Asia

A group of women claiming to be from the Syrian city of Homs announced this week the formation of the first exclusively female armed organization to fight against the Syrian regime.

“We are a group of women from Homs and we have formed the Banat al-Walid battalion,” announced a member of the group in a video posted on the Internet Monday.

Last Sunday, June 17, marked the first anniversary of the Saudi Women2Drive campaign. Activists had planned another driving demonstration to mark the anniversary, calling on Saudi women with international driver's licenses to take to the roads and to flood the traffic department with applications.

If new elections are held, Fatema Khafagy will not be sorry to see the months-old Islamist parliament go.

In the "Arab Spring" countries in transition, women are now marginalized or excluded entirely from political bodies. Denial of one's fundamental right to participate in the democratic process in one's own country is one form of violence. Yet it is not, unfortunately, alone in the pattern of violence involving restrictions on women.

The video for this story, from the Women and War series, can be viewed here.

In Souleimaniya, in Iraqi Kurdistan, Nahida is the CO of the Women's Unit in the Peshmerga Army in her region. Nahida's dream started when she was only fourteen; she used to carry messages and weapons to the Kurdish resistance forces fighting against Saddam Hussein's regime.

Cambodian women have fewer opportunities than men, and less access to economic and political positions of power, a World Bank report says.

For the first time in Iraqi Kurdistan women are protected by a new law against some of the traditions most harmful towards them.

On Wednesday the regional parliament ratified a bill banning female genital mutilation and domestic violence. This is a landmark law in a region that is more steeped in such practices than surrounding countries.

In June 2011, Iraqi Kurdistan passed a landmark law that criminalised female circumcision and domestic violence, but one year on, activists remain frustrated with its patchwork implementation.

Abdolfattah Soltani, a well-known Iranian lawyer who co-founded an organization that defends the rights of women, minorities and political prisoners, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his work and for what Iran's hard-line judiciary called spreading anti-government propaganda and endangering national security.

On a trip to Mumbai a few months ago, we went to the south to see the sights and enjoy a bit of the other Mumbai – the posh life of Bollywood, rooftop bars and fancy hotels. The king of these hotels is the Taj. We went inside to take a peek at the floor-to-ceiling flower arrangements that are changed daily, the stunning Indian architecture, the fancy shops and the view from the roof.