The Kurdish house in Baghdad held on Saturday an educational seminar about Iraqi women and ways to involve them in executive decisions of the Iraqi state and activists in the field of empowerment of women, under the slogan (who is responsible for the absence of women in the Iraqi government).

Simmering insecurity continues to force Congolese civilians in North Kivu to flee their homes and seek security in places like Kalinga, one of many camps for the internally displaced in the volatile region.

Robin Levi has a simple point of view when it comes to violence against women in the United States and what the government should be doing to stop abuses. “What's really important is reminding ourselves the United States is not immune from human rights law,” said the human rights director of San Francisco Bay area-based Justice Now.

Rakha, an adjunct professor at the American University in Cairo, is one of many women who has participated in the recent protests in Egypt. In these demonstrations, which have already led to Mubarak agreeing not to run for re-election, women have taken an active role: promoting them, leading crowds, and providing aid to harmed protesters.

Yet as conflict continues to unfold, from the Ivory Coast to the ever-turbulent Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is still mostly a silent disaster.

It remains out of donors' reach and almost invisible in the media, increasing during and after disasters as already fragile structures of law and order break down.

But does this mean African women are always helpless, voiceless victims in places of conflict?

What is SOMWA's relationship with other international organizations?

SOMWA has partnered with a few international organisations, such as IREX (International research and exchange Board) . We worked with them to create a Media Advocacy Project in Supporting Media and Civil Society in Somalia and Somaliland. SOMWA has also partnered with CARE International in creating a Media Women Empowerment Project.

One young woman who has become the face of the uprising is 26-year-old Asmaa Mahfouz. Approximately 2 weeks ago, Ms. Mahfouz posted a video online that soon went viral. In the video Ms. Mahfouz states, “As long as you say there is no hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go down and take a stance, then there will be hope.”

There are serious concerns about the increase in the number of domestic violence, rape, child abuse and sexual harassment cases.

Statistics from the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre show more than 10,000 such cases were reported to the centre over the past 10 years.

There were 379 rape cases, 8632 domestic violence cases, 318 sexual harassment and 690 cases of child abuse.

There was no field manual to consult, no military doctrine to guide the way.

For years, diplomats, aid workers, academics and government officials here have been vexed almost to the point of paralysis about how to attack this country's staggering problem of sexual violence, in which hundreds of thousands of women have been raped, many quite sadistically, by the various armed groups who haunt the hills of eastern Congo.