Nearly 1.2 million people in Ethiopia are infected with the deadly Human Immunodeficiency Virus, also known as HIV. Women and young girls are particularly under threat because of social, political and economic discrimination. Women Talk Online reader Anne Marie Hankins stumbled across this piece of information when her co-passenger on a flight spoke about the plight of mothers in the African country.

…”There is a particular crisis for women—a vast confidence gap that separates the sexes. Compared with men, women don’t consider themselves as ready for promotions, they predict they’ll do worse on tests, and they generally underestimate their abilities.

Do crash diets work? What about fat around your tummy? Could that be potentially dangerous? What is the healthiest way to lose weight? Watch this interview with Dr. Hans Georg Joost and find out what’s necessary for succesfully losing weight.

Women Talk Online has nearly 107,500 fans on Facebook. We’re happy to read and react to your comments on our posts on Facebook. Here’s a pick of some of our readers’ comments.

“As ordinary women we have no value in society, but as fighters we are respected. ” Kurdish women in Syria prefer the hard life of a soldier rather than a normal family life with children.

India votes for a new parliament. Nepalese women are campaigning against harassment on the streets of Kathmandu. Indonesian women are well-represented in politics, but power does not mean that they get enough respect from society. Read more for women’s stories that made it to the headlines.

“Soon after drinking my tea, I felt dizzy and dozed off. The next thing I remember is that I was sitting in a police station. They told me, I was drunk and had desecrated the Holy Book, Quran. I was surrounded by a violent mob and people belonging to religious parties were condemning me. No one was listening to my cries. All they wanted was punishment for a crime that I had never committed.”