Unprecedented numbers of women are taking to the streets to join daily nationwide protests that erupted in mid-December. Despite a violent crackdown by the security forces and reports of sexual harassment, they remain undeterred. More than 50 people are thought to have died at the hands of security agents and many have been tortured, rights groups say. Yet women make up 70% of marchers at some protests, observers say, defiant in the face of the repressive laws of the conservative, Islamic state.