The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) is gravely concerned by the tremendous losses of life and livelihoods and ongoing humanitarian crisis triggered by the worst floods in Pakistan’s history.

We stand in solidarity with all the women, men and children of Pakistan during this difficult time. In particular, we send a message of solidarity to the women of Pakistan, who for many years have contributed to upholding the struggle for peace and democracy throughout the country, and who continue to struggle for survival in the face of this unprecedented crisis.

Facebook images of an Israeli servicewoman posing with blindfolded Palestinians have caused a storm. Now two former female conscripts have spoken out about their own experiences.

As Hamas cracks down on the rights of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip, their sisters in the occupied West Bank are slowly gaining ground. But a bureaucracy, that is sometimes supported by foreign aid, is crippling these advances.

The NYT reports: “As the 40th anniversary of the 1971 war approaches, the Bangladeshi government has set up an International Crimes Tribunal to investigate the atrocities of that era. But human rights advocates and lawyers fear that the mass rapes and killings of women will not be adequately addressed.”

A troubling statistic from Brazil: Ten women are killed in the country every day due to domestic violence, according to a recent study called the “Map of Violence” published by the Sao Paulo Instituto Sangari.

War-era ordnance kills and maims hundreds of Laotian villagers each year. Eighty-five percent of victims are men, leaving numerous women to fend for their families.

FRIDAY FILE: How do women fare in this rich nation with a relatively poor women’s rights record?

Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill was introduced by parliament member David Bahati in October 2009. The bill seeks to eradicate homosexuality from Uganda and become a model for the rest of Africa.

Why have American women become so active in the right wing Tea Party movement?

SANAA, 25 August 2010 (IRIN) - Long gone is the kohl, the henna paint and the white wedding dress she wore at her wedding. A life of hard work and early labour has caught up with Badria. Married at 14, she had her first child at 16 and then five more in quick succession, including three miscarriages. Now in her forties her body is succumbing.

Tunisia's historical commitment to women's rights is being used by Ben Ali as a smokescreen for the persecution they now suffer.

NEW DELHI — The numbers are in dispute, but the story they tell has remained the same for four decades: 200,000 women (or 300,000, or 400,000, depending on the source) raped during the 1971 war in which East Pakistan broke with West Pakistan to become Bangladesh.

Late advocate Rashida Patel’s book Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Pakistan is both informative and prescriptive. For not only has she provided an in-depth analysis on a host of laws that affect women, but she has also made recommendations for reform.

A two day-long international workshop themed "Globalization and rise in fundamentalism - implications for women and women workers" ended on August 23, at the conference room of the BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka, Bangladesh with urging Asian women to unite and bring about an end to unfair globalization and fundamentalism in the region.

The home of Florinda Zeka in central Kosovo is an idyllic spot, surrounded by undulating hills.

The issue of forced contraception raises difficult questions about autonomous decision making under the Mental Capacity Act

Puerto Rico's pioneering 1989 law against domestic violence is clouded by the U.S. territory's leadership in intimate-partner killings found in a recent survey. Critics say government budget cutbacks are making matters worse.

The abortion scare is truly just a scare.

FRIDAY FILE: How do women fare in the prosperous Mediterranean nation of Cyprus?

FRIDAY FILE: The war against HIV and AIDS cannot be won without a rights based approach.

Women’s rights in America are only halfway home.

Well, this is fun. Three women, not zero, or one, or two, but three now sit on the Supreme Court. Three seems formidable. Somehow one seems like a token gesture, when all the rest remain men. And two seems tokenish because what can two do. But three—three is a third of the Court. Three is also an odd number and it seems like one might be moving to something of consequence.

PARIS — When Alexandra Pascalidou, a Swedish-Greek writer and television host, joked on a Greek cooking show that dad rather than mom might make dinner for the children, her producer, she recalled, yelled into her earpiece to “cut that feminist nonsense.”

Federal appeals court extends the block on gay marriage in California but opens question of who can appeal Prop 8 ruling

Today,* Time hits newsstands with a photo of a beautiful young woman with her nose cut off. Western photography, war, and beautiful "victims" have a long and fraught history.

