Asia

Terrorism and Afghan insurgency have so overshadowed other issues in Pakistan that it sometimes feels like we -- common Pakistanis -- have no other issues. Take, for example, women rights. Here I am not insinuating feminism or related issues. We are still stuck at basics in this country.

"Even now, I can't find the words to explain the kinds of horrors that are happening,” wrote Nurjan Tulegabylova with El Agartuu, a women's organization based in Kyrgyzstan. “There are burned houses, but the worst is that corpses of people are lying on the street.”

Jean-Michel Tijerina, CEO and Founder of the Cambodia Project, insisted I must meet her.

After an hour over coffee, I fully comprehended why.

I was talking to the Cory Aquino or the Aung San Suu Kyi - of Cambodia.

And given her courageous outspokenness, I am now very concerned for her safety.

It is clearly stated in Article 5 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights that, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Malaysia's Islamic Shariah courts have appointed their first female judges - a move praised by women's rights activists Thursday as a boost for a judicial system often accused of favoring men.

An Israel soldier is to face manslaughter charges for shooting dead two Palestinian women during Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip in January 2009.

Iran might not send its girls' soccer team to the Youth Olympics in Singapore next month because of a dispute over the players' Islamic attire, Iranian media reported Thursday. The deputy head of Iran's physical education department, Marzieh Akbarabadi, was quoted by newspapers, including Khabar Varzeshi, or Sport News, as saying the newly designed dress was "inappropriate."

While Asia and the Pacific can take pride in the region's vibrant economic transformation in recent decades, this has not translated into progress on gender equality.

Amnesty International says rape and sexual crimes committed mainly against women and children has become a growing problem in Cambodia. To mark the 100th International Women's Day, the human-rights group Amnesty International is releasing a report on the scourge of rape and sexual violence in Cambodia.

Cambodia's new penal code, which comes into force later this year, should be accompanied by stronger law enforcement measures if the country's women and girls are to be better protected from rape, says the global rights lobby Amnesty International (AI).