Middle East
| Kuwait Appointed First Female Cabinet Minister. [Kuwait] Massouma al-Mubarak, 54, a newspaper columnist, political science teacher and women's rights activist was appointed minister of planning and minister for administrative development. |
| Women Protest Sexual
Discrimination. [Iran] Hundreds of women staged
an unauthorized
demonstration in Tehran to protest sex discrimination under Iran's
Islamic leadership just
days before the June 17 presidential elections. |
| Iran
Allows Abortions. [Iran] On Tuesday, Iran's
Parliament passed
legislation which allows abortion for health
reasons. |
| No
Women Driving. [Saudi Arabia] Lifting the ban on
female drivers in
Saudi Arabia could harm the conservative Muslim kingdom, Interior
Minister Prince Nayef
bin Abdul-Aziz said. Women's
rights in the
country are the strictest in the Arab World, ranging from lack of voting
rights to
obligatory veiling and the required presence of a male relative in
public. |
| Banned From Driving a
Car, Woman Becomes Pilot. [Saudi
Arabia] The 26-year-old Saudi is to become the kingdom’s first
accredited woman pilot
after signing a contract with the fleet of Prince al-Walid bin Talal, a
billionaire Saudi
businessman and nephew of King Fahd. |
| Activist
Should Not Be Punished for Denouncing Abuses Against Women.
[Bahrain] The
Bahraini government should drop charges against a leading women's rights
activist who goes
on trial for publicly criticizing family court judges, Human Rights
Watch said. If convicted, Ghada Jamsheer
faces up to 15 years
in prison. |
| Women’s Rights. [Afghanistan] The recently
adopted Afghan
constitution states that "the citizens of Afghanistan - whether man
or woman- have
equal rights and duties before the law", but despite this change,
many challenges
still remain. |
| Silence Over Afghan Women's Rights. [Afghanistan] In Afghanistan, losing your husband can mean destitution for women. |