Human rights organisations and the gay community in Costa Rica have joined forces to try to block a referendum on a law for civil unions between partners of the same sex.

Jerusalem is a city blessed but also cursed by its own holiness. No more so than here at 'Ground Zero', the religious epicentre within the walled Old City, beneath the most disputed holy site -- the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary as known to Muslims, Har Habayit or the Temple Mount for Jews.

How activists are using coalitions to promote LGBTI rights in Uganda.

TEHRAN: Outside the prison walls of ward 350, in the IRI – Islamic Republic of Iran’s Evin Prison, a group of brave demonstrators hold placards and pictures of their loved ones who are part of a hunger strike.

FRIDAY FILE: In late June 2010, the second biennial Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) took place at the UN headquarters in New York. Natalie Raaber and Anne Schoenstein from AWID participated in the DCF and share information and reflections on the meeting and what it means for the relationship between development cooperation and women’s rights going forward.

An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for allegedly committing adultery has reportedly appeared on state television to "confess" her crime.

A day after Kenyans voted to accept a new constitution, women across the country speak about their hopes and expectations.



Let us focus on African women’s agency, not just their oppression.

Over the past two months, there have been 23 reported cases of suicide or attempted suicide by migrant workers in Kuwait, meaning that about every 2.5 days a migrant worker commits or attempts suicide in Kuwait. Migrant workers are often driven to suicide by harsh living and working conditions and abuse at the hand of their sponsors.

SKSW and WLUML are still gravely concerned about the fate of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

If ever there were doubt about the relationship between the Catholic Church's spectacular failure to address the clerical child sex abuse crisis and the church's glaring system of gender apartheid, the Vatican put it to rest in July.

The premiere of HBO’s documentary 12^th and Delaware marked the first time a mass audience got an inside look at a so-called “crisis pregnancy center” (CPC).

At the Fathers’ House International church in Henderson, Kentucky, Pastor Lisa Bourland is seated on the prayer room floor washing the feet of speakers for that evening’s Women, Weapons of Warfare (WWW) conference.

Stoning is an abhorrent punishment, meted out in inconsistently and secretively. Will Brazil's Lula shame Iran into ending it?

GenderIT.orgⁱ writer Mavic Cabrera-Balleza speaks with Sylvie Niombo and Francoise Mukuku, ICT activists from Congo-Brazzaville and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) respectively. They discuss various facets of the information and communication technologies and the context to which they apply in the DRC . The interviewees elaborate on how ICTs can be used to reduce incidence of violence against women and how it is also widely used in ways that aggravate the violence and violate privacy laws. They also explain why access to ICTs is critical to the DRC and how it can be used to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

It's a commonplace maxim in international policy circles by now to say that helping women and girls is the most foolproof method of achieving sustainable development.

Tomorrow, TIME Magazine will treat newsstand customers everywhere to one of the most rank propaganda plays of the Afghanistan War.

In landmark ruling, federal judge affirms right to wed is protected by U.S. Constitution

A recent decision by the UK Supreme Court found that a gay man would "face a well-founded fear of persecution" if he returned to Cameroon.

Kenya's Christian churches have unified against a proposed new constitution for the east African powerhouse, saying it will offer abortion on demand and give Muslims special rights.

Once a month, just after dawn, dozens of women gather at the Western Wall to protest Orthodox Jewish insistence that women of non-orthodox faith must pray by Orthodox rules instead of the more liberal rules of Conservative and Reform Jews.

Conscience clauses. They practically have the term “slippery slope” built right into their definition.

Bahraini women are losing battles incourt due to a lack of awareness of their rights, according to a leading socialworker.

FRIDAY FILE: Did Miss Landmine Cambodia – a beauty pageant for women who lost limbs in landmine explosions – mock, exploit and unjustly sexualize women with disabilities there?

MANAMA, Jul 22, 2010 (IPS) - In her 30s, Muza has been married for years but has managed to remain financially independent. In fact, she was even able to help build the home she has with her husband, using the money she earned as a teacher.