When Iranian girls go out these days, their friends warn them they face trouble if they are wearing makeup or are fashionably dressed. Their friends point out that they have a 1,000-dollar price tag on their heads.

Many Iraqi women refugees, sheltered temporarily in Syria, bear the scars and trauma of extreme violence suffered in their homeland. Ethnic and religious-based persecution tore apart previously stable communities in Iraq, removing these women and their children from their traditional support systems. Stripped of the normal protections of home and extended family life they exist on the margins of society.

An interview with Sharon Bhagwan Rolls of femLINKPACIFIC, a feminist communications organisation in Fiji.

AWID: Last month, there was a military coup in Fiji, the fourth in 22 years. What is the situation at the moment?

The United Nations (UN) is surprised at the continued incidents of rape and other gender-targeted violence in Liberia, despite the restoration of peace, a visiting UN official said last week while on a tour of Liberia.

Women from across Sudan met at a Khartoum open day commemorating the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and shared recommendations with UN leaders on 10 June. Having developed key issues through state and regional consultations, some 35 representatives of Sudanese women's groups gathered at UNMIS headquarters appealing for the United Nations and Sudanese government to observe Resolution 1325.

The leader of a protest against Kosovo's ban on headscarves in public schools says devout Muslims could resort to violence to get their way, though Islam is not central to the lives of most Kosovo Albanians.

The June 18 rally in the capital Pristina by 5,000 women in headscarves, supported by some bearded men, was held after a few headscarf-clad girls were prevented from entering their schools.

Women's empowerment is a process. It involves raising consciousness, building skills and reforming unjust laws that limit women's education, participation in decision making and economic independence. I.M.O.W. Global Council member Mahnaz Afkhami is president of Women's Learning Partnership, which strives to empower women by practicing and promoting their leadership and self-sufficiency.

AS the world marks International Women's Day tomorrow, a new guide aimed at providing policy-makers and advocates with ideas on how to promote more women in Pacific legislatures was launched in the Pacific.

Recognizing that change doesn't happen through ideas alone, AWID invited the 2005 Forum participants to submit grant applications for projects that would transform ideas and perspectives picked up at the forum into projects for meaningful change. How does change happen? One step at a time, one project at a time.