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As a political activist and president of the women’s wing of the Awami National Party (ANP), Zahira Khattak has been working relentlessly for the empowerment of women in the war-torn North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan. She believes that by empowering them, they can contribute more to the peace efforts in the region. "We are holding a peace jirga in the near future in which women from the whole province will be invited to speak on the prevailing situation," Khattak said, referring to the spate of violence in the NWFP, one of Pakistan’s four provinces. Women have also been providing comfort to the bereaved families of the victims of militant attacks in NWFP, she said.

A number of prominent human rights organisations in Israel, including B'Tselem, The Public Committee against Torture in Israel and The Association for Civil Rights in Israel have published an open letter to the President of Israel, Shimon Peres, Member of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, and Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyhau, urging them to condemn the assault and delegitimization of human rights organizations in Israel by by extremist organizations (NGO Monitor, Im Tirtzu and others). Please see the letter attached.

The issue of women driving in Saudi Arabia is again a topic of public discussion,[1] following an extraordinary incident that took place during the recent flooding in the city of Jeddah. A 15-year-old girl named Malak Al-Mutairi managed to extricate herself from a partially submerged car, and then got in the family jeep and towed other vehicles and their occupants to safety, saving her own family and eight others.[2]

Although women are the most vulnerable to extremists in Yemen, their voices are the least likely to be heard and their role in fighting terrorism is restricted by social and legal status, say human rights activists. On Thursday, Sisters Against Violent Extremism (SAVE Yemen) brought together a group of women representing human rights groups, academic institutions, the press, and university students to discuss how Yemeni women can be involved in the fight against extremism and terrorism.