Thousands of young women living in a part of Pakistan once considered the country's most idyllic tourist destination have been prevented from going to school after an order from Taliban forces which have seized control of much of the area.

For many years we have been witnessing women being prevented to participate in the electoral process both as voters and candidates. Shamelessly, despite their cutthroat competition, the religious and so-called liberal parties engaged in this fraud. And the Election Commission of Pakistan has never taken any action against this clear violation of its code of conduct.

As high-profile delegations from Pakistan visit India after the launch of a month-long cross-border signature campaign to press for resumption of dialogue between the two countries and call for peace, IPS interviewed three Pakistani women who are pushing this agenda in their own unorthodox ways.

Women in Bangladesh have taken a significant step towards greater equality, chalking up a parliamentary milestone: nearly 20 percent of seats are to be filled by women.

Seventeen directly elected female parliamentarians took up their seats on 25 January, and 45 more are set to join them soon, meaning 62 women out of 345 will sit in the unicameral legislature.

So we rise in justified rage against the attack on women at a Mangalore pub by yet another gang of self-proclaimed custodians of Indian culture. And the collective fury is working. Several of the attackers have been arrested — including their tilak-sporting, rubbish-spouting leader Pramod Mutalik, a Hindutva activist closely linked to the BJP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena.

Twelve-year-old Amina was so abused by the man in the house where she worked that neighbors called the police and helped save her. Advocates here say the law against child labor is widely broken and abuse of child servants is widespread.

LAHORE, Pakistan (WOMENSENEWS)--Amina Rasheed remembers one incident in particular.

Around 40 goons of the `Sri Ram Sene´ entered a pub, assaulted people there, dragged women by the hair, molesting them and lifting up their blouses and skirts.

“I want acid thrown on his face and body”, said Maria Shah, aged 25, a lady health worker from Shikarpur, some 500km from Karachi.

The victim of an acid attack for refusing to marry a man, Shah sits on a bench outside the Burns Centre of Karachi's Civil Hospital, shooing away flies with her bandaged arms. Her half-burnt face betrays signs of once beautiful features.

How should we in the women's movement understand and respond to the cluster of assaults by the Rama Sene, Bajrang Dal and other fundamentalists; the targeting of minorities and their places of worship; the harassment and molestation of women of all classes in the name of nation, culture and religion; the fear and anger spreading through villages and towns in southern-coastal Karnataka?

Attracted by loud bickering, a small group of people surround a rickshaw near a market in Islamabad. Two women dressed in ‘burqas' are arguing with the rickshaw driver.

"They said they wanted to be taken to the shops. Now they are not paying me enough for bringing them here,” the driver complained. The fact that the two women only spoke Pashto, spoken mainly in northern areas, compounded the problem.