Latifa Nabizada began her air force career more than two decades ago, when the Soviet Union was still occupying Afghanistan. She is the only female pilot in the country's history, and has a dedicated, if unusual, flying companion.

(Image credit: Jonathan Levinson)

Seventeen years ago, BooBoo was a hard-core gang member in Los Angeles. Now, Cindy Martinez is a mother of five who teaches her kids not to make her mistakes.

The daughter of migrant workers from northeastern China, Mandy Lu goes to college in North Carolina. She says whenever she crosses the border between her two worlds, she feels like she's in a daze and she has to find an identity for herself in a place that's so familiar — yet not familiar at all.

A group of babushkas, or elderly women, who live in Buranovo, Russia, have become a musical sensation. They sing Beatles tunes and songs by iconic Russian rocker Viktor Tsoi. They fly around the country for concerts. And it all started because they turned to music during tough times.

(Image credit: David Greene)

In her first book, author Mara Hvistendahl explores why parents in several Asian countries are choosing to have boys rather than girls as birth rates are dropping. The trend of sex-selective abortion is yielding broad impacts on the economy, culture and stability of those nations.

(Image credit: Frederic J. Brown)

Earlier this year, Amira Al-Sharif came to New York City to document the lives of young American women. The 28-year-old was born in Saudi Arabia, grew up in Yemen and was the first person from her family to graduate from university. And while Western journalists often document Arab women, Al-Sharif wanted to flip the script.

(Image credit: Shereen Marisol Meraji)

Gen. Vang Pao, an exiled leader from the Hmong hill tribe in communist Laos, was a CIA ally during the Vietnam War. Now, shortly after his death and six-day funeral in California, NPR's Doualy Xaykaothao — Vang Pao's grandniece — is delving into her family history. Who was Vang Pao, and what stories can his surviving sisters share?

The termite queen may be the mother who makes the ultimate sacrifice for her swarms of children. Isolated in an earthen capsule, she lays more than a quarter-billion eggs in her lifetime. On the eve of Mother's Day, NPR honors this species' story of struggle, rebirth and death below ground.

About 1 million Muslim women live in America; 43 percent of them wear headscarves full time. But now, a generation of Muslim women is taking off the headscarf, or hijab. For many, their choice is an attempt to balance their private lives with a very public symbol of their religion.

(Image credit: John Poole)