Asia

The Taliban's leadership is prepared to drop its ban on girls' schools, one of Afghanistan's most influential cabinet ministers has claimed.

According to Farooq Wardak, the country's education minister, the movement has decided to scrap the ban on female education that helped earn the movement worldwide infamy in the 1990s.

The daughter of an Afghan politician has reportedly died of her injuries after being raped by American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan's southwestern province of Farah.

Cambodia has become the 100th country to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said yesterday. The protocol allows people to submit complaints regarding rights violations to the UN committee on women's rights.

Nepal´s development partners have expressed readiness to continue their support to the peace building process in the days ahead as well.

Nasawiya, a feminist collective in Lebanon about to celebrate its first anniversary, is seeking to change the discourse about women's issues in the country by creating a safe space for discussion and initiatives to educate Lebanese society about feminism.

Contrary to the common perception, most of the cases of violence against women were not reported from the far-flung and backward areas of the province during the last six months.

A total of 308 cases of violence against women (VAW) had been reported during the last six months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

This was revealed in a six months report from July-December 2010 compiled by Aurat Foundation. Most victims of violence remained under age of 18 as 38 cases of teenagers, 35 related 19 to 36 age group, and 10 cases belongs to 37 and above age group were reported in the province.

If the world's largest democracies have ensured equality since decades, can we now write a constitution which promotes discrimination? What is the point of 33% women's representation in the CA, if our voices are ignored? What is the point of a new constitution that does not guarantee equality to more than half of its population?

In Block 08, an anonymous sand coloured building in Helmand's Police HQ, seven veiled figures play out each afternoon their very own drama of the No 1 Afghan Ladies Police Academy.

The women, aged from 18 to 33, are the first recipients of a new scholarship to train as female police officers. At present there are less than 20 serving female officers in the Afghan police in Helmand.

Women need to take their place alongside men to help build peace across the world, human rights activist Dr Sima Samar has said.

Last week Dr Samar won the 2010 Tipperary International Peace Prize and the judging panel said she risked her life to fight for the rights of women and girls in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.