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
South Asia | Nepal | Culture

Why It’s So Hard To Stop Women From Sleeping In A Menstrual Shed

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Every year in Nepal, women die while sleeping in a shed outside their home because they are on their period. The cause of death is often smoke inhalation from lighting a fire to stay warm. The practice, called chaupadi, is linked to Hindu beliefs around religious purity and the idea that menstruation is spiritually polluting. In much of the country, this means that a woman who is menstruating will avoid temples, prayer rooms and kitchens — places important to keep pure in the Hindu religion. In parts of the remote west, an extreme version means nights sleeping outside in a hut or she
Middle East | Egypt | Culture

Female Genital Mutilation In Egypt Has Affected 92 Percent Of Married Women

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Roughly 92 percent of Egyptian women who have been married have undergone female genital mutilation, according to a recent survey from the government’s Ministry of Health. The number has decreased since the last statistic released in 2000, but it is still alarmingly high considering the practice was criminalized in Egypt in 2008. The majority of women who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) were between nine and 12 years old, Egypt’s Minister of Health Adel Adawy said. Data was pulled from a poll that surveyed women in Egypt between 15 and 49 years old. A similar poll conducted
North America | United States | Crimes

Honor Killings in America

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Violence against women is not just a problem in countries like Afghanistan and Somalia. It's happening in the U.S. too. Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, gets it. “I don’t see,” he told me this week, “how anyone who believes in the rule of law and the rights of women could do anything other than support efforts to end female-genital mutilation, forced marriage and honor-killings—practices that have no place in the 21st century.” These things do happen. Two teenage sisters are shot, point blank, in the back of their father’s taxi, apparently for the shame they brou
South Asia | Pakistan | Crimes

Shocking Conditions for Balochistan’s Women

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Illiteracy, honor killings, maternal mortality, and acid attacks – clearly, conditions for women in Balochistan are shockingly poor, and they are getting worse. But despite claims of action, there is little evidence that the chief minister Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch or his all-male cabinet have done anything of significance to address the situation. For now, it appears that Balochistan’s women will continue to suffer. In Balochistan’s traditionally patriarchal society, women regularly face discrimination, assault, and murder in the name of “honor.” They have little space in the politi
North America | United States | Culture

Women’s groups campaign in D.C. to help victims of forced marriages

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Tahirih Justice Center, a legal aid and advocacy group in the Virginia, reported as many as 3,000 suspected or confirmed cases of forced marriage in the United States over the previous two years. They said the practice is found in many immigrant communities, especially among South Asians, from the Washington suburbs to ethnic enclaves in cities including Houston, New York and San Francisco. Nevertheless, they said, there is no U.S. law against the practice, and laws that could help victims in some regions, including the District and Virginia, are more geared to victims of kidnapping or phy
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Saudi wife is divorced, lashed over WhatsApp post

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A man from Saudi Arabia divorced his wife because of her WhatsApp status: “I pray to be patient enough to put up with you,” followed by initials matching the husband’s name. The 32-year-old woman admitted that she posted the offensive status after she and her husband argued via the mobile messaging service. She was sentenced to 70 lashes as punishment.