The Islamic Republic started the year 2024 with more repression against Iranian women after a woman was sentenced to 74 lashes for refusing to follow the regime’s strict Islamic dress code, while another was handed a two-year prison sentence for refusing to wear the hijab.
For the first time since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces in 2021, the Islamic fundamentalist group officially confirmed that they have arrested women in the country’s capital, Kabul, for wearing “bad hijab.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) noted that one in five girls worldwide, or 650 million women, were forced to marry as children.
Despite efforts by institutions such as the United Nations to put an end to child and forced marriages (CFM), they are still prevalent in many parts of the world. In a remote province in Pakistan, a woman and her family are putting up a fight against an outdated and illegal tradition of forced marriage in their village that has haunted her for much of her life.
When she heard about the news of Deborah Yakubu, a Christian university student in Nigeria, being lynched by a mob of Muslim students over alleged blasphemy, Rhoda Ya’u Jatau shared a message among her co-workers that criticized the lynching via WhatsApp.
Nigerian woman jailed for ‘blasphemy’ for 18 months over WhatsApp message
Egypt has recently unveiled its decision to ban the niqab, a type of Islamic religious garment worn by women, at schools, sparking a debate in one of Africa’s largest Muslim-majority countries.
"Females always pull the short straw."
Egyptians talk to Al Jazeera about the recent government decision to prohibit students from wearing niqab https://t.co/OhPSgafG81
Since the rise of Israel’s most right-wing government in its history, which included ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties in its alliance, many activists and ordinary Israelis are worrying about the rise of sex segregation in many areas of public life.
Growing Segregation by Sex in Israel Raises Fears for Women’s Rights https://t.co/A11e7lZdWW
Afghanistan has seen a rising surge of women taking their own lives or trying to do so since the Taliban took over the country in 2021 and made attempts to reduce women’s role in public life, showing desperation among Afghan women to escape a regime that constantly deprives them of rights and freedoms.
An imam in the United Kingdom stirred anger after a video of him lecturing how to stone women to death went viral on social media, with his mosque facing an investigation from authorities after public funding was stopped after the video emerged on the Internet.
"UK Imam Lectures On How To Stone Women To Death, Says They Should Be Buried Waist-Deep To Protect Modesty"https://t.co/SfV6T5nEL5
Ahead of the upcoming return of students to their classrooms, France’s education minister announced that the country will ban pupils from wearing the abaya, a loose-fitting, full-length robe worn by some Muslim women, in state schools.
Move comes after months of debate over wearing of abayas in French schools, where women have long been banned from wearing hijab. https://t.co/zeLsyFvl9y
The Islamic Republic is ramping up its efforts to suppress dissent in Iran as the anniversary of the protests that were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, with the arrest and imprisonment of at least 22 activists, mostly women, in less than a month, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
