Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

The United Nations human rights office in Nepal deplored the brutal murder of a female journalist who was hacked to death in her own home yesterday and called on local authorities to conduct an immediate investigation.

Thousands of young women living in a part of Pakistan once considered the country's most idyllic tourist destination have been prevented from going to school after an order from Taliban forces which have seized control of much of the area.

So we rise in justified rage against the attack on women at a Mangalore pub by yet another gang of self-proclaimed custodians of Indian culture. And the collective fury is working. Several of the attackers have been arrested — including their tilak-sporting, rubbish-spouting leader Pramod Mutalik, a Hindutva activist closely linked to the BJP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena.

Twelve-year-old Amina was so abused by the man in the house where she worked that neighbors called the police and helped save her. Advocates here say the law against child labor is widely broken and abuse of child servants is widespread.

LAHORE, Pakistan (WOMENSENEWS)--Amina Rasheed remembers one incident in particular.

Around 40 goons of the `Sri Ram Sene´ entered a pub, assaulted people there, dragged women by the hair, molesting them and lifting up their blouses and skirts.

“I want acid thrown on his face and body”, said Maria Shah, aged 25, a lady health worker from Shikarpur, some 500km from Karachi.

The victim of an acid attack for refusing to marry a man, Shah sits on a bench outside the Burns Centre of Karachi's Civil Hospital, shooing away flies with her bandaged arms. Her half-burnt face betrays signs of once beautiful features.

How should we in the women's movement understand and respond to the cluster of assaults by the Rama Sene, Bajrang Dal and other fundamentalists; the targeting of minorities and their places of worship; the harassment and molestation of women of all classes in the name of nation, culture and religion; the fear and anger spreading through villages and towns in southern-coastal Karnataka?

In a country known as the most dangerous in the world to be female, the most unusual aspect of the story of convicted rapist Eleka Amungu is that he is behind bars.

Widows in Nepal are protesting against a decision by the Nepalese government to offer a cash incentive to men for marrying them.

The incentive was announced in the government's annual budget earlier this week - it is a lump sum of 50,000 Nepali rupees ($641).

Nepal has a large number of widows because of the bloody conflict there in recent years as well as the high rates of HIV and other diseases found in the country.