Asia

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will provide $450,000 to the Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) for a three-year pilot project.

The first Didi Nirmala Deshpande South Asian Peace and Justice Award for 2013 has been conferred on Sunila Abeysekera, leading women and human rights' defender in Sri Lanka and South Asia, and a major player in the global women's movement.

The number of women and girls jailed by Afghan authorities for "moral crimes" has risen by 50 percent in the last year and a half, an alarming statistic that reflects the Afghan government's need to step up efforts to protect women's rights, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, more than a million people have fled, causing a refugee crisis of enormous magnitude. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), upwards of 3,000 Syrians a day have registered as asylum seekers in neighboring Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey.

A constitutional body in Iran has ruled that women cannot run in presidential elections scheduled for June 14.

Mohammad Yazdi, a clerical member of the Guardian Council, said the Constitution ruled out the participation of women, British broadcaster BBC reported May 17. Thirty women registered as candidates, but there had been little expectation they would be allowed to stand.

“Wahhabist fighters have called the rape as ‘Jihad al-Nikah,' assuming women and girl as war prisoners, and raping them as permissible,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, in the first official recognition of the phenomenon in Syria.

Islamic fundamentalist politicians in Afghanistan have stopped a debate on whether to give parliamentary approval to a law protecting women against violence.

Proceedings were brought to an end amid angry scenes when traditionalists demanded a repeal of the law.

India's "Red Brigade" is a group of angry young women with a simple message for the country's sexual predators: change your ways or be ready to face the consequences.

Dressed in bright red shirts and loose black pants, the brigade's members are fed up with deeply ingrained patriarchal mindsets and promote a brand of vigilante justice that is testing the law in their home state of Uttar Pradesh.

Despite threats from militant groups, many women headed to the polls in Pakistan to vote in the country's historic elections Saturday.

Attacks killed 24 and wounded dozens more during the day in a continuation of what has been a brutal election season with more than 130 people killed in bombings and shootings.

The Gender Concerns International's Gender Election Monitoring (GEM) Mission has deployed 15 international and 50 national observers to ascertain women's participation in the upcoming elections.

Director Gender Concerns International Sabra Bano who has previously headed similar projects in Libya (2012), Morocco (2011), Tunisia (2011) and Pakistan (2008) is in charge.