Susan notes: I've missed the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, the city of my birth. I don't have a TV here in Dubai, and no way to watch them otherwise.

I feel sad to have missed the excitement and joy of competition, even as I get daily updates by email about the medals Canadian athletes have won, many of those medal winners are women. I feel so proud of them.

The stories of

Twenty-nine-year-old communications professional and blogger Sara Refai has a Masters Degree in Social Psychology, and has worked with political analysis companies, conflict resolution organisations, and PR agencies over the last six years.   As part of the Lebanese diaspora, she has lived in both the Middle East and the West, where she's studied and learned about different cultures and how

My friends Elaine and Gray kindly agreed to host me at their place for two weeks while my villa mate Tricia welcomes family and friends at “ours” (it’s her villa really, I just have a room there, but that’s another story).

Elaine, Gray, and Elaine’s son Phil are in Oman for the Eid holiday, so I’m in charge of their two dogs Poppy and Gypsy. They’re good dogs. Most of the time.

Today, as

Kikune knelt in front of Fukiko and me, the epitome of grace and beauty in a spectacular melon-coloured kimono.

She was in turn thoughtful, playful and coy, as she answered my questions and shared the trials, tribulations, and joys of fulfilling her dream: to become one of Kyoto’s legendary geisha.

It was a conversation I shall never forget.

One year later, I’ve finally produced the

The auditorium fell dead silent when Dr. Sunitha Krishnan stepped onto the stage at TED India on November 6. And Tedsters around the world, watching via a live stream webcast, were transfixed – or at least we were in Dubai!

The diminutive, soft-spoken, anti-trafficking crusader, who was gang-raped as a teenager, began her talk with the heart-wrenching stories of three children – Pranitha,

Journalist and camerawoman Margaret Moth is one of a kind.

No doubt. No argument. And definitely no tears.

Born Margaret Wilson, Moth changed her last name after asking herself what stopped her from having her own moniker rather than inheriting her father’s, or adopting a husband’s.

Her choice was inspired, she says, by a friend’s Tiger Moth plane, from which she frequently sky dived as

I was going to start this blog entry with a caveat.

But then I decided it probably wouldn’t do much good – someone somewhere is bound to be offended by what follows. So there are no apologies here. I’ll seek forgiveness later if required.

Before I go any further, a word of advice: whoever you are, wherever you are, register for the next and closest TEDx event within reach (the worldwide

Executive coach Lynn Harris got tired of reading about the dearth of women in senior leadership positions.

Why, she asked herself, were women not making it to the upper echelons in the corporate world? And perhaps more important, WHAT could be done about it?

Tongue in cheek, Harris says there’s a lot of contradictory advice floating around about what women need to do to get to the top:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again and again, likely 'til the day I die): we’re surrounded by amazing women who are doing incredible work to make positive change in the world.

They come from all races, religions and nationalities.

In the last few weeks three amazing young women in particular have come onto the AWR radar screen: Masarat Daud, Natalie Carney (pictured at

Few people are natural storytellers.

The BBC’s World Affairs Editor John Simpson is one of them.

He’s the kind of speaker whose words flow as easily as a mountain stream, diving and dancing to inevitable (yet sometimes unexpected), conclusions that leave audiences wanting more.

He blends a quick wit, a wonderful sense of humour and a lifetime of experience in telling tales that