In 2008, only six Arab women were elected to local office, but this year, that number is seen rising to 15.
Yesterday I sat through three hours of evidence trying to get to the bottom of who said what at a meeting about who said what during a five minute altercation a year ago.
The Pacific region has the lowest level of representation of women in national legislatures, a tag that it would like to shake off.
But one woman who has made it into her national parliament is Charmaine Scotty.
The Philippines has hailed a UN Security Council resolution recognising women’s role in the peace process, saying that the measure raised the status of women from “victims” of conflict to agents of amity.
Hundreds of Paktia Province women October 23 rallied in Gardez to announce their intentions to actively participate in the upcoming elections next year.
"We will be voting for the candidates who could help us achieve our rights," civil society activist Anar Gula said.
The Cook Islands finance minister says interventions may be needed to fast track greater participation by women in politics.
Mark Brown is chairing the 12th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women, being held in the Cook Islands capital, Rarotonga, this week.
No less than 35 percent of the newly elected MPs in Zimbabwe are women, thanks to a special electoral quota system to increase women's representation in Parliament. At age 29, Tionei Melody Dziva is the youngest of them.
The legacy of conflict-related violence endures long after a peace agreement is signed. In too many cases, violence and insecurity continue or even increase for women, facilitated by large-scale impunity, the absence of effective justice systems and an unreformed security sector.