Talent Beyond the Big Cities
A new grassroots women’s hockey development programme has begun in Khagrachhari, with Bangladesh Hockey Federation and BRAC Bank aiming to bring more girls and women—particularly from the hill districts—into organised sport and long-term hockey development.
BBC Drops Its Women’s Football Highlights Show as Coverage Moves Online
The BBC has discontinued its weekly television highlights programme while promising extensive digital and live coverage. The change tests whether online distribution expands access or makes women’s sport easier for general audiences to miss.
Tschabalala Self’s ‘Lady in Blue’ Claims Trafalgar Square for an Everyday Black Woman
Tschabalala Self’s monumental figure will occupy London’s Fourth Plinth from 10 September. The work insists that a Black woman can represent ordinary humanity in a public space dominated by imperial and military history.
EU Puts ChatGPT Under Its Strictest Online-Safety Tier—Girls’ Risks Now Belong in the Audit
The European Commission has designated ChatGPT a very large online search engine under the Digital Services Act. The decision creates enforceable risk-assessment duties that should include gendered harassment, sexualised content and harms to minors.
London City’s Star Roster Tests Whether a Women-Only Club Can Build Its Own Power
London City Lionesses enter the new season with elite signings and investment from Michele Kang. Their project tests whether an independent women’s club can create audiences, revenue and identity without borrowing a men’s institution.
Dee Salmin’s Brownlow Boycott Turns the Red Carpet Into an Accountability Test
The Australian writer and broadcaster says she will not attend Australian football’s most prominent awards event because of concerns about the league’s treatment of women. Her decision asks whether glamour can be separated from institutional responsibility.
Masai Russell’s 12.09-Second Run Rewrites the Women’s Hurdles Record Editor’s summary: The American athlete lowered Tobi Amusan’s four-year-old world record under zero-wind conditions in Zurich. The performance belongs within the cultural history of Blac
The American athlete lowered Tobi Amusan’s four-year-old world record under zero-wind conditions in Zurich. The performance belongs within the cultural history of Black women transforming sprint hurdles.
Washington’s FEMME Art Fair Treats Women Artists as an Economic Force
More than 100 women artists are participating in a four-day fair that sends artwork-sale proceeds directly to artists and curators. The model shifts attention from representation alone to who receives the money generated by culture.
With ‘Noakhailla Maiya’, Oyshee Turns Her Regional Identity Into Pop-Culture Power
National Film Award-winning singer Fatima Tuz Zahra Oyshee’s new song brings Noakhali dialect into a contemporary musical setting while expanding her role from performer to songwriter and composer.
Joty’s Bangladesh Enter Women’s Asia Cup With One Goal: Break the Semifinal Barrier
Bangladesh begin their 2026 Women’s T20 Asia Cup campaign against Indonesia on August 31, with captain Nigar Sultana Joty setting a clear target for the Tigresses: stop settling for semifinal appearances and reach the final.
Women Headliners Put Bristol’s Clean-Power Festival Infrastructure to the Test
Lorde, Little Simz, Tems and other women artists are performing as Bristol trials renewable temporary power at major cultural events. The project could reduce diesel pollution for audiences and crews if its emissions claims survive independent measurement.
Yayoi Kusama Leaves a Universe Built From Dots, Repetition and Survival
The Japanese artist died at 97 after transforming private visions into globally recognised installations, sculpture and painting. Her legacy should be understood as sustained artistic discipline—not reduced to spectacle or illness.
Barbara Hepworth’s Greek Journey Comes Into View in New Exhibition
A forthcoming exhibition examines how Hepworth’s only visit to Greece renewed her work after personal tragedy. It also demonstrates why women artists’ diaries and travel records deserve treatment as serious art history.
‘Practical Magic 2’ Returns With Women Across Generations at Its Centre
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as stars and producers almost three decades after the original film. The sequel’s significance lies in women retaining authority over a major studio story as they age.
Shevolution 2026 to Bring More Than 500 Women Together for Bangladesh’s National Debate Tournament
More than 500 women from across Bangladesh are expected to gather at Independent University, Bangladesh from August 28–30 for Shevolution 2026, an all-women national debate tournament designed not only for women to compete, but to lead every part of the event.
Shabreen Shaka Meem Finds a New Stage in Helping Marginalised Children
Former actor Shabreen Shaka Meem has spent more than a decade away from television, redirecting her public profile toward education and support for marginalised children.
Olympic Champion Alysa Liu Chooses Development Over Immediate Competition
The American figure skater will sit out the 2026–27 season to refine her technique, challenging the idea that elite women athletes must compete continuously to protect their careers.
Miyu Yamashita Ties LPGA Scoring Record With Nine-Shot Canadian Victory
The Japanese golfer’s dominant performance adds another major result to the growing international strength of women’s golf.
Mighty Mary’ Revisits the All-Women Sailing Team That Challenged America’s Cup Tradition
A new documentary brings renewed attention to women who entered one of sailing’s most exclusive competitions and confronted institutional resistance.
Nicole Kidman to Receive Australian Women’s Film Festival Trailblazer Award
The award recognises Kidman’s influence not only as an actor but as a producer helping women-led stories reach global audiences.
Cameroon’s First WAFCON Crown Renews the Case for Investment in African Women’s Football
Cameroon’s breakthrough and Malawi’s unexpected run to the final demonstrate the competitive depth that can emerge when women’s teams receive meaningful support.
Why Are Girls’ Shorts So Much Shorter? Parents Are Questioning the Gender Divide in Children’s Clothing
Parents are questioning why clothes made for girls are often shorter, tighter and more revealing than similar styles sold for boys. The debate may be trending again on social media, but research shows concerns about the gender divide in children’s clothing have existed for more than a decade.
Microdramas Find a Huge Female Audience—and Renew Old Questions
Mobile-first serial dramas are attracting overwhelmingly female audiences, creating new opportunities for writers while reviving concerns about stereotypes and precarious production.