The Arab Spring has provided a platform to the unsung heroes of the Arab world. Women have always been behind-the-scene participants in the old order of Middle Eastern politics.
The Administrative Court has suspended the practice of subjecting female detainees arrested by the military police to undergo virginity tests.
As its winter session wound down last week, it was clear that the Indian Parliament would remain a male bastion for the near future.
Manuela D'Avila hopes she and women like her will change the face of government in Brazil, a country where the female presence in politics has lagged behind neighbors despite the election of Dilma Rousseff as the nation's first female president.
Ten per cent of the seats in a proposed Libyan constituent assembly will be reserved for women, according to a draft electoral law that has triggered harsh reaction from a human rights watchdog.
Women have made significant advances in politics over the past few decades, with females having served as the head of state in many prominent countries, including Britain, India, Germany, Pakistan, and others.
Under a new gender quota law introduced in Mauritius, at least one-third of the candidates in local elections must be women. But the adoption of a national quota is not yet on the horizon, even though just 18% of legislators are women and there are only two female cabinet ministers.
For years, Israeli women have been pressured into moving to the rear of public buses serving strictly religious Jews. Now, in confrontations reminiscent of the era of Rosa Parks, women are pushing back.