Asia

State of Law Coalition independent MP Safiya Al Suhail criticized women absence in head of political parties meeting called for by Kurdistan leader Massoud Barazani.

Al Suhail praised the statements of Supreme Council leader Ammar Al Hakim about the necessity to have women representation which was seconded by Vice President Tarek Al Hashemi.

Historically, Arab women have been quite disadvantaged as compared to males and, more often than not, their destinies are inhibited by the dominant males in their lives - father, brothers or husband.

The Organization for Freedom of Women, in a press meet held Sunday in ‘Tilak' hotel in Jaffna, accused Sri Lanka government of deceiving the war-affected women without using the international funds meant for their welfare it gets, sources in Jaffna said.

The coming elections in Burma on Nov. 7 are not a step toward real democracy.

As part of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's two-week Asia-Pacific tour, Clinton stopped in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Wednesday to "promot[e] human rights and women's empowerment in a South Pacific nation suffering from an epidemic of rape and police brutality," the Associated Press reports (Lee, 11/3).

The Philippines on Friday supported adoption of two Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) declarations—Enhancement of Welfare and Development of Asean Women and Children and Human Resources and Skills Development for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Growth.

Ten Nepalese women composed the first exclusively female team that first scaled Mount Everest on May 23, 2008. In doing so, they accomplished a unique feat. Equally significant was the message this historic act embodied for all women in Nepal: "There is no peak in the world that women cannot conquer."

A two-day international conference on possibilities of peace-building and conflict-management in the South Asian region, christened 'Beyond Our Differences', culminated here Sunday.

“While the men threw chairs and stones at each other every time they met, we women would sit down and discuss what we could do to save more people.”

Such is the experience of Suraiya Kamairuzzaman, who comes from Aceh.

Suraiya was one of a group of ordinary women from around Indonesia who have acted extraordinarily in the face of sectarian and other conflicts, contributing significantly to peace-building efforts.

Sri Lanka's construction industry has launched a project to provide construction skills to people, especially war widows and youth, in the east which is recovering from the effects of conflict, officials said.