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Religion>Shocking
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
South Asia | Afghanistan | Crimes

Mena Mangal: Journalist and women’s rights campaigner shot dead in broad daylight in Kabul

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An Afghan journalist and political advisor, who was vocal about women’s rights in the country, has been gunned down in broad daylight, just days after saying she believed her life was in danger. Mena Mangal was shot dead on Saturday morning in a public place while she was on her way to work in the capital city of Kabul. Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said one or possibly more assailants had escaped the scene but no one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and police say it is not yet clear whether the murder was a terror attack or an attack from
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 | Activism

Sabeen Mehmud, Pakistani rights activist, shot dead

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A leading member of Pakistan’s small band of liberal social activists has been gunned down outside the pioneering Karachi arts venue she founded, in an apparent bid to silence discussion about the country’s brutal efforts to smother separatism in the restive province of Balochistan. The murder of Sabeen Mahmud on Friday sent shockwaves through Pakistan’s embattled intelligentsia both because she was much loved but also because the killing happened immediately after an event she organised with Mama Abdul Qadeer, an elderly Baloch activist campaigning on behalf