March 8 is International Women's Day. It is commemorated to celebrate the gains in advancing women's rights as well as shed light on the issues and challenges they encounter including participation and engaging in politics and governance.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union, in their "Women in Parliament in 2022" report, found that while women's participation in politics and governance hit an important milestone in 2022, the progress is still characterized with "a slow pace of incremental growth."

The report said that "for the first time, not a single functioning parliament in the world has zero women members. Yet the world's parliaments remain far from parity."

The report also said that "barriers such as gender-based violence and unequal access to campaign finance maintained and deepened the gap between women and men in politics in many parts of the world"

In Asia, Japan's case was highlighted where sexual harassment of women in politics is a factor behind women's low participation. Women encounter abuse and harassment on social media as well as accounts of harassment from male politicians, sexist heckling during debates and pressure to resign.

ANFREL compiled articles from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand developed and produced under the ANFREL media fellowship program that shed light on the issues and challenges that women face in participating and engaging in elections in Asia. (Click the photo to read the article)