On April 6, Spain’s Senate approved landmark legislation that criminalizes the harassment of women who are undergoing abortions.
The new legislation was approved by 154 versus 105 votes, ushering in a change to Spain’s penal code. The law is expected to come into effect as soon as it gets published in its official gazette.
On March 29, a stadium in Iran barred women from getting in during a game. Security guards of the Imam Reza Stadium in Mashhad, Iran, denied women who paid for their tickets access to the stadium.
The Taliban backtracked on its announcement of opening schools to girls. Anger and frustration swept Afghanistan after the education ministry suddenly announced that female students are not allowed back in school, indefinitely.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) cases are increasing in Somaliland, a de facto African state that struggles for international recognition. Pandemic lockdowns fuel the increase in FGM cases. Government officials, health workers, and advocates say FGM cases are soaring since the lockdown made girls accessible to “cutters.”
Two promising studies published by universities in Iran showed heartwarming and scientifically backed realities. Iranian men, especially in the younger generations, increasingly support women's rights and oppose violence against them.
Both studies targeted male student populations in Iran's Mazandaran province and the city of Mashhad in the Razavi Khorasan Province.
A Mexican Muslim woman who was employed to help organize the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar was forced to leave the country after being sexually assaulted. Paola Schietekat worked in Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy when a colleague sexually assaulted her last June.
Kuwait's conservative right-wing politicians and clerics are crying foul over yoga. Lawmakers and Islamic scholars are bizarrely fixated on the lotus and downward dog, calling it a danger and depravity of women. Other conservatives label it as an attack on Islam. The uproar has prompted the Kuwaiti government to cancel a yoga instructor's desert wellness yoga retreat.
Women's rights advocates and activists in Pakistan are distraught over the impending acquittal of a Pakistani man who murdered his sister in July 2016. Muhammed Waseem strangled his sister, Qandeel Baloch, and was sentenced to life imprisonment after confessing to the murder.
A 17-year old was killed by her husband on February 5, in yet another case of honor killing in Iran. Mona Heydari was beheaded by her husband after being brought back from Turkey. In southwestern Iran, the incident took place in Khuzestan’s capital, Ahvaz.
