“No scalpel, no stitch and no rest needed,” guarantees Dr. Ghulam Shabbir Sudhayao, referring to the surgical procedure called vasectomy – the least popular method of birth control around the world, including Pakistan.

If you've been hanging out and wondering who will win the battle to make the "war on women" their election-year issue, you're probably still waiting. Last I checked, both sides were pointing their finger at the other for impinging on women's rights in some form.

In a grainy video that shocked viewers around the world, a young woman named Najiba shrouded in a gray shawl sits alone on a hillside surrounded by men with guns and waits to be executed. Now Afghan activists are stepping out and speaking out in solidarity with the murdered young woman to press their government to take violence against women far more seriously—and to demand some say in whatever peace with the Taliban might come.

When Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, visited South Sudan in May, she heard first-hand about the precarious situation many women face on a daily basis, from domestic violence to rape.

With sacrificing family resources to educate a girl child and a potential future leader still a big societal challenge, any effort to see the education of a girl is a huge boon. So when millions of dollars are poured into the effort, the impact cannot be overemphasised. The Campaign for Female Education (Camfed), introduced some few years back, has seen remarkable change of fortunes to many a rural folk.

A new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University shows that fulfilling unmet contraception demand by women in developing countries could reduce global maternal mortality by nearly a third, a potentially great improvement for one of the world's most vulnerable populations.

The World Bank's Board has approved an additional International Development Association (IDA)* grant of $75 million for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Health Sector Rehabilitation Support Project to help improve primary health care for 11 million people. The new grant will be used to provide basic services that will ensure greater survival among women and children.

Almost unnoticed, Nepal's burgeoning adult entertainment industry has been drawing young girls away from being trafficked across the border to the fleshpots of India's big cities.

Rights activists are worried that the issue of internal trafficking has not received the kind of legislative attention that resulted in laws, passed in 2007, to prevent and punish trafficking of young girls across Nepal's borders by prostitution rings.

United States Ambassador to Jamaica Pamela Bridgewater is hoping that more Jamaican women will take a greater role in representational politics as the nation continues its shared drive with South Africa to provide a better life for all.

Bridgewater used her previous experience as consul general in South Africa to point out that the governments of the 'Rainbow Nation' and Jamaica had similar philosophies.

Shanta Chaudhary was eight years old when her parents sold her into effective slavery for $75, sending her to scrub, cook and sweep for 19 hours a day at the house of a stranger in southwestern Nepal.Now a strident rights campaigner, politician and one of the country's most influential women, she weeps as she recalls 18 years spent as a "kamlari", rising at 4:00 am, receiving regular beatings and witnessing rape and abuse.