Palwasha Hassan had no idea that her impressive resume would be her undoing when her nomination to become Afghanistan's minister of women's affairs came up for confirmation in parliament in January.
As elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, Georgians marked March 8 International Women's Day with public displays of respect for women - offering flowers, congratulations or even giving up bus seats to female passengers.
Like many other farmers in the remote village of Barchid, lying in the shadow of Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains, Makbulsho Yakinshoev knows little about issues like greenhouse-gas emissions or global warming.
But the 65-year-old Tajik farmer knows what he sees, and for years he has seen his fruit and vegetable harvests decline as the glacier that looms above his village retreats.
With the onset of spring fast approaching, Russia is preparing for a new, incoming wave of labor migrants. Government officials in Moscow, including the head of the Federal Migration Service, acknowledge that the Russian economy needs guest workers in order to promote a steady growth rate.
As Kazakhstan chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) this year, its human rights record is coming under scrutiny. Kazakhstani officials, in responding to expressions of concern about some aspects of the country's democratization process, insist they are taking steps to make improvements.
Tajikistan, Central Asia's most impoverished country, stands to be the hardest hit by climate change, according to a new report from the British charitable organization Oxfam International.
Yevgeny Zhovtis, a leading human rights activist in Kazakhstan who is currently serving a jail sentence for vehicular manslaughter, thinks the world's leading democracies are turning a blind eye to authoritarianism.
A feature-length cartoon about an Armenian epic folk hero, Davit of Sasun, is receiving praise from many parents in Yerevan as a long-overdue antidote to what is widely perceived as the debilitating influence of TV crime dramas on Armenian young people.
Turkmen students banned from studying at universities abroad are being allowed by the government to resume their studies at the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG), RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports.
As donors and government officials converge on London to discuss ways to support the military surge in Afghanistan, non-governmental organizations are wary. Some NGO representatives who are responsible for implementing humanitarian projects in the strife-torn nation worry that the international conference may undermine their missions.
