Women's Rights in the News

Legal landmark as Bangladeshi authorities apply new British law

Farida Nekzad says she defies the warlords who have turned her native Afghanistan into a killing field of female journalists.She faces death threats to tell teh stories of Afghan women; if she didn't, she wonders, "Who would?"

The Nobel Women’s Initiative—led by six Nobel Peace Prize winning women—reached out to world leaders today to condemn Iran’s ongoing harassment of human rights defenders in Iran.

Holy See refused to sign a UN document on the rights of the disabled because it did not condemn abortion

TEHRAN, Dec. 21 -- Iranian authorities on Sunday closed the office of the country's main human rights organization, headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

Pope Benedict said on Monday that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.

Sixty-six countries at the United Nations have called for homosexuality to be decriminalised.

TEHRAN - Police have arrested 49 people this week in a northern Iranian city during a crackdown on "satanic" clothes, IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.

BAGHDAD -- The black-masked militias have vanished from most Baghdad streets, and the car bombings are down to one or two a day. So one recent afternoon, Hadeel Ahmed, a ponytailed college student in jeans, did something few Iraqi women have dared in recent years.

During the 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence, 114 gender activists from Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Uganda, the majority of them men, travelled to remote areas of Kenya by bus, urging people from all walks of life to take action on gender violence

Sweden is responding to its low rate of prosecuting and convicting rapists by helping victims and clinicians collect DNA evidence. It's also adding street lighting, to the frowns of critics who point out that most rapes are committed indoors

PUTRAJAYA: A group of 10 non-governmental organisations, including Sisters in Islam (SIS), Suaram and representatives from Bar Council, handed some 1,000 postcards protesting the banning of books to the Home Ministry here on Tuesday.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Afghan police have arrested 10 Taliban militants involved in an acid attack this month against 15 girls and teachers walking to school in southern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said Tuesday.

Amal Soliman, a 32-year-old Egyptian woman, has endured intimidation and ridicule in the year since she applied for a job as the Muslim world's first mazouna, or female marriage registrar, but she says her victory has been worth the fight.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's top Islamic advisory body has urged the government to amend divorce laws to give more say to women, triggering a controversy with religious hardliners vowing to resist the move.

Blackmailers Thrive Using Law That Makes Homosexuality a Crime

Nov 14, 2008 - Amnesty International identifies at least 83 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 34 of them are predominantly Muslim. In Malaysia, a country seen as moderately Islamic, the punishment for an 'unnatural' sexual act is 20 years in prison, plus a fine or whipping.

MOGADISHU (Reuters), Nov 14, 2008 - Islamist rebels moved on Friday into a small town on the outskirts of Somalia's capital near a checkpoint manned by Ethiopian troops, sparking fears among residents of renewed fighting.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, November 13, 2008 — Before yesterday, Shamsia had dark brown eyes and smooth skin the colour of wheat. Now, blinded in an acid attack because she dared to go to school, Shamsia will never see her spoiled beauty.

POZNAN, Poland, Dec 8 (Reuters) - United Nations climate change talks should do more to incorporate women's concerns into negotiations on a new global pact, environmental and women's groups said on Monday.