Women’s rights

Culture Alert: March salutes women of all nationalities and sizes

Many cultural activities in March focus on women, as artists and muses, in addition to the search for identity. Also of note is the first cooperation between the Louvre and the National Museum of Iran.

Palestine

Turkish women take to the streets to demand equality

Activists say 15 years of rule by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has eroded women’s rights, even as he has vowed to end domestic violence and strengthen the role of women in Turkish society.

Turkey

Turkish women's organization looks back on two decades of progress

For more than two decades, an organization in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast called KAMER has led the uphill struggle to empower women and challenge often deadly social norms in these patriarchal and war-torn communities.

Turkey

Women's Taif TV blocked in Gaza two hours before launch

The Palestinian Ministry of Information in the Gaza Strip blocked the launch of Taif TV two hours before it was due to go on air, in what raised concerns about freedom of the press in Gaza.

Palestine

Israel's revolutionary sexual harassment law

The Law to Prevent Sexual Harassment adopted by the Knesset 20 years ago represented a real breakthrough in changing social norms and priorities overnight.

Israel

Book in praise of older women gets Israel's top prize

Esther Peled, a female author who defies convention, is awarded Israel’s most prestigious literary prize with the book that describes a woman’s journey on her way to a “room of her own.”

Israel

Egyptian men's rights activist sees oppression in female empowerment

In a backlash against the women's movement in Egypt, one attorney is demanding the formation of a National Council for Men.

Egypt

Israeli Bedouin women champion social progress

The Israeli Interior Ministry together with the Association of Community Centers initiated a first-of-its-kind course designed to train Bedouin women to become members of executive boards.

Israel

Egyptian women say their time is coming in presidential races

Despite their historical absence in contests for president, Egyptian women believe one of their own will run for president someday soon.

Egypt

Iranian women must remain united to advance rights

The recent anti-compulsory hijab protests in Iran have forged both unity and division among women activists.

Iran

Egyptian women tell their story in 'Colored Dress'

An Egyptian docudrama seeks to highlight the success stories of real women who have battled with social norms and economic difficulties to pursue the lives they want.

Egypt

Rights coalition takes on female genital mutilation in Egypt

Amid high rates of female genital mutilation in Egypt, women's and human rights organizations have come together in a campaign to educate the public and enforce laws against the practice.

Egypt