Although women now account for more than a quarter of all parliamentarians worldwide, gender parity is still “far, far away”. 

That’s according to Zeina Hilal of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the UN partner organization working to make parliaments more representative. 

She said despite progress on the political representation front, including nations across Asia, women still face challenges including discrimination, harmful stereotypes, violence and harassment. 

Anshu Sharma has been speaking to Ms. Hillal, who is the Manager of the IPU’s Gender Partnership Programme and Youth Participation Programme.