The trial of three of the men accused of the rape and murder of one of South Africa's leading sportswomen, the openly gay football star Eudy Simalane, resumes in South Africa on Wednesday.

Thirty-one lesbian women have been reported raped and murdered in homophobic attacks in South Africa since 1998.

But according to Triangle - a gay rights organisation - only two cases of "corrective rape" have ever made it to the courts; there has been only one conviction.

"This is a sad fact in this country generally, women are very reluctant to come forward," says Sharon Cox from Triangle.

"Corrective rape" is the term used to describe the rape of a lesbian woman by a man to either punish her, or "correct" her behaviour.

Ms Cox says rape is power is South Africa.

"The thinking is, all it takes is one good man to cure you of being a lesbian," she told the BBC's Newshour programme.

Gang rape

South Africa has one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world. More than 54,000 cases are reported to the police each year. Among men in their early 20s, it has become almost a game.

Another of the group sitting in a bar in the city of Kempton Park, north-east of Johannesburg explains how it works. He says the friends hide under the bed until the first man is finished and has left the room, then they take turns having sex with the woman, pretending to be first man.

"The room is dark and the girl is not even going to notice if it's the second guy sleeping with her," explains another friend in the group.

"Most of the time when it does happen, the girl is taking some drinks, but she is quite aware of what is happening."

At the heart of these different manifestations of rape are deep-rooted cultural stereotypes - that men have ownership over women, and are of greater importance.

Bindu, a dalit from the Deha, an especially despised nomadic caste, sits with her grandmother in what is left of their home. She had incurred the wrath of the local upper castes by refusing an offer from the son of the town leader of 50 rupees (about $1) for sex. So their house was torched and their belongings thrown into the river.

This image taken by UK politician Pete Pattison is from a photo essay in The Economist on slavery in modern-day India, where poor people may not be in chains, but they are shackled by debt, paid virtually nothing and treated harshly.

Researchers highlight the “particularly dismal” progress on women’s rights in parts of the Arab world, where women suffer as second-class citizens in politics, education and the workplace.

The so-called Western Asia region, which encompasses Arabia, the Levant, Iraq, Turkey and Cyprus, has a disproportionately low number of girls in schools and what researchers describe as “extremely low” job prospects for women.

Tonight, as she has every night since Iran's disputed election, Leyla will walk up to the rooftop of her apartment building in Tehran and join the collective shouts of "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great").

Her protest is not confined to the roof of her building. Leyla, who has never been politically active before, has attended all the Tehran street rallies to protest against the alleged fraudulent results of the presidential election which saw Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad returned to power.

"I have gone every day and I have cried every day," she says.

The protests initially saw hundreds of thousands take to the streets demanding a recount. But as the violence has escalated and with the security forces very visibly present in main squares and crossroads, the protests have shrunk - some rallies this week numbered in the hundreds, say witnesses.

"Of course I'm scared of being injured or killed," she says. "When I water my plants these days I cannot help crying because I feel how much I love to live. But I'm also fed up with this feeling of fear that has penetrated my soul for three decades under this regime."

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