Asia

A United Nations panel says Arabs, Kurds and other minorities in Iran face discrimination because of their ethnicity.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination says minorities in the Islamic republic don't enjoy the same rights to free expression, health and housing as other ethnic groups.

As soon as the divorce bill was filed, it immediately generated a lot of emotional reactions from different sectors, especially the Catholic church. Unable to shy away from the debate on the divorce bill, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III recently declared that he is against divorce but is for legal separation with the option to remarry, which some sectors say is tantamount to divorce.

In a clearing just outside the southern Philippine town of Sultan Kudarat the leader of the country's biggest Muslim group contemplates an uncertain future.

The Solomon Islands epitomize all that one associates with a Pacific paradise - sparkling blue sea and miles of pure white beaches fringed by palm trees, free from the rush and clamor of city life. August has been a significant month for the islanders who have been voting in a general election for a 50-member parliament. The candidates were drawn from nine provinces and the capital territory of Honiara.

The Women's League of Burma (WLB) welcomes the decisive decision from the Obama Administration on August 18, calling for a Commission of Inquiry on Burma.

The US joined the growing number of countries refusing to turn a blind eye any longer and called for the establishment of an inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

She had just been married when Japanese soldiers brought her to a tent camp in Yogyakarta and raped her every day for months.

“Black paint from my bridal makeup was still on my forehead when I was raped for the first time. I trembled with fear, curled up on my sleeping mat and cried terribly. But it was to no avail. They kept coming and I was afraid that they would shoot me to death,” said Sanikem, who was born in 1926.

With a date now set for elections in Burma, the 40 parties that have been approved to run are out on the campaign trail. A brief look at candidate lists however shows a conspicuous lack of women in Burmese politics, a sign of a sexually conservative society and heightened male chauvinism, says Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein.

Sisterhood Is Global Institute/Jordan and WLP are launching the second Youth Tech Festival for 150 youth from across Jordan with a focus on preparing youth to participate in upcoming elections in November 2010. I am really excited to see what the outcomes of this year's Youth Tech Festival will be! Last year's Youth Tech Festival in Jordan was a resounding success as youth created campaigns and videos to combat violence against women.

"If you had to choose between saving a girl's life or enabling her to go to school, which would you do first?" This was Afghan President Hamid Karzai's reply when I asked him last month if the rights of Afghan women might be sacrificed for a peace settlement with the Taliban.