Asia

A draft law to protect women from domestic violence is a Western idea designed to dismantle the Muslim family, rather than improve women's status in the country, a statement released by Lebanon's highest Sunni body said Thursday.

Rosemary Gonzalez was murdered in 2009, the victim of a war that ended in 1996. One day, 17-year-old Rosemary said good-bye to her mother Betty, walked out of their small house on the outskirts of Guatemala City and was never seen alive again.

Former Prime Minister and senior leader of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal has stressed that the new constitution should guarantee proportional participation of women in every apparatus of the State.

Last week, a group of twenty-five women who were demonstrating for peace and democracy in Baghdad's Tahrir Square were violently attacked. Gathering as they had every week, the women were greeted this time greeted by a mob of armed men who were reportedly bused in specifically to target the demonstrators.

The head of Egypt's military intelligence has promised Amnesty International that the army will no longer carry out forced ‘virginity tests' after defending their use, during a meeting with the organisation in Cairo on Sunday.

As many as 68 per cent of women in the Middle East and North Africa feel that they are treated equally to men at work, a report claims.

The survey by the Middle Eastern job site Bayt.com, and research specialists, YouGov, also revealed that 57 per cent of the women felt that the system of appreciating, recognising or rewarding employees is based on performance alone and not on gender.

An Iranian photojournalist and women's rights activist who campaigned for female football fans to be allowed to enter stadiums has disappeared.

Maryam Majd, 25, is feared to have been held by security officials before boarding a flight from Tehran to Düsseldorf, Germany, where she intended to cover the Fifa Women's World Cup.

In an annual survey known as the Rule of Law Index, issued by the World Justice Project, Iran ranks last out of 66 nations for the protection of fundamental rights. The survey notes that Iranian law enforcement authorities perpetrate abuses against citizens, and Iran's courts are infected by corruption and political interference.

Recent news from Iran demonstrates the depths of the Iranian government's contempt for the rule of law.

Seven Kachin women have been raped in separate attacks by Burmese troops in the country's north, four of whom were subsequently murdered, a rights group has told DVB.

All incidents occurred in or close to Bhamo district in Kachin state, where additional battalions of Burmese soldiers have been deployed in the past fortnight to fight the insurgent Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has denounced the rape of women and men who are, or appear to be, lesbian or gay.