"When the outside world thinks of Saudi women there are two images that appear to characterize all of us without exclusion or exception. We are veiled and we don't drive." Article by Lubna Hussain.
Canada is pulling out of a conference it was helping to sponsor on promoting business links with Iran. The move follows new allegations that Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured and possibly raped before dying in Iranian custody in 2003.
On March 31st the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1593, referring the situation in Darfur, Sudan, to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Four states, the USA, Algeria, China and Brasil abstained from voting on the resolution.
Saudi Arabia's top religious authority has banned the practice of forcing women to marry against their will. Grand mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said forced marriage was against Islamic law and those responsible for it should be jailed.
American forces were yesterday accused of violating international law by taking two Iraqi women hostage in a bungled effort to persuade fugitive male relatives to surrender.
Since March 15th there have been massive and courageous student demonstrations in the southern Iraqi city of Basra against the notorious Islamist gang led by Moqtada al-Sadr.
