Asia

A court in Bangladesh has sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment for gang raping a female school student during post-election violence in 2001.

A judge in the town of Sirajganj delivered the verdicts on Wednesday.

Six of those convicted were in court to hear their sentences, but five are still on the run and were convicted and sentenced in their absence.

The Palestinian people's oppression continues primarily due to the financial, diplomatic and military support that the Zionist state receives from the USA, and secondly the acquiescence of pro-Western states in the region. After the fall of the Zionists state's long lost brother – the Apartheid state of South Africa – the Palestinian struggle remains perhaps the leading and most potent anti-imperialist struggle in the world.

Palestinian women in the West Bank and Gaza held rallies Monday to commemorate International Women's Day.

In Gaza, hundreds of women took to the streets urging Fatah and Hamas to end their rivalry.

An all-female delegation of women from Paktika province convened for the first time April 25, 2011. Influential female Afghan representatives, like the director of women's affairs, or DoWA, for Paktika, attended.

"It is my responsibility to reach out and help the women and to let them know they have rights," said Bibi Hawa, Paktika director of women's affairs.

She gave voice to the voiceless -- women, lower castes, the exploited -- when the entire country cowered to Rana rulers. She married thrice when widow marriage was an unpardonable offense.

Sadly, it is not surprising that Afghanistan is again ranked as the worst place in the world to be a mother, according to Save the Children's annual State of the World's Mothers report, released Tuesday.

The world today seems rife with conflict and catastrophes, both natural and man-made, and governments and international institutions are rightly focused on people's needs caught in these events.

Sen. Edgardo J. Angara said there should be equal opportunities in the labor force after a recent study reported that women are more at risk of losing their jobs amid the ensuing economic crisis.

“The government and private sector institutions should develop and strictly implement gender-fair policies that protect women workers as well as promote opportunities for women's economic empowerment,” he said.

The historic May Day is being observed in Bangladesh along with the rest of the world today, with the pledge to establish the rights of workers. The day is observed in commemoration of the struggle by workers in Chicago, USA over a century ago to establish the rights of workers to a eight hour working day.

Bangladeshi women are pushing government to implement the recently approved National Women Development Policy (NWDP) 2011, which has met with strong resistance from Islamic clergy.

Leaders and activists of the Jatiya Mahila Sangstha (National Women's Organisation) recently held rallies and formed human chains across major cities demanding the policy's immediate enforcement.