As the first Muslim woman to be appointed to head the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Azizah al-Hibri, a Lebanese-American lawyer and prominent human rights activist, has an uphill battle in front of her.

17th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council
Item 6: Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Plenary on Burma/Myanmar
Oral Statement Delivered by Ms. Mariana Duarte on Behalf of
Conectas Direitos Humanos

Members of the Nobel Women's Initiative are marshaling their collective wisdom and experience to tackle the challenge of ending rape as a weapon of war.

"Violence starts in the mind, so we have to start by changing the minds of men and women all over the world." Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, democracy leader in Burma, participated in the conference by video.

By July, President Obama plans to decide how many troops to pull out of Afghanistan in the first initial US withdrawal. While a host of factors are in play, a big one comes from Afghan women.

Many of them fear that a possible US rush to the exits or a peace deal made in desperation could result in the return of Taliban rule and their medieval treatment of women and girls.

South Asia may boast a number of women leaders and be home to cultures that revere motherhood and worship female deities, but many women live with the threat of appalling violence and without many basic rights.

The price of womanhood came brutally to Odette, born in a wartorn country often dubbed "the rape capital of the world".

The 18-year-old from Minova recalls the day that members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), came to her village in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and scarred her life for ever.

Fatima Osman Bulle lives in an internally displaced ppeople's camp in Mogadishu. Her makeshift house consists of cloths and sticks and has no running water, electricity or toilet. She and her husband, seven children and three relatives are crammed into one room.

"I feel that I am a low-class member of the family," Bulle says. "I am the most disrespected person in the home."

A Thomson Reuters Foundation poll may have found that Afghanistan is the most dangerous place to be a woman, but Somalia's women's minister is astonished any country could be worse than her own.

"I'm completely surprised because I thought Somalia would be first on the list, not fifth," said Maryan Qasim.

A lot has been said about President Museveni's new Cabinet choices. Some names have attracted criticism while others have been praised. In explaining his choices, the President made mention of a “cross-generation” Cabinet that was picked on the basis of unity, mobilisation ability and expertise.

From gang rape and honour killings to domestic abuse and acid attacks, millions of women suffer horrific violence every day, but nowhere more so than in the five countries a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll identifies as the most dangerous places to be born female.

Afghanistan came top of the list followed by Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India and Somalia.