Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – In Muslim boarding schools across Indonesia, many young Muslims can be found poring over a book called the Couple's Contract or Uqud Al-Lujjayn.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesian policemen often do a double-take when they wheel bloodied corpses in to Oktavinda Safitry at Jakarta's central morgue.

East Timorese women's rights groups have gathered more than 10,000 signatures backing the inclusion of a "Women's Rights Charter" in the territory's future constitutiuon, activists anno

Sibylle Kaczorek – In a country oppressed for 400 years by colonial Portugal, then brutalised by 24 years of Indonesian military rule, and now suffering from dire poverty, the issues of

Robyn Marshall, Dili – Aurora Ximenes, the coordinator of the East Timor Women's Network, which comprises 15 grassroots organisations, is angry that women are being sidelined in the tra

Maggie O'Kane – The discovery of the bodies of four women murdered with machetes in different parts of the country last summer passed almost unnoticed in East Timor.

Indonesia commemorated Women's Day on December 22.

Elected on October 20, 1999 amid a growing division among people – especially between supporters of B.J.

Jakarta – Several female politicians have established a caucus that aims to raise public awareness of the role that women can play in running the affairs of state.

Santi Soekanto – A truly democratic negotiation for solutions in Aceh should include different elements including women groups, says Jacqueline Aquino Siapno from the Philippines.

Debra Yatim, Banda Aceh – While students and a largely-male delegation are still in a quandary on how to map out a future for troubled Aceh, the women have already created a blueprint o

Margot Cohen – Presidential hopeful Megawati Sukarnoputri is unquestionably the most prominent woman in Indonesian politics today. So what has she done for women lately?

Without doubt it is the women of East Timor who have suffered the most.

Sonny Inbaraj, Darwin – A number of East Timorese women have been covertly sterilised under Indonesia's national family programme as part of efforts to "undermine the survival" of its p

Timor's suffering women believe that a harsh program of 'ethnic dilution' is under way, writes Karen Kissane.