Asia

Speakers reiterated the demand of quota for women on general election seats and urged political leadership to finance election campaigns for women who are interested in contesting the forthcoming polls.

In Jordan, hundreds of Syrian females have been affected by an informal trade that has sprung up since the start of the war in Syria, where men use "agents" to source Syrian refugees to use for sex.

India dramatically tightened its laws on sexual assault and trafficking Sunday, with a far-reaching package of measures rushed through to satisfy public opinion in the wake of a horrific gang rape of a young woman in the capital in December.

India's radical Hindu nationalist party governing Mumbai has handed out kitchen knives and chili powder to women following a gang rape in the capital New Delhi that ignited a national debate on the best way to tackle sex crimes.

The Shiv Sena party, an ally of the main opposition BJP, said it had handed out 21,000 knives with three-inch blades to women in the city and surrounding areas and plans to distribute 100,000.

While parliamentarians discuss a new electoral law to govern the 2013 parliamentary elections, women politicians are seeking stronger presence in the country's legislature.

Lebanon signed the Beijing agreement in 1995, which stipulated a female quota of no less than 30% but this has yet to be implemented in parliamentary elections.

1 Billion Rising campaign states, "One in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime".

Bangladesh has won second place in an annual United Nations Development Programme competition, with a story that highlights the success of the country's poverty alleviation efforts.

The story had a specific focus on the contributions that destitute women made in the economic sphere, said a press release of the UNDP Dhaka office issued on Wednesday.

The trauma and eventual death of a young student from Delhi following her brutal gang rape awakened many across the country to demand accountability from the government to establish stronger laws and more effective institutions to prevent violence against women. The need is to ensure greater security and justice for women and girls within a larger framework of a humane, just and equitable society.

Israel has admitted for the first time that it has been giving Ethiopian Jewish immigrants birth-control injections, often without their knowledge or consent.

Haneen Zoabi is an Arab member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament). In late December 2012, the Israeli Supreme Court overruled a Central Elections Commission decision and ruled that Zoabi can stand for re-election in 2013.

Zoabi is a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause. She was the first Arab woman to be elected to the Knesset, where she has served for almost four years.