Marzia is a police officer in uniform, still a rare sight in Afghan society, even though the female component of the Afghan security forces is important in a Muslim society. If apartments need to be searched, then Marzia's job is to check the women's bedrooms and closets.

Marzia says there should be more Afghan women with jobs, and believes that the political climate is auspicious.

The consensus was “could do better” as senior government representatives met in New York to commemorate UN Security Council Resolution 1325, a decade-old commitment to strengthen the role of women in peace and security.

Ambassadors and government officials widely endorsed a Security Council decision on 27 October to create indicators to measure progress from now on.

As the Security Council met to debate women, peace and security and 10 years of progress in implementing SCR 1325, about a hundred women in white T-shirts inscribed with the words “Put Peace Women at Peace Tables: Implement 1325 Women Peace and Security NOW!” gathered outside the Church Center building across the street from the United Nations.

The International Women's Day in 2000 was an extraordinary day for me and will remain so for the rest of my life.

We've already heard a lot of grand pronouncements about what women will mean for the 2010 midterms -- and vice versa. But from mama grizzlies to mean girls, much of the conventional wisdom about the women who are running for office this year is mangled or badly misguided.

1. There are more Republican women than Democratic women running in 2010.

Tens of thousands of war widows cannot be reached due to a lack of funds, say officials, despite efforts to help them adjust to life after the conflict in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

There are 89,000 widows in the north and east, Mohamed Hizbullah, the deputy minister for child development and women's affairs, told IRIN.

According to a report released Monday by the MIT Center for International Studies and the International Civil Society Action Network, women still have not been fully included in peacemaking and peace-building processes in many countries.

ESCWA opened today its scheduled activities of the Tenth Anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 concerning women, security and peace. For the occasion, the Regional Commission launched its study entitled "The Means to Strengthen the Role of Women in Conflict Resolution and Peace Building", with an emphasis on case studies from Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq.

At least 30 women were kept as prisoners in a dungeon-like structure and gang-raped over multiple weeks at the Congo and Angola border before being left in the bush without their clothes, an international aid agency said Tuesday.

A Vietnamese representative to the United Nations has affirmed Vietnam's support to UN Resolution 1325, which aims to promote women's role and rights in relation to peace and security, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.