Asia

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) committee has urged the government to prioritise adoption of legal provisions to fight discrimination against women.

The committee has sought a comprehensive programme including public education and awareness raising campaigns involving mass media as well as community and religious leaders to address multiple forms of discrimination.

The policeman spoke with calm and assurance as he insisted that he could not have raped the teenage daughter of a local shepherd, because a mullah had married them just before intercourse.

“Once the marriage contract is done, any sexual intercourse is not considered rape,” said Khodaidad, 42, who until he was detained in the case had worked for the American-trained Afghan Local Police.

Saudi Arabia has announced that it will allow women athletes to compete in the Olympics for the first time, following more than a year of Human Rights Watch reporting, campaigning, and high-level advocacy with the International Olympic Committee.

Failure to allow women to play sports violates the Olympic Charter, which prohibits gender discrimination, and would have triggered Saudi Arabia's banning from the London Games.

Participants of a national consultation have demanded representation of female political workers in all party ranks to ensure women's true participation in the political process.

Religious views do not stand in opposition to women's rights in the Arab world, says a survey of men and women from across the Middle East. The survey, conducted by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, shows that no correlation exists between people's attitudes towards Shariah law and their level of support for women's rights.

The results show that other factors impact women more.

Unlike her Muslim compatriots, Tarulata Rani is unable to inherit anything from her family, cannot divorce and cannot claim maintenance from her absent husband -- all because she is a Bangladeshi Hindu.

Unlike Bangladeshi Muslims or Hindus in neighboring India and Nepal, Bangladeshi Hindu women can't divorce as the legal provisions do not exist and their marriages have not been allowed to be officially registered.

Watch the video that accompanies this article.

It's good to have heroes. One of mine is Sakena Yacoobi, the founder of a terrific organization called the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) that provides education and health services to women across Afghanistan. I first met Sakena nearly a decade ago, and have followed her work closely since then.

Egypt's first ever democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, will make history in another way: by appointing a woman as vice president, his policy adviser told CNN.

He will also choose another vice president who is Christian, Ahmed Deif said.

Improving women's access to jobs and economic opportunity could significantly boost worker productivity in the Philippines and the rest of the East Asia and the Pacific region by as much as 18 percent.