Women’s rights

Iranian women without wearing hijab shout slogans while gathering around a burning dumpster during a protest near Punak square, on Oct. 1, 2022

Culture

Rape case against movie star Pejman Jamshidi rocks Iran: What to know

The accusations against Jamshidi, one of Iran’s most famous celebrities, come amid ongoing discussions about women’s lack of rights in the country.

ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images

Leaked video shows Khamenei aide's daughter in Western wedding gown amid Iran's hijab crackdown

Senior Iranian official Ali Shamkhani faced criticism online after video surfaced of his daughter’s extravagant wedding.

ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images

Iran adding 80,000 personnel to enforce hijab in Tehran province

Iran scrapped a stricter law on women’s head coverings last year and some women are now defying the restrictions altogether.

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images

As Syria finalizes candidates for parliament, women make up 14% of list

Syria’s parliamentary elections are set for Sunday, when electoral committees will select 140 lawmakers before President Ahmed al-Sharaa appoints the remaining 70.

Latest News

Turkey's Erdogan acknowledges 'alarming' rise in violence against women

Women's rights activists and relatives of victims of feminicide wait outside the Istanbul court ahead of a hearing on June 1, 2022.

Culture

Iran mulls lifting ban on women driving motorcycles: What to know

A man and a woman ride their motorcycles past a billboard in the background bearing a portrait of Iran's late President Ebrahim Raisi in central Tehran, on May 21, 2024.

Turkey’s top religious body sparks outrage over women’s inheritance rights

YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images

Opposition slams Erdogan after 9 killed in deadly week for Turkish women

YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images

Members of the Taliban security forces arrive as Afghan women march during a demonstration they call Stop Hazara genocide a day after a suicide bomb attack at Dasht-e-Barchi learning centre, in Kabul on October 1, 2022. - (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Afghanistan's Hazara minority increasingly fearful under Taliban

Al-Monitor spoke to members of the long-persecuted Hazara Shiite minority group in Afghanistan as restrictions on women increase and verifiable information becomes scarcer.

Shelly Kittleson

By Shelly Kittleson

In Baghdad, reporting on Iraqi politics

YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images

Fury in Turkey as convicted wife killer murders third victim

The story of a two-time wife killer who killed a third woman after his conditional release from prison speaks volumes about why femicide remains rampant in Turkey.

Maoz

Israeli mayors stand against anti-gay legislator on education

Mayors of liberal cities in Israel have joied the protest of outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid against anti-LGBTQ Knesset member Avi Maoz controlling the unit that decides on external education programs.

Egyptian women wear full-face veils in al-Montazah district of Egypt's second city of Alexandria on March 26, 2018.

Culture

More Egyptian women reject hijab

The hijab in Egypt has always been a matter of controversy.

25th Knesset sworn in

Israel’s most religious, furthest right Knesset sworn in

The 25th Knesset includes more far-right legislators, more ultra-Orthodox, fewer women, fewer Arabs and no Druze representatives at all.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian looks on during a press conference in Tehran on July 20, 2022.

Iran warns Germany over crackdown criticism

The Islamic Republic was unsettled by international criticism over its suppression of nearly two months of protests, with its security forces now attacking people dancing in defiance of theocratic rules.

Afghan women hold placards as they take part in a protest in front of the Iranian Embassy in Kabul on Sept. 29, 2022.

As Iran protests enter sixth week, women take to Afghanistan's streets

Some of the largest protests led by women started after a Sept. 30 suicide attack on an educational center in Kabul in which 53 Hazara girls were killed.

A picture obtained by AFP outside Iran, reportedly shows a motorcycle on fire in Tehran, on Oct. 8, 2022.

Iran protests continue in universities

Protests in Iran have continued to spread to universities, presenting a new challenge to the Islamic Republic.

A Tunisian prostitute works in a brothel in the district of Abdallah Guech in Tunis on Feb. 19, 2011.

Tunisia's sex workers want their brothels back

The crackdown on legal brothels in Tunisia puts its sex workers at risk of further harm.

Palestinian women watch from a building as demonstrators rally at Falluja cemetery in Jabalia, where five youths were killed during the latest round of conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants before a cease-fire, Gaza Strip, Aug. 16, 2022.

Culture

Rights groups under attack for defending women in Gaza

Women’s rights organizations in Gaza supported two young women who escaped their father’s violence, prompting an incitement campaign against these organizations due to the conservative nature of Gazan society.

A Tunisian woman looks at posters of candidates for the legislative elections, Tunis, Tunisia, Oct. 4, 2019.

Feminists, opposition denounce Tunisia's new electoral system as unfair to women, youth

Morocco's Btissam Sadini (L) competes against Serbia's Jovana Prekovic in the women's kumite -61kg elimination round of the karate competition during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 6, 2021.

Culture

Morocco's women martial artists defy cultural stereotypes

Al-Monitor talks to four Moroccan female martial arts athletes about cultural stereotypes and how to inspire and empower future generations of female fighters.