According to the Global Fund, war and militarism have a profound impact on women inside and outside of conflict situations. Sexual violence, intimidation and wife battery are just a few of the problems that women all over the world have to live with almost on a daily basis.

Twelve years ago, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, calling for the protection of women who have suffered from sexual violence.

However, despite best intentions and efforts this commitment has yet not been fulfilled. Persistent violence against women in conflict-affected countries has not ended.

In Egypt, Jeffrey Fleishman profiles Bothaina Kamel, the only female candidate for president in a country where the feminist agenda has been stalled. "I want to create culture shock," she says.

A woman in power is rare in Egypt: Less than 1% of assembly members are women.The Egyptian military abolished a quota system that had ensured more women were represented.

Saudi Arabian officials strip-searched 29 Christian women and assaulted six Christian men after arresting them for holding a prayer meeting at a private home in the western city of Jeddah, a Christian human rights advocacy group informed The Christian Post.

It was 1996 when Micaela Flores and 15 other women from Peru's highlands accepted an ambulance ride to a Cuzco clinic, lured by the offer of a free medical checkup.

But when they arrived, the clinic's doors were locked behind them.

"'We're going to make a small incision,'" Flores, now 54, said she was told. When she resisted, the mother of seven said health workers tied her feet and hands and anesthetized her.

The women's Leadership for Peace and Security in the Greater Horn of Africa project was launched in 2009. The project seeks to maximize the participation and contribution of women in national and regional peace building processes. Forty women from the Greater Horn of Africa are the backbone of the project (G40) held a high level mission in Hargeisa, Somaliland on Women Building Peace from the 10th to 14th February 2012. P.M.

At least 600 Ugandan girls have been forced into Malaysia's sex trade in what has become a human trafficking epidemic, a foreign diplomat has said.

Hajah Noraihan, the Malaysian consul to Uganda, said despite an early warning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008 when the number of trafficked girls stood at 30, the constant flow of victims has not slowed.

When three women, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, an alumna of Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), received the Nobel Peace Prize in October, it was more than just a testament to their work. The prize was also a clear signal to the many unheralded women around the world that their peace building efforts were not only noble but necessary.

When a 15-member delegation of the U.N.