Julia Suryakusuma *
*) The writer is the author of Julia’s Jihad.

WOMEN-watching is always fun, but these past few weeks have been particularly interesting, as three women in Malaysia, India and Sudan have hogged headlines worldwide. In fact, they were just ordinary women doing ordinary things, but exaggerated reactions transformed them into extraordinary acts of defiance.

In Malaysia, it was the case of 32-year-old Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarn