Asia

Brazil's national volleyball team beat Iran 3-2 at Tehran's Azadi stadium June 15 in the FIVB Volleyball Men's World League. However, what made headlines in the Iranian traditional and social media is the gathering of activists and fans against the ban on women entering the stadiums. The unfairness of the rule was thrown into particularly stark relief as Brazilian women with Brazilian passports were allowed to enter to watch the match.

Anar Gul, 16, wept as she waited outside the Afghan ministry of women's affairs in Kabul with her parents. Swathed in a blue burka, she told the painful story of her marriage two months earlier in her home province of Bamian in central Afghanistan. Soon after the wedding, her husband began inviting other men to the house and charged them money to have sex with her.

A 100-page set of guidelines for the legal protection of the rights of women and children was launched by the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Phnom Penh on Thursday in a bid to address shortfalls in how the judicial system handles cases such as rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment.

Indonesia has underscored the need for the international community to take concrete steps to put an end to violence against women and children in conflict-plagued areas, remarked Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

Marty made the remarks at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Areas held in London on June 12-13.

As well as preventing sexual violence, assisting survivors of sexual violence in conflict has been a big theme at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, held in London this week. I was invited to take part in an expert panel on this subject at the summit, along with senior officials from the United Nations.

Year 2014 has so far witnessed a steep rise in cases of crime against women in valley. In the beginning of the year in February a case of sexual assault was filed against the former state health minister Shabir Ahmad Khan after a female medico accused the minister of attempting to molest her. The incident resulted in a huge hue and cry from the entire valley. Ultimately the minister had to resign and appeared in a police station.

India has rebuffed accusations by a U.N. investigator that sex crimes are rife in the world's biggest democracy, calling her analysis "simplistic" and full of "sweeping generalizations".

India's large northern state of Uttar Pradesh has seen a wave of violence and sex crimes, including the rape and murder of two girls aged 12 and 14, which stirred national outrage.

Year 2014 witnessed a steep rise in cases of harassment and molestation across the valley, and to protest against the same, scores of women from far-flung areas today reached Srinagar to protest against such crimes.

The women including young girls gathered here at Pratap Park to protest against the rising rape cases and unnoticed harassment cases going on in the Valley.

The European Union has called on the Government of Pakistan to take stronger action to ensure the protection of the rights of women, the physical security of all its citizens and to bring to justice those responsible for acts of violence against others.

Forty police officers in Fiji have completed a workshop on human rights and gender.

The week-long workshop run by the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre is the fourth in a series of five.

The centre's training co-ordinator, Shamima Ali, says it's already making a positive difference in the community.