According to the AP, a Saudi human rights group has published the "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" report, accusing the country's notorious religious police of discriminating against women. The report "also urged an end to the marriage of underage girls and demanded a faster pace for judicial reform, including retraining judges."

Saudi women are sidelined, no doubt, but there is a ray of hope. Many bright young women are now standing up and voicing their opinions and concerns, refusing to give in to the country's oppressive environment.

Faisal Abbas, editor of the London-based Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat, recently interviewed one such role model for Saudi women. Muna Abu Sulayman, who has been called  the Oprah of Saudi Arabia, is the first woman from the country to host a show on an Arab satellite channel. She now heads the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, working on disaster relief operations and promoting dialogue between the Islamic world and the West.

A mother of two, Muna wears the veil and believes that being religious does not stop one from accepting modern ideas and ways.

Bhumika Ghimire

Struggle for influence between Zardari and Sharif has pushed Pakistan further into chaos in the last couple of months. The country was already in turmoil because of rising militancy in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), an economic slump, and the growing strength of Islamic fundamentalists demonstrated by the brazen attack against visiting Sri Lankan cricket players earlier this month. In broad daylight (around 9 a.m. local time) gunmen attacked a convoy carrying the players, killing six security personnel.

In order to establish some sort of control over its territory in NWFP (the Swat Valley), now under heavy Taliban influence, the Pakistani government signed a peace agreement with the militants. Now, Taliban rules the valley and is introducing Shariah law in the area. According to Bloomberg, they have already replaced government-appointed judges with mullahs.

Rising militancy is not limited to the remote NWFP; even big cities are getting hit. AFP says that earlier today a suicide bomber killed 14 people in the city of Rawalpindi. Last month an American UN official was kidnapped by separatist militants in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan. He has not been released and is said to be seriously ill.

Bhumika Ghimire

Seven years since, none of the initial goals have been met. Instead, millions of dollars and precious lives have been lost in military operations that have bought very few positive results. The Taliban was ousted from power for a while, but now they are regrouping and back to their old ways. In many parts of the country the Taliban is actively recruiting and rearming. They have also re-launched their campaign against educating women and girls, freedom of expression and speech, and religious tolerance. Al Qaeda has spread its tentacles from Afghanistan into neighboring Pakistan, while the U.S. spent millions of dollars trying to crush this organization.

Another disturbing aspect of this war is that the U.S. and its allies support a totally incompetent government lead by President Hamid Karzai. Under this leadership, or lack of, corruption is rampant in the country while warlords are roaming around with impunity and the mullahs are terrorizing journalists, women who dare ask for their rights, and those with a different view on Islam.

Attacks against free speech and journalists have resulted in a 20-year prison term for a young Afghan student journalist.

According to The New York Times, Parwiz Kambakhsh, 24, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for blasphemy. His crime? He is accused of downloading articles on women's rights and distributing them. The prison term comes after an earlier death sentence was commuted.

The trial against Mr. Kambakhsh was shoddy and unfair, his family alleges. They say that the court ignored that many witnesses had retracted their earlier statements and that the verdict was reached in secret without the family being notified properly.

Unfortunately, Mr. Kambakhsh is not the only one being attacked in Afghanistan for his views or his alleged activity. Journalists are begin systematically targeted in the country by the hard-line fundamentalists who are trying to silence the call for a more open and democratic Afghanistan. Mr. Karzai on the other hand is silent on the issue and refuses to stand up to the fundamentalists.

Bhumika Ghimire