Women's Rights in the News

Vice President Biden, the author of the landmark Violence Against Women Act, announced today the appointment of Lynn Rosenthal as the new White House Advisor on Violence Against Women.

In a historic judgement, the Delhi High Court on Thursday decriminalized homosexuality by reading down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

Rights groups in Slovakia have attacked new abortion legislation they say not only breaches women's rights to privacy and regulations on medical confidentiality but could force some women into undergoing risky, illegal abortions.

Official Iranian news agencies have published a letter claiming to be from lawyers, university professors, and families of veterans and martyrs, which requests the Justice minister, Gholam-Hussein Elham, to prosecute Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi for allegedly violating Islamic and constitutional law through her human rights advocacy, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported today. Elham is also the spokesman for Ahmadinejad’s government.

A groundbreaking U.N. General Assembly conference on the global economic crisis and its impact on development, set to begin Wednesday, may sideline women's numerous concerns, civil society groups say.

Women's rights activists have claimed that South African and Namibian public health doctors are making HIV-infected women infertile against their will.

Head of the Majlis judiciary commission Ali Shahrokhi says stoning, heresy and cutting hands will be omitted from Iran's penal laws.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a military unit, has threatened to crush further protests over the country's disputed June 12 presidential election.

Five years after France prohibited the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in public schools, a movement is gathering momentum here for a more radical measure: outlawing the wearing of the burqa in public.

PAS, the Islamist party, is coming under heavy attack for its call to ban the Sisters in Islam (SIS).

Iran's president has defended his disputed re-election at a public rally in Tehran, insisting that the vote was not "distorted" as claimed by his rivals.

The gays in the country are preparing for the year's biggest event for the community and those opposed to their way of life are planning to pitch in religion, law and politics together to stop them from doing so.

In a groundbreaking ruling, the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court had the final say this week in the divorce case of a Jewish American couple that has dragged on for six years, as the husband has refused to grant his wife a get (Jewish divorce).

US abortion debate inflamed as Scott Roeder is arrested for shooting dead George Tiller at church in Wichita, Kansas

The very first Baltic Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride march took place peacefully last weekend in Riga, Latvia, but similar events in other parts of Eastern Europe were met with protest and violence.

Despite the global recession, the U.S. is promoting and aggressively selling a costly product overseas: homophobia.

After more than three hours of debate, the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, meeting in Edinburgh, has this evening avoided a confrontation on sexuality and ministry, after a motion from anti-gay hardliners was withdrawn before it could be voted on.

Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of moderate presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, is breaking the mould in Iranian politics by campaigning openly alongside her husband for next month's election.

In the last 13 months, 12 of Mexico's 32 states have approved amendments to their state constitutions defining a fertilised human egg as a person with a right to legal protection, and seven other state parliaments are taking steps in the same direction.

After a nine-year investigation, a commission published a damning report Wednesday on decades of rapes, humiliation and beatings at Catholic Church-run reform schools for Ireland's castaway children.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's detained opposition leader, has gone on trial on charges that could see her jailed for up to five years.

A French Government report on sect deviance has denounced what it calls excessive sect activity in international institutions. Scientology and other groups are in its sights, and these groups are putting up fierce resistance.

Women have won four seats in Kuwait's parliament, the first to do so in the Gulf Arab state's history, in a blow to Islamists who have long dominated the assembly.

Women won four seats in the Kuwaiti parliamentary elections over the weekend, a historic first and one of several electoral surprises that appeared to reflect a deep popular frustration with the political deadlock in the oil-rich gulf state of Kuwait.

Spain announced plans to offer emergency contraception over-the-counter today with no age restrictions.

Women control more than half of the nation's wealth, and are channeling more of that money into philanthropy.

Church leaders in Kenya say they reject a draft law due to be debated in parliament that would authorise polygamous marriages, outlaw compulsory dowries and recognise cohabitation.

The General Assembly today elected 18 countries to serve on the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council for three-year terms starting next month, including – for the first time – Belgium, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Norway and the United States.

The Iranian government is continuing to expand its repression of women’s rights activists ahead of the 12 June presidential elections, with a new wave of travel bans, detentions, and summons, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

Tiny Sheema is happy to be back in school in Swat, a volatile northern district in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).