Image: Daily Star

An Indian judge believes that rape investigations in India use archaic practices. Nepal is now “exporting” people, men and women who leave for foreign countries in the hope of finding better jobs. Women members of parliament in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are developing new programmes to empower women and Bangladesh’s women’s cricket team is making its debut against West Indies. Read on for more on women’s news.

Who made it to the headlines this week and which women’s issues got the media’s attention? Read on for more.

It’s been two years since the reported murders of five tribal women in a remote region of Pakistan made headlines, but powerful local elders have blocked all efforts to carry out independent investigations and punish the culprits.

Women’s rights are in danger, especially in countries where the government does not want to change its laws because of pressure from conservative groups. A group of pink ladies in India literally “beats up” people who torture women and several cases of uterine prolapse reveal severe gender discrimination in Nepal. Read more for the latest women’s themes.

2013 has been yet another tumultuous year for women in Pakistan. When I look back, many tragic incidents stand out but quite a few women have had successes to make us proud.

A young girl in India resists her rapist, bombs in Pakistan’s Peshawar ruin Christmas for several locals, India and US seem to be inching towards a solution after a debate over an Indian diplomat’s treatment. Read more to know about the latest in women’s news.

If the women of Pakistan do anything that has any semblance of normalcy, it is considered a miracle by feminists and a profanity by fundamentalists. Each step is either towards progress or religious sacrilege. The same conditioning came into play when Pakistan’s Women’s cricket team became an established entity in the 1990s.