The Pentagon's decision to allow women in combat elates female veterans, who say all they are asking for is not guaranteed spots, but a chance to meet the same standards and have the same opportunities as men, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

Gender inequality remains widespread in India. Women could combat it by asserting their rights, says Jagdish N. Bhagwati.

Despite the fact that Malala Yousafzai, the fourteen-year-old Pakistani women's rights activist, survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, similar attacks against women, like the one in India, are on the rise. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that these attacks are efforts to stamp out women's progress and the potential of women worldwide will not be realized if this type of violence is tolerated.

A brutal New Delhi gang rape has triggered outrage across India. CFR's Isobel Coleman highlights three things to know about the case, and discusses the larger issue of violence against women in the country.

Women have made strides in Afghanistan since 2001, but huge issues still remain. While the United States focuses on withdrawal, Afghan women are still in the fight and will be long after 2014, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

Gayle Lemmon, Deputy Director, Women and Foreign Policy Program at CFR and former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan speak on how to involve more women in the peacekeeping process.

Women in the Arab world have certainly played a prominent role in their countries' transition, writes Isobel Coleman, but cannot take for granted that their activism will translate into political influence or legal gains in the emerging systems.

The female veterans who filed the lawsuit say combat exclusion is unfair and outdated, based on stereotypes, inhibits recognition and promotion of servicewomen—and ignores the realities of the modern battlefield, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

In the wake of the Petraeus scandal, Julia E. Sweig says her heroine of the moment is Carrie Mathison, heroine of the TV show Homeland who works in a profession where mainly men write the rules of the game.

Bibi Aisha's gruesome maiming put her on the cover of Time. Now, years later, she's working on getting a new face and trying to exorcise the horror, restart her life—and reunite with family, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

Today, 214,098 women serve in the U.S. military, representing 14.6 percent of total service members.

CFR fellow Isobel Coleman speaks with two women leaders, Marianne Ibrahim from Egypt and Souad Slaoui from Morocco, as they discuss initiatives in their home countries to empower women and girls, improve inter-faith dialogues, and encourage positive policy changes that support human rights and international development.

Pir Zubair Shah says the attack on Malala, the Pakistani girl gunned down by the Taliban, proves the Taliban's resilience and shows the uphill task of fighting them without a firm plan in place.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that just as Malala Yousafzai, the fourteen-year-old Pakistani girl who was gunned down by Taliban shooters, refused to silently abandon her right to education even at the risk of losing her life, courageous women and men fight daily against a worldview that considers girls' schools a call to action in their battle against modernity.

President Obama signed the executive order on Strengthening Protections Against Trafficking In Persons In Federal Contracts on September 25, 2012.

President Obama gave these remarks to the Clinton Global Initiative on September 25, 2012.

The White House released this fact sheet on efforts to combat human trafficking on September 25, 2012.

Isobel Coleman writes about the mixed record that quotas for women's political participation in the Middle East have had, but notes that at least quotas ensure that women's perspectives are represented in government.

Isobel Coleman argues that the rise of Islamist groups in North Africa may threaten women's rights, but women's participation in the economy and in political movements has set them down a path that will be difficult to reverse.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses the surge of protests for women's rights in Afghanistan following the Taliban execution of an Afghan woman.