Asia

Among the most prevalent Western stereotypes about Muslim countries are those concerning Muslim women: doe-eyed, veiled, and submissive, exotically silent, gauzy inhabitants of imagined harems, closeted behind rigid gender roles. So where were these women in Tunisia and Egypt?

Iranian lawmaker Fatemeh Ajorlu has criticized the United Nations for the approach it has adopted toward the plight of women and children in the occupied territories.

Ajorlu made the remarks on Saturday at the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women which opened at United Nations Headquarters in New York on February 22 and runs until March 4.

As it reaffirmed its commitment to the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations (UN), the Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (NYPM) pushed for the deployment of more female peacekeepers.

After decades of conflict in Afghanistan, there are almost two million widows leading secluded, poverty-stricken lives. But now all-female army units are going into remote villages in an effort to integrate these women into wider society.

In a small village on the edge of the Bolan desert, near Laskhar Gah, a group of women sit huddled together on a sunny terrace. Some are girls, barely out of their teens.

In a groundbreaking 1994 report The Asia Foundation identified some of the underlying causes of domestic violence in Cambodia: a culture of male dominance; police reluctance to intervene; pressure on women victims not to sully their families' reputations; and, the Khmer ideal of a “perfect lady,” still taught in schools, which instructs wives never to say anything negative about their husbands.

With Timor-Leste continuing to consolidate peace and stability and promote development, the United Nations is already planning for the end of a mission in the once troubled country that could serve as an example for other operations, a senior UN official said today.

A leading human rights group released a report Monday documenting the proliferation of human rights abuses in Iraq since the United States' invasion in 2003.

Among the most egregious cases, the 102-page report by Human Rights Watch identifies women, journalists, detainees and marginalised groups, including internally displaced persons and religious minorities, as the most vulnerable populations in Iraq.

It sounds almost playful, but "Eve teasing" is a daily torment for many women in South Asia, who are now trying to call time on what they see as a bland euphemism for sustained sexual harassment.

Widely used for decades by the media and police in India and Bangladesh, and to a lesser extent in Nepal and Pakistan, "Eve-teasing" is a catch-all term that encompasses anything from lewd comments to assault.

Thousands of people displaced from their homes by fighting between Pakistani government forces and militants in Mohmand Agency, northwestern Pakistan, face sub-zero temperatures and have been blocked from leaving the agency to seek refuge with relatives.

Many Americans have a certain image of the average Middle Eastern woman. She's subdued, covered from head to foot, keeps her head bowed and knows her (lowly) place.

But media coverage of the recent uprisings in the region has shown women who don't look particularly subservient. They have been on the front lines of the protests against corrupt government in Egypt, Tunisia and, now, Libya.