Asia

Events this week that raised questions on women's rights and ethnic tensions have added to long-term concerns about Afghanistan after American-led forces withdraw in 2014 and new elections are held.

Major improvements to women's rights in Bahrain has lead to greater equality in the country's courts, said Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty King Hamad and Supreme Council for Women president.

However, Princess Sabeeka said more needed to be done to reform the judicial system to protect the rights of women and children in Bahrain.

It is becoming increasingly uncomfortable to be female or foreign in Cairo's Tahrir Square, birthplace of the January 2011 Egyptian revolution.

A wave of sexual assaults against female protestors and foreign female journalists by mobs of men, some armed with sticks and belts, has taken place in the last few weeks in broad public view.

Thousands of Nepali girls leave school every year to get married, missing out on their education, the government says. Parents are often unaware of the impact that trying to save the money spent on education can have on the future of their daughter.

Women members of civil society groups clad in black shirts and holding bananas staged a protest-rally in front of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Monday calling for a strong Philippine government support for the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

Correctional Services Solomon Islands (CSSI) will launch its first gender audit report at a special event in Honiara on Monday 18 June 2012.

The report “Cooling Agents and Panadol” is the product of a two month CSSI led audit which assessed CSSI's progress towards gender quality in its work and workforce.

The report highlights CSSI's success as a leader for gender equality within Solomon Islands and regionally.

Syrian government forces have used sexual violence to torture men, women, and boys detained during the current conflict. Witnesses and victims also told Human Rights Watch that soldiers and pro-government armed militias have sexually abused women and girls as young as 12 during home raids and military sweeps of residential areas.

The birth of a girl, so goes a popular Hindu saying, is akin to the arrival of Lakshmi - the four-armed goddess of wealth, often depicted holding lotus flowers and an overflowing pot of gold.

That should assure pride of place for women in Indian society, especially now the country is growing both in global influence and affluence.

In the face of the most prolonged government crackdown in the Arab Spring, Syrian women are protesting alongside men, showing the world they will not be silenced -- whether by their government or by fears of an Islamist alternative.

When the aspirin and alcohol swabs fell from under her clothes at a Syrian army checkpoint, Rania stood petrified, looking first down at her fallen contraband and then up at the soldier who stared straight back at her.

Rania knew that smuggling food and medicine to Syrian opposition activists was considered by security forces to be "aiding terrorists" and treated as severely as weapons smuggling.