Asia and the Pacific

“Iran can be introduced as the role model of women education to the world, given its achievements in this field,” Mlambo, also Executive Director of UN-Women, said in a meeting with Iranian Vice-President for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Mowlaverdi on the sidelines of the 58th session of Women Status Commission in New York.

The Iranian vice-president, for her part, said taking part in the UN meeting was an opportunity for exchange of experience and familiarity with the challenges women face in different parts of the world.

Attitudes toward female leadership have changed ahead of the 2014 legislative election, as people have begun to be less apathetic toward them, activists working across Indonesia have said.

Women voters in India will play a decisive role in determining the outcome in the country’s general election, polling for which begins on April 7th.

According to India’s election commission, the independent body that oversees all legislative polls, the gap between male and female voters has been falling steadily since 1962 and was the lowest in the last 2009 parliamentary polls.

International IDEA in collaboration with Demo Finland, UN Women and the Embassy of Finland organized a seminar on the Electoral System and Women’s Representation in Nepal: Need for Reform? on 4 March 2014 in Kathmandu.

270 people participated, including Constituent Assembly (CA) members, representatives from political parties, civil society, media and academics.

Two senators from Palau say the women in politics they met during a recent visit to Australia have inspired them to be better politicians.

Jerilin Senior and Rukebai Inabo spent time in the Australian capital, Canberra, and visiting the constituencies of Australian senators and MPs, as part of the Pacific Women's Parliamentary Partnership Program.

In anticipation of local government elections, much of the discourse in recent months has challenged the laws put forward by provincial governments under judiciary-induced deadlines, including lukewarm lobbying for the greater inclusion of women at the grass-roots level.

At a seminar hosted by Oxfam, in collaboration with several rights and women advocacy groups, party representatives expressed ambivalence over seats allotted to women in the Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

The Speaker of the Tongan parliament, Lord Fakafanua today launched a program, the Practice Parliament for Women. The program aims at encouraging women to enter parliament.

 Lord Fakafanua announced the initiative this morning, and launched a nationwide public awareness program to encourage interested women to apply for a seat in the 30 seats, Practice Parliament for Women. Two seats would be set aside for youths and and the disabilities. All women from the age of 21 upward may apply for a seat in the 30 seats parliament for women.

In Afghanistan, a dangerous bill has slipped through two houses of Parliament and is poised to devastate women’s rights advocates and victims of abuse. The law would ban all family members of accused criminals—be they abusers, rapists, murderers—from being questioned by police or testifying against them in court. Doctors and psychiatrists would also be barred from providing evidence. In most domestic cases it would be virtually impossible to get a conviction.