Asia

South Asia may boast a number of women leaders and be home to cultures that revere motherhood and worship female deities, but many women live with the threat of appalling violence and without many basic rights.

A woman was allegedly paraded naked in the streets of Neelor Bala village on the instigation of a jirga that found her son guilty of rape.

Four armed men, who belonged to the same village as that of the ‘raped' woman, allegedly disrobed the middle-aged woman before making her parade naked.

Police has confirmed the report and arrested three members of the jirga.

Five United Nations agencies have banded together to call for urgently addressing gender-biased sex selection favouring boys, a common practice in many parts of South, East and Central Asia that they say fuels a culture of discrimination and violence.

Women have won hard-fought rights in Afghanistan since the austere rule of the Taliban was ended by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001.

But gains made in areas such as education, work and even dress code look shaky as the government plans peace talks that include negotiating with the Taliban. Below are some questions and answers about women's rights in Afghanistan today.

Afghanistan's women are among the most oppressed in the world. Under Taliban-rule, they were denied education, married off as children, and honour killings were considered a family's right.

Coalition forces have been in Afghanistan now for almost 10 years, denying the Taliban the right to govern. So how has life changed for Afghan women?

There are 2000 students at Bamiyan University and women now make up 20 percent.

Feminists and activists criticized the absence of women in Prime Minister Najib Mikati's new Cabinet Monday.

At a time when women's issues have gained momentum in Lebanon, with the approval of several legal amendments toward women's rights, activists described the new Cabinet as a step back for gender equality.

The UK Home Office Minister with responsibility for equality, Lynne Featherstone, is scheduled to arrive in the Capital for a three-day visit on Monday.

Issuing a press release here in Kathmandu on Sunday, the British Embassy in Nepal informed about her visit and said that it will be focused on how Nepal is tackling violence against women and other forms of discrimination.

The controversial death of Dr. Ms. Haleh Sahabi is coming under international scrutiny as the U.S. State Department, The Foreign Office (FCO) in the UK and the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) issue statements on human rights abuse in Iran and the need for transparency.

As Canada prepares to pull out its military troops from Kandahar after a long and difficult run in southern Afghanistan, where 156 Canadian soldiers have lost their lives since 2002, it is not only time to reflect on the sacrifices made and the gains achieved by the Canadian presence in this war-torn nation, but also to focus on creating momentum for durable peace and justice which includes the consolidation of democratic ideals and gender equ

When sex ratio statistics from the 2010 Census were made public, many Kashmiris were shocked. But not Hameeda (name changed). The 54-year-old nurse working at Srinagar's only maternity hospital, Lalla Ded, knew that the girl child was fast becoming an unwanted species in Kashmiri households.