In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Over the past few months, Indonesians have been witnessing a procession of scandalous cases involving female lawmakers accused of bribery, embezzlement of state funds, and shady, back-door political bargaining.

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The phrase “gender equality as smart economics” has become the mantra of such women leaders as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet. While some of Asia’s economies are booming, this does not always lead to greater opportunities for women. In fact, many women across Asia still lack access to [...]

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The Asia Foundation 2010 Survey of the Afghan People found that 83 percent of respondents approve of the government’s efforts at negotiation and reconciliation with armed anti-government elements; 44 per cent of all respondents were women.

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Mai and Hoa, both 15-year-old residents of Can Tho City with three more years of secondary school left before graduating, have decided to drop out in order to find work to support their families. Can Tho City is a major economic and tourist hub of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta…

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Over the last decade, Mongolia has seen a rapid increase in human trafficking, especially of young women being forced into prostitution across Asia. While analysts say the resource-rich country could be one of the fastest growing economies of the next decade, many young women will be shut out of the boom…

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This March 8th marks the 100th anniversary of the first International Women’s Day, a global celebration of the economic, political, and social achievements of women. It will be a day to commemorate the unprecedented number of women candidates who ran in Afghanistan’s most recent parliamentary elections; the women who make up approximately 33 percent of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly and 29.2 percent of Timor-Leste’s Parliament; the high annual growth rate of women business owners in Vietnam; and the gender parity in Bangladesh’s primary and secondary education system. Two million girls are now in school in Afghanistan and 509,000 women own small and medium sized businesses in Indonesia.

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In recent decades, Asia has experienced transformative economic growth and reform, and women have made significant advances in gender equity, political participation, and personal security – but challenges remain. The Asia Foundation’s Women’s Empowerment Program seeks to identify change agents, create new political and economic opportunities for women, build constituencies for reform, develop leaders, increase women’s rights, and ensure their personal security.

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This year marks the centennial celebration of International Women’s Day, and its theme – promoting equal access for women to education, training, and science and technology – resonates personally for Chroeung Sok Vorn, a rice farmer from Cambodia’s rural Kampong Cham province. “I’m a poor widow. Even though I have many children, I still encourage all of them to go to school…”

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Years of fighting, followed by five years of Taliban rule when girls were banned from attending school, left Afghanistan with one of the lowest female literacy rates in the world. Only 12-15 percent of Afghan women can read and write. Since the Taliban were expelled from the country in 2001, the Afghan government, with assistance from the international community, has made a huge effort to enroll all children in school.

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