The use of rape by Myanmar's armed forces has been sweeping and methodical, The Associated Press found in interviews with Rohingya Muslim women and girls now in Bangladesh. They were interviewed separately, come from a variety of villages in Myanmar and now live spread across several refugee camps in Bangladesh. Yet their stories were hauntingly similar. The military has denied its soldiers raped any Rohingya women.

"We, the women of South Sudan, have decided that we have had enough of this. This war has been going on for a long time," a demonstrator said after briefly removing the piece of white tape from her mouth. "Women continue to be raped and killed; they don't have access to their homes, and there is no humanitarian access for people in need. We are tired and fed up of this, and we want our leadership to understand that this is their final chance to bring peace to this country."

When Elsie Inglis asked the War Office if female doctors and surgeons could serve in front-line hospitals in World War One she was told 'my good lady, go home and sit still'. Elsie, a pioneering Edinburgh doctor who had already become well-known as a champion of women's health, did the opposite. Instead, she formed the Scottish Women's Hospitals - all female units that provided support for Britain's allies, the French, the Belgians and especially the Serbs.

Gender-based violence is emerging as one of the deadliest forms of violence in Asia and it has killed more women than armed conflicts in some parts of the region, an expert on conflict said on Friday, calling for more attention to the issue. Researcher Patrick Barron of the U.S.-based non-profit The Asia Foundation said a two-year study on conflicts and violence revealed violence against women in Asia has greater - and more deadly - impacts than previously thought.

Political scientists have come a long way in unpacking the relationship between gender and armed conflict, focusing on ways women influence and are affected by conflict.

Women and children have paid a particularly heavy price in the fighting with over two million children displaced and reports of ethnic cleansing and rape perpetrated by all sides in the conflict. And while the men fight, many women are left behind to carry the day-to-day burden of caring for their families.