CAIRO - In years past, when conservative members of Egypt's parliament spoke out to demand reversing the rights of women or Coptic Christians, most of the country laughed it off and moved on.

Margot Wallström, who has been spearheading United Nations efforts to tackle sexual violence in conflict, will step down from her post at the end of May due to family considerations, it was announced today.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Apr 16, 2012 (IPS) - Collateral damage caused by the ‘war on terror', prosecuted by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan since 2001, may well extend to psychological trauma sustained by thousands of women in the bordering areas of northwestern Pakistan.

Members and officials of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders - International Civil Society Action Network (GNWP-ICAN) and the Women Engaged in Action on 1325 (WE Act 1325) were recently here to confer with the city women leaders and city officials on the implementation of the Philippine National Action Plan on Resolution No. 1325 in the locality.

A senior United Nations official today strongly condemned the reported acts of sexual violence committed against Malian women and girls amid the renewed fighting in the north, and called on all parties to respect their obligations under human rights law.

The experience of the Angolan women in politics must be utilised by other countries as they have made relevant progresses in terms of equality of rights in comparison with men.

This was said Thursday in Luanda by UNESCO director general, Irina Bokova, during a meeting with a group of women parliamentarians, as part of the agenda of her visit to Angola she started on Wednesday.

Authorities in Uzbekistan have reportedly been running a secret program in the last two years to sterilize women, often without their knowledge or consent, according to the BBC.

Adolat, a victim of the secret sterilization program, told BBC that she had went to see a doctor and discovered that she had been sterilized after birth to her daughter by Caesarean section.

To many outsiders, Bangladesh is best known for its poverty and the natural disasters that hit it with depressing regularity.

The once remarkable gains in protecting and promoting equality between women and men in Afghanistan are now facing their most serious challenges.

Two questions must be asked: Are the emerging challenges to women's rights an indication of an overall backslide in security and stability in Afghanistan? Is this evidence of women's rights being negotiated away as part of the peace and reconciliation process?

Karachi, Pakistan - From a country where terrorism, extremism, inner strife and polarisation continue to eat at its roots, good news is reaching out globally from a perhaps unexpected source – its women. Pakistani women are fighting for more than just the empowerment of women. They are taking centre-stage in Pakistan's fight against oppression, social tyranny and extremism.