Standing in front of a row of five paintings, four of them featuring a woman while the other one was a canvas of eyes, Phaving Phung beamed with pride.

Last year, an  image of five extraordinary women, dubbed the “Silence Breakers”, was plastered on the cover of TIME magazine and seen by millions around the world. Selected as the face of the “MeToo” movement to break the silence about sexual harassment,TIME’s “person” of the year 2017 was five people Ashley Judd, Susan Fowler, Adama Iwu, Taylor Swift and Isabel Pascual.

San Sreylai Screenshot Youtube- The Voice Cambodia

If any proof were needed of the dire state of gender equality in Cambodia and of violence against women, the death of San Sreylai is the perfect example. On October 15, 2017, as San was exiting a beauty clinic in Phnom Penh, her estranged husband shot her dead. He turned the gun on himself immediately after.

Despite having a raft of measures to prevent gender-based crimes in Cambodia, women continue to face rampant sexual abuse and harassment. Experts say strict implementation of laws is needed to curb the problems.

Bangladeshi acid survivor Hasina attends a campaign program to End Violence Against Women organized by a national network in Bangladesh supported by UNFPA, Bangladesh, November 24, 2010. (© picture-alliance/dpa)

Women are victims of 80% of the roughly 1,500 acid attacks reported globally each year, says London-based charity Acid Survivors Trust International. These cowardly moves are meant to maim, disfigure or blind the victims. It is an atrocious act to cause shame, pain and suffering for other people.

An estimated two million ordinance were dropped on Laos during the Vietnam war. 30 percent of the sub-munitions from cluster bombs failed to explode and pose an acute danger to the population. In DW’s report by Norbert Lübbers , women bomb disposal experts try and remove these bombs to secure their country.