Female lawmaker Fatemeh Alia said on Sunday that her nomination as education minister has become certain.

"In the light of my 20-experience in education. I have been selected as the final choice for the ministry of education," Alia told the Mehr News Agency.

Alia represents the people of Tehran at the parliament.

Young Palestinian women are being forced to into prostitution in brothels, escort services, and private apartments in Ramallah and Jerusalem, including areas inhabited by Jews, according to a report released Wednesday. The Palestinian organization SAWA (All Women Together Today and Tomorrow) published the paper, the first of its kind, urging Palestinian society to break its silence over its sex industry.

Four Palestinian documentaries are screening in Ramallah early next month. Produced in collaboration with the European Union, the films were translated into English and reflect the reality of Palestinian women.

In conjunction with the presentation of the UN Fact Finding Mission's report to the Human Rights Council on 29 September, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) release “Through Women's Eyes: A PCHR Report on the Gender-Specific Impact and Consequences of Operation Cast Lead”.

Women make up only a tiny minority of more than 7,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but they often pay a high personal price for what has largely been a supporting role in the Palestinian uprising.

Some have raised babies behind bars, and others have watched their families torn apart in their absence.

A group of women who are risking imprisonment to collect 1 million signatures on a petition demanding greater women's rights in Iran were presented on October with the Anna Politkovskaya award for courage.

Dozens of Afghan women protested against the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IECA) on October 7 for allegedly allocating less seats for women on the country's provincial councils, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

Activists at the rally, which was organized by civil society organizations in Kabul, demanded a greater role for women on Afghanistan's provincial councils.

A mother protecting her child isn't anything unique. But in Iran, humanitarian activist mothers are now becoming global icons for human rights causes worldwide. In silent public protest, the ‘Mourning Mothers of Iran,' known locally in Tehran as the ‘Mothers of Laleh,' stand together each week, on Saturday evening vigils in Tehran's Laleh Park.

Pink wigged-protesters and hundreds of other demonstrators wielding posters calling for peace converged on Copley Square in an antiwar rally yesterday.

The regional gathering in Boston - one of more than 40 nationwide - brought protesters from throughout New England to shout, sing, and march against conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.

As an Afghan woman who for many years lived a life deprived of the most basic human rights, I find unbearable the thought of what will happen to the women of my country if it once again falls under the control of the insurgents and militants.