Asia

A top UN official today said she is ''keeping an eye'' on Kashmir where some individual cases of sexual violence have been reported.

"We have some sort of spread reports more from individuals than a consistent reporting other than from the UN entities (in Kashmir)," Margot Wallstrom, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, told PTI.

The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) has written two separate letters to the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan and voiced its concern and dissatisfaction for not including any women members of Parliament among the 14 recently appointed Ministers and Ministers of State.

Even with regards to the capabilities of Nepali working women, many of them have apparently found that their capability is put into question simply because they're women.

“If you're a woman, and even if you're professionally capable, many assume you work in an incompetent manner or are too feeble for work,” says Kreepa Shrestha, proprietor of Supply Support, a company that deals in promotional goods.

Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and four human rights organizations have jointly called on the UN Human Rights Council and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to more actively defend human rights in Iran, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

The commander of the regime's suppressive police force spoke about intensifying actions against what he called “mal-dressing” by women, state-run ISNA news agency reported on Thursday. Ahmadi Moghaddam said the plan to intensify dealing with “anomalies” will “start on June 15 throughout the country.”

When asking for Afghan women's opinion on whether there should be negotiations with the Taliban and foreign troop withdrawal, Wazhma Frogh, a leading women's activist and an executive board member of the Afghan Women's Network, told me that among Afghan women there is no clear consensus. But there is a common call for ending all forms of violence.

On 9 June 2011 three Sri Lankan women came together to show their work at the Saskia Fernando Gallery on Dharmapala Mawatha in Colombo. Anoma Wijewardene, Sujeewa Kumari and Nadia Haji Omar are three women whose series of work on paper present the strength of women artists in the Sri Lankan contemporary art scene today.

Afghanistan is making progress weeding out children from its police forces but is only starting to tackle persistent allegations of sexual abuse and may still have minors serving informally, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.

Afghan Women's Network once again raises serious concerns on the increased instances of violence against children and women in Afghanistan and seriously condemns this act.

Hundreds of Nepalese women who emigrate to Arab countries in search of better jobs and wages, are unaccounted for. According to husbands and relatives they become victims of prostitution and slavery. The migrants who manage to return, show signs of physical exhaustion, injuries, psychological damage and are often infected with AIDS.