Pacific Partnership 2013 Sailors and nongovernmental organization volunteers delivered Project Handclasp donations to the Solomon Islands Western Province Council of Women during a community service event on August 3.

At the Bas Fond landfill in Mopti, residents sift through the rubbish, the dregs of other people's consumption. In a country as poor as Mali, they have to dig deep to find something for the keeping. The people living around this squalid waste disposal area are the poorest of the poor. Yet 16-year-old Fatoumata Traoré* would rather stay here than return to Tonka, the town in Mali's Timbuktu region she was forced to flee.

More than 38,000 children have taken part in Liberia's war as fighters, porters, and slaves throughout the country's bloody conflict. But stories of the former child soldiers of Charles Taylor's armies almost always focus on the boys. What has been largely unrecognized is that a significant number of these soldiers were girls.

Hundreds of women Thursday marched along the streets of the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, to protest against an increasing spate of rape cases in the country.

Headed by Women in the Media Sierra Leone (WIMSL), an affiliate body of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, the protesters who included non-media women were clad in symbolic black dresses. They marched through the streets with banners denouncing rape.

Iran's new president has sparked hope for civilians across the country as he promised to advance women's rights and reduce government interference in every day life.

In his speech, Hassan Rouhani spoke of political moderation, advances in women's rights and an end to sanctions, to cheering from members of parliament.

Inside a brightly painted Mogadishu clinic, Salim (not her real name) sits alongside her seven-year-old son, waiting for a check up. Opposite them, a health professional listens to their nightmarish ordeal.

Women organizations and Inter Party Women Network (IPWN) are going to launch a series of protest programs in the capital to press for their demand to ensure representation of 33 percent women in the next Constituent Assembly (CA).

Punjab University, Oriental College Chairman Department of Urdu and Veteran Educationist Professor Fakhar-ul-Haq Noori said on Saturday that female education is a powerful instrument for economic and social change in the society.

The National Elections Commission (NEC) in collaboration with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) has commenced a two- day gender strategy and methodology workshop in Monrovia. The workshop, which is being held at a local hotel, started Wednesday with NEC Chairman Cllr. Jerome Korkoya, emphasizing the need for more women participation.

It's hard to underscore enough the role women have played in Liberia's recent history.

During the civil war years (1989-2003), rape of women and girls was used by rival factions to humiliate and instill fear, according to Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The United Nations has estimated more than 40,000 women were raped during the war years.