Women in the Asia-Pacific region have little economic and political power, impacting economic growth prospects of developing nations, the United Nations said in a report released Monday.

According to the UN Asia-Pacific Human Development Report to mark International Women’s Day, the region ranked near the worst in the world on issues such as protecting women from violence or upholding their rights to property.

“The key message [of the report] is that to meet any development goals that a society sets, you need the full participation and involvement of women,” Helen Clark, head of the UN Development Program (UNDP), said.

President Karzai has given his election cronies the authority to find new ways of filling women’s seats in forthcoming parliamentary ballots, in a move that critics fear will erode constitutional safeguards designed to guarantee female MPs.
However, the decree, issued last week, allows the Commission to find new ways of filling empty posts. “If the vacancies can be filled by male candidates then it’s open to intimidation,” said a women’s rights activist in Kabul. “It’s in the men’s interests to discourage women from standing.” Women in public office already risk death threats.

Minister of State for Education, Hajiya Aishatu Jibril Dukku who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Bayero Universityia a professional educationist. "I believe gradually even for the elective posts that women are gradually coming up, we only need to showcase ourselves better. We also need to cooperate so that we justify the saying that whatever a man can do a woman can do even better. We need the support of the men, we need to be more confident and we need to show that we are better managers of anything be at an organization or in the private or public sector."

Prime Minister Boiko M. Borisov of Bulgaria, a thick-necked former karate instructor, bodyguard and onetime fireman, may seem an unlikely feminist. But the former tough guy mayor of Sofia has in recent months promoted a legion of women, heralding what some are calling a sexual revolution in the politics of this abidingly macho Balkan country. “Women are more diligent than men, and they don’t take long lunches or go to the bar,” insisted Mr. Borisov, who has cited his mother and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany as his role models.

“Women have stronger characters than men because when they say no they mean no, and they are less corruptible,” he said last summer, inaugurating the women’s wing of his center-right party.