Asia and the Pacific

Papua New Guinea’s three women MPs have ruled out supporting legislation for reserved seats for women.

And a prominent supporter of the legislation says the debate over women’s seats may have served its purpose.

Megan Whelan has more.

Last year, parliament passed a bill to set up 22 reserved seats for women, but enabling legislation was not passed in time for this year’s election, in which three women were elected to the 111 seat parliament.

The spokesman for Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Hossein Naghavi-Hosseini, said Parliament was persuaded to consider the government's proposed bill after hearing reports from experts about problems with the current regulations.,

Despite the presence of a large number of political families, not a single female member of these powerhouses has ever been part of the national or provincial assemblies.

The legacy of women leaders from Sindh is formidable, most notably because of Benazir Bhutto’s rise to power. Ghotki however, located in upper Sindh, is notorious for its bloody tribal clashes and frequent cases of karo-kari (honour killing).

Kim Sung Joo, who refused an arranged marriage to pursue her fortune selling luxury goods, said electing Park Geun Hye next month as South Korea’s first female president would help destroy its entrenched gender gap.

“If she becomes the top leader in Korea, we’ll break through everything -- glass, concrete,” Kim, 55, a co- chairwoman of Park’s election campaign committee, said in an interview on Nov. 15. “That will equalize men and women in Korean society.”

A record number of American women will hold U.S. Senate seats after Tuesday's election. In China, there is speculation over whether a woman will also make history by ascending to its top political core.

No woman has ever held a post in the elite nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo that governs China. Thousands of senior Chinese officials gathered in Beijing this week and at the end of the conference next week, a new set of leaders will be unveiled.

As a former political prisoner, Thin Thin Aye knows something about fear: that you should never let it stand in your way. That’s why the veteran activist, better known as Mee Mee, has made it her mission to persuade other Burmese women to set aside their fears and take a more active role in politics.

Since her release from prison in January of this year, Mee Mee has done much to live up to her own advice. As a prominent female member of the 88 Generation Students group, she is living proof that there is plenty of room for women in Burmese politics, if they choose to get involved.

Different ceremonies were held to honour the bravery of the child peace activist, glorifying her stance against extremism and for women’s education.

A 17-year-old schoolboy presented a petition in support of Malala Yousafzai to the Pakistan High Commission on the global day of action for girls’ education which saw the whole world uniting behind Malala.

Sunderland student David Crone, a UN and Plan UK Youth representative, handed in the documents which call for every child to have the right to go to school as part of a drive led by former prime minister Gordon Brown.