For a long time, negative impressions have dominated world's opinion of women in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Media depictions of women as second-class citizens often deemphasises the root causes of the problem, which include the repressive, dictatorship-led countries of this region who sought to exploit many aspects of society, including religion.

International Child rights organisation UNICEF-Uganda has strongly condemned the increasing incidents of acid attack against people especially women.

Almas Jiwani, President of the National Committee for the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women Canada) has been named one of 20 Women to Watch by Women's Post Magazine.

THE BABY'S name is Alame. His mother, Fazili, lovingly enunciates the word as she gazes at him suckling at her breast. Alame, she explains, means “may he live” in their native Tembo language.

In early December 2011, IPJ Deputy Director Dee Aker and Program Officer Zahra Ismail were in Cambodia for the third Women PeaceMakers Asia Regional Network summit. The seven-day gathering, organized by IPJ Woman PeaceMaker Thavory Huot, provided opportunities to meet with youth, women farmers, Buddhist and Islamic community groups, as well as NGOs and women in political posts locally and nationally.

SADOKE KIKUNDA Mayele repeatedly cracks his knuckles as he sits restlessly in a small room up a dank stairway in Goma's central prison, the largest in eastern Congo. He cuts a distinctly underwhelming figure.

What a year for the women of the world!

For those fed on a Disney diet, there was the chance to live the dream of becoming a princess. Enter Kate Middleton, who married Prince William and may be Queen some day.

A new device called a "Silent Observer" -- hailed as a solution to curbing the practice of aborting female babies in India -- has drawn criticism from activists who say the technology is more a government eyewash than an answer.