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29/5/2013
USA: CWGL’s Founding Director and Senior Scholar, Charlotte Bunch, honored through the creation of a Human Rights Defenders Award

Professor Charlotte Bunch will be honored today at the Global Fund for Women’s 25th Anniversary Gala with a human rights award named in her honor. The inaugural Charlotte Bunch Human Rights Defender Award will be launched and presented to three women’s rights advocates. The awardees are Mónica Roa from Women’s Link Worldwide in Colombia, Mozn Hassan from Nazra Institute for Feminist Studies in Egypt, and Stasa Zajovic from Women in Black in Serbia.

28/5/2013
Saudi Arabia: "There is not one law in Saudi Arabia that regards violence toward women as an illegal activity": what's really behind Saudi's domestic abuse problem?

Saudi Arabia has introduced a campaign aimed at tackling domestic violence against women in the kingdom. The King Khalid Foundation funds the campaign, which is a royal, family-run organization with clear ties to the Saudi government.

28/5/2013
Tunisia: Amina Tyler, Tunisia’s ‘topless jihad’ Activist, Caught and Under Arrest

After months of reportedly going into hiding, the outspoken Tunisian feminist who sparked a trend of “topless jihad” has been found and arrested by Tunisian authorities earlier this week and may be charged for conducting “provocative acts.”

28/5/2013
Bangladesh Defies Hardliners, Elects First Female Speaker

Bangladesh has followed India and Pakistan as the third South Asian country to elect a woman as parliament speaker, defying a threat by the Hefajat-e-Islam organisation, which warned the government not to promote women.

28/5/2013
Malaysia: Outrage After Sharia Court Allows Rapist to Marry His 13-year-old Victim

Local prosecutors are pursuing a statutory rape charge against 40-year-old restaurant manager Riduan Masmud, who allegedly had sex with the girl in a parked car outside the Sabah state capital Kota Kinabalu in February. The girl is now 13 and his defense is that he married her.

28/5/2013
Iran: Iran’s ban on female presidential candidates contradicts Constitution

Mohammad Yazdi, a clerical member of Iran’s Council of Guardians, a constitutional body responsible for ensuring that legislation adheres to Iran’s Constitution, as interpreted by Iran’s religious scholars and Islamic law, and for vetting presidential candidates has announced that Iranian laws “do not allow women to become presidents”.

28/5/2013
Pakistan: Leading Pakistan politician Zahra Shahid Hussain killed outside home

A senior female member of Imran Khan's Movement for Justice party (PTI) was shot dead outside her home in Karachi.

28/5/2013
Afghanistan: Afghan protest against women's rights legislation

Hardline students protested in Afghanistan's capital, demanding the repeal of a presidential decree for women's rights that they say is un-Islamic. The protest came days after conservative politicians' vehement opposition blocked an attempt to cement the decree's provisions in law.

22/5/2013
Protesters demand male brothels for women in Turkey

In Turkey, a women's rights group has petitioned parliament for the creation of a male brothel. The call has heated up the discussion over whether the state should run brothels at all.

22/5/2013
India: Divorce dictates dire conditions for Muslim women

Mumtaz Sheikh, 34, lives in Mumbra, a Muslim pocket situated around 30 kilometres from Mumbai. She was divorced by her husband about nine years ago but she does not receive a paisa in terms of maintenance from her former spouse although she supports their two children.