South Asia | Afghanistan | Culture

The Taliban orders women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public

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Taliban officials announced that women and girls would be expected to stay home, and if they were to venture out, to cover in all-encompassing loose clothing that only reveals their eyes – preferably, a burka. The restrictions on women's movement and dress are the harshest that the Taliban have announced since they came to power in August. It suggested the increasing dominance of the group's hard-line leaders, who appear to be behind the extended ban on most women and girls attending secondary school. Saturday's announcement seemed to confirm the fears of many Afghans that the Taliban
Europe | U.K. | Career

‘Why should I have to work on stilts?’: the women fighting sexist dress codes

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Too many female employees are forced to wear high heels, or skirts, or even a particular type of bra. But the resistance is growing. It was at the beginning of a shift at Harrods that Georgia Brown told her manager where to go. Brown, then aged 22, was working for a temp agency that supplied shop assistants to the department store. She cannot remember the name of the manager. But she does remember why she lost her cool: she had had enough of being forced to wear heels on the job. “Not just a mini-heel, but proper black stilettos. Bear in mind, you’re on your feet in Harrods a
Africa | Nigeria | Culture

The fallout from a church rape scandal shows the harsh reality of being a woman in Nigeria

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On Sunday, June 30, Nigerian women organized a protest against sexual violence in the church following recent allegations by the wife of a popular singer that the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) general overseer pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo raped her when she was 17 years old. Nigerian women have had a lot to protest lately. In May, there were significant protests after mass arrests of women in clubs and bars at night for alleged prostitution in Abuja, the federal capital city. It’s worth noting none of the men who were apparently being solicited shared the same fate. Soon after their
South Asia | Afghanistan | Culture

Taliban assurance of ‘women’s rights’ has big caveat

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An agreement by the Taliban to respect women's rights may seem like a breakthrough, but activists have questioned how the hardline Islamists - notorious for stomping on freedoms - will interpret the careful wording. A historic meeting between Afghan representatives and the Taliban concluded late on Monday with the longtime foes issuing a joint statement, including a reference to women's rights. Participants at the Doha summit agreed that "assuring women rights in political, social, economic, educational, cultural affairs as per (and) within the Islamic framework of Islamic values", i
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Activism

Saudi women’s rights activist Samar Badawi appears in court

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Prominent women's rights activists including Samar Badawi appeared in a Saudi court on Thursday over charges linked to their human rights activism. Badawi is the sister of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012 for criticism of officials in the kingdom. It was the first time Samar Badawi had appeared in court since her arrest on July 30, 2018. She was apprehended along with Nassima al-Sadah, a women's rights activist from Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and Amal al-Harbi
Europe | Spain | Career

Fresh abuse claims from women picking strawberries in Spain for UK market

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Human-rights lawyers are warning that abuse claims by Moroccans picking fruit in Spain for UK supermarkets could amount to “state-sponsored human trafficking”. The international lawyers say Spanish authorities have a legal duty to ensure the allegations by the women – that they have faced exploitation and abuse while harvesting strawberries – are properly investigated by the courts. Two months ago, the Observer reported on the case of 10 Moroccan womenwho had fought for more than a year to have their claims of rape, exploitation and abuse, investigated by the Huelva police and
Asia | Japan | Culture

Women outperform men after Japan medical school stops rigging exam scores

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Women have outperformed their male counterparts in entrance examinations for a medical school in Japan that last year admitted rigging admission procedures to give men an unfair advantage. Juntendo University in Tokyo said that of the 1,679 women who took its medical school entrance exam earlier this year, 139, or 8.28%, had passed. The pass rate among 2,202 male candidates was 7.72%. It was the first time in seven years that the pass rate among women was higher than among men, the Asahi Shimbun reported. The university attributed the exam results to its decision to “abolish the u
Europe | France | Activism

Muslim women defy ban to swim in burkinis at French pool

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Muslim women in France are disobeying the rules at a local swimming pool by wearing burkinis. In a protest inspired by US civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, they bathed in suits covering their entire bodies - apart from the face, hands and feet - in the city of Grenoble on Sunday. The Jean Bron swimming pool is among many in France that ban burkinis. Many people in the country regard the swimsuit as a symbol of political Islam and incompatible with secularism. "Operation burkini" was launched last month by members of the group Citizen Alliance of Grenoble to defend what they say is the
Latin America | Brazil | Scandal

Survey Indicates 97 Percent of Women Were Harassed in Public and Private Transport

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Almost all (97 percent) of Brazilian women over age eighteen who were surveyed, said they had experiences incidents of sexual harassment on public transport, in Apps transport or in taxis, according to research conducted by the Instituto Patrícia Galvão and Instituto Locomotiva, supported by Uber. "It's a compelling number. This is everyday life for women, the very expression of what is happening," said Jacira Melo, executive director of the Patrícia Galvão Institute. In February of this year, the institutes interviewed 1,081 women who used public or private transportation in the thr
North America | United States | Career

Five anchors sue NY1 for age and gender discrimination

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Five anchorwomen and reporters at NY1 say the local news channel systematically shoved them aside to make room for younger faces while celebrating the long tenure of male anchors like venerable morning man Pat Kiernan. Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy, Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Amanda Farinacci – who range in age from 41 to 60 — filed an age and gender discrimination lawsuit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court leveling the charges at the news channel’s parent company, Charter Communications. The women allege that since Charter’s 2016 merger with Time Warner Cable, their car
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

The Saudi government is hunting down women who flee the country by tracking the IMEI number on their cellphones

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Women who flee Saudi Arabia expect to be chased. They expect their friends to be interviewed, their social media to be scoured, their passports to be frozen. They mostly do not expect Saudi government agents to hunt down the old box for their iPhone. But according to multiple sources who spoke with INSIDER, this is what has been happening in Saudi Arabia's quest to track down the growing number of women who flee the country every year. Cellphone packaging can provide information that could — with the help of spy-grade tracking equipment — trace a Saudi runaway to within a few feet of her
North America | United States | Society

Why women in tech are being Photoshopped in instead of hired

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An image of a tech event in which two women CEOs were poorly Photoshopped into a group of 15 men reignited a discussion last week about tech companies’ ongoing failures to meaningfully diversify their workforces. Companies like Google and Facebook have overturned industries, changed the way we live, and are shaping the future. Yet somehow they haven’t been able to hire a workforce that even remotely represents their customers. Across the tech industry, the share of black and Latinx people in tech and leadership roles is often well below 5 percent, while women typically make up about a f
North America | United States | Career

Women Sue F.B.I., Claiming Discrimination at Training Academy

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Women who were once F.B.I. recruits sued the bureau on Wednesday, accusing it of running a “good-old-boy network” at its training academy that discriminates against women, in some cases because of race and disabilities in addition to gender, and sets them up to fail. Male instructors at the academy in Quantico, Va., exposed the women beginning in 2015 to a hostile work environment, sexual harassment and inappropriate jokes, according to the lawsuit. One woman said that an instructor referred to an African-American female trainee as “spaghetti head,” a reference to her braids. The woma
Africa | Nigeria | Corruption

Nigerian police arrested 65 women in a raid. Some of the women say officers raped them

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In a sparsely decorated room in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja, seven women are seated in a row, their backs turned to the assembled media to remain anonymous. One after the other, the women recount horrific physical and sexual abuse they say they were subjected to following their arrests on April 27 by officers of a special task force that raided hotels and nightclubs in Abuja. The 65 women who were arrested say they were beaten and harassed by officers, who forced them into their vans and drove them to the police station, their lawyers and NGOs told CNN. The seven women in the vid