Latest Perspectives
The many facets of womanhood
Luba Kassova | March 08, 2023
On International Women’s Day I find myself pondering over what defines womanhood. What does being a woman mean for me? One image emerges before my eyes - assured, confident and powerful. The image of my mother. It is she who laid the foundation of my...
Drained at 16… The toll of a year of 60 exams
Luba Kassova | February 23, 2023
I watch my 16-year-old boy’s spark and his cracking sense of humour drain from him every time he approaches his exams. He is 16. This year alone he will take a total of some 60 mock or real exams. When a cycle of mock exams is over, he...
Should there really be a special place in hell for women who do not help other women?
Luba Kassova | February 07, 2023
“There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women”, noted Madeline Albright in her 2006 keynote speech at a Celebrating Inspiration luncheon with the WNBA’s All Decade team. Recently I have seen this statement...
New Year’s lessons from my first-ever retreat
Luba Kassova | January 25, 2023
Unshackle yourself from the inevitable disappointment of too many New Year’s resolutions. Just set one. On the last day of every year, I typically make a number of resolutions for the year ahead which I invariably fail to fulfil. Humbled by my...
Why this song could not have been written about a man. The high price of being a woman in politics
Luba Kassova | January 11, 2023
This opinion piece was first published in Bulgarian by the Bulgarian news provider offnews.bg “Tired ..., a hungry hyena, I enter the office ... with a moustache on, tarted up and ready for battle, without a penny in my pocket ... at this...
The auditorium may be dark, but it is not empty
Luba Kassova | December 14, 2022
Four years ago, I made a significant change in my career to focus on non-fiction narrative writing. Since then, I have also been dabbling with journalism - my opinion pieces have been published in six countries, and my writing has been quoted in another 70....
When does being a helpful parent become unhelpful?
Luba Kassova | November 29, 2022
“I freaking loved that alarm clock. I loved what it gave me – which was power and agency over my own little life.” In her new book The Light We Carry, Michelle Obama shares an incomparably valuable gift she received from her mother:...
Humanity’s most universal bias and why we should talk to our children about death
Luba Kassova | October 07, 2022
Whether and how much to talk about death with our children has been a point of debate between Richard and me for years. “We talk to them about death too much”, Richard would remark. “We mustn’t focus on it so frequently....
The symbolism of Mikhail Gorbachev’s death
Luba Kassova | September 02, 2022
It is Mikhail Gorbachev’s funeral tomorrow. His death this week knocked me for six. My life would have been so much more restricted had it not been for this man. Although some argue that the corroded communist regime was ready to fall, and that if...
It is 132 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. But who’s counting?
Luba Kassova | July 06, 2022
Not many are counting anymore, which, unfortunately, is what Putin is relying on. The story of the most consequential war and humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II is slowly but surely losing public attention globally, sliding down the home pages...
