Asia

The story of the young Afghan woman whose nose and ears were hacked off by the Taliban has faded from the headlines, but Bibi Aisha's road to recovery has only just begun.

While the use of Afghanistan and journalism in one word usually evokes negative images such as abducted reporters and war coverage, three Afghan women have taken a step to improve the media situation in Afghanistan, by setting up a Women's Journalism Center to help build female journalists' careers.

Two months ago, the State Department released its 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report (TiP Report), laying out a picture of human trafficking across the globe. In it, the United States reaffirmed its commitment to ending this scourge -- and for the first time, included an evaluation of anti-trafficking measures in our own country.

Our duties, however, do not end at our borders.

The shooting of a female Afghan politician on Monday demonstrates the fragility of the modest gains made by Afghan women after the fall of the Taleban, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Nida Khyani, a female Provincial Council member, was left in critical condition after being attacked in a drive-by shooting in Pul-e-Khumri, the provincial capital of Baghlan in northern Afghanistan.

Although the human rights violations in the Indian-held Kashmir has been continuing by the Indian security forces since the partition, yet the same practice has intensified in wake of the current phase of Kashmir struggle which began on August 12, 2008 when Indian forces killed Hurriyat Conference leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz along with five other persons who were protesting against the government decision to allot 800 kanal of Kashmiri land to a

The number of women running for seats in the Afghan parliamentary elections has increased though cultural obstacles remain, a candidate said.

Afghanistan is to have parliamentary elections Sept. 18. The number of women competing for the estimated 64 seats reserved for women on the 249-seat parliament rose from 328 in 2005 to 406 for September elections.

Three weeks after Pakistan's worst natural disaster began, many people are living in camps all around the country. Shmyalla Jawad, who is the gender advisor for the Plan International organisation in Pakistan, visited some of these camps in the Layyah district in Southern Punjab. She found out that apart from the dire conditions in the camp, women and girls are also facing a cultural challenge.

In few countries do women face as many challenges as they do in Afghanistan—a country which not only holds the record for the worst place to be a mother, according to Save the Children's “State of the World's Mothers Report 2010,” but is also home to the fundamentalist Taliban, one of the world's most repressive anti-women's rights regimes.

AUSTRALIA based Fijian hip-hop artist Thelma Thomas aka MC Trey jets into the country to hold a series of workshops with local young women.

The Majlis is mulling over a major plan to provide greater security for women, MP Zohreh Elahian announced recently.