Earlier this year, Sharia police arrested a 20-year-old college student and her boyfriend for indecency; they had been spending time together even though they were not legally married.

Her boyfriend was released, but she was detained and then allegedly raped by three policemen. Two of the men are on trial, while the third is at large.

Hillary Clinton today promised that any peace deal with the ultra-conservative Taliban movement would not come at the cost of the rights of Afghan women.The US secretary of state told a conference of the world's foreign ministers that women in the country "will not be sacrificed" and announced a number of initiatives to improve their situation.

Dozens of Afghan women from the provinces of Kandahar in the south to Takhar in the north are calling on Afghan leaders to give more visibility to women's rights at the Kabul Conference on Tuesday, cautioning that unless more is done to include women in the national decision making, the progress towards women's empowerment made in the past decade will be lost.

Women living in Afghanistan's safest region are retreating behind the veil amid fears they are being stalked by a resurgent Taliban determined to trample their rights. Human rights groups are concerned that plans by the Afghan government to make peace with the Taliban could lead to an erosion of women's liberties.

Women in Latin America have come a long way but aren't there yet. The legacy of Iberian colonialism, male-centered Catholicism and an undemocratic past all contributed to societies that subjugated women to men. Economic backwardness also compounded the unfriendly ambience for women in the region.

Struggling to survive, hour by hour is difficult as security threats continue to grow for the refugees inside the Chad, Darfur border. Darfuri refugees expressed their concerns in hope that their voices will be heard, their greatest fear is inaction by the United Nations (UN) and the United States to respond in favor of humanity.

Angola's deputy minister of Culture, Cornélio Caley, Wednesday in Luanda, called the society to reflect on matters of gender, in order to avoid man's superiority over woman, in the light of the challenges of humanity, harmony at home and respect for the fellow creature, Angop learnt.

Uganda has not ratified the Maputo Protocol which calls for the promotion of African women's rights over abortion.

The protocol, which calls for women's civil, political and reproductive health rights, also calls for a blanket right to abortion.

The gender and culture state minister, Rukia Isanga Nakadama, yesterday said abortion was a very controversial issue, which had raised opposition from different groups of Ugandans.

The African Union has declared 2010 the Year of Peace and Security in Africa, and will soon launch the African Decade of Women. What better opportunity to act on these pledges than at the 15th African Union Summit, being held later this month in Kampala, Uganda?

Thirty eight percent of Mexican women suffer physical, sexual or psychological aggression, and nearly 75 percent of victims don't report the abuse, according to a report from industrial-safety consultants GMSI. The company's study of gender violence found that the problem affects 33 percent of women worldwide, with the proportion reaching 71 percent in Africa and 40 percent in Latin America.