Violence in spotlight on women's day

Pakistani women shout slogans during a protest rally in Lahore yesterday to mark the International Women's Day. Around 3,000 people attended a rally led by Pakistani woman Mukhtaran Mai, whose gang rape on the orders of a tribal council triggered an international outcry. PHOTO: AFP

While marches and debates were planned in countries still struggling for gender equality, the event looked set to pass largely unnoticed in nations where women have already made strides in politics, business and the home.

In Nepal, women are beaten to death, shot at, blown up by landmines and abducted in a decade-old conflict between government troops and Maoists that has killed thousands, a United Nations envoy said.

"Today, the UN calls on combatants in Nepal to avoid, at all costs, targeting civilian women directly or accidentally," Matthew Kahane, the body's resident official said in a statement on Tuesday.

In Afghanistan, still slowly clawing its way to normality after years of civil war capped by five years of Taliban rule, activists were to launch a project to assess the extent of sexual violence against women.

President Hamid Karzai was also to order the release of a number of female prisoners. Women in Afghanistan can still be jailed for actions such as adultery and running away from forced marriages.

In neighbouring Pakistan, a woman whose gang rape on the orders of a tribal council triggered an international outcry was to lead a women's rights rally.

"The day will be momentous as it will bring together, for the first time, men and women in an area globally marked for gender discrimination and cruelty towards women," Mukhtaran Mai told AFP.

Mai's rape -- a punishment for her brother's alleged love affair -- and her quest to bring her rapists to justice has garnered extensive international attention, much to the embarrassment of Pakistani authorities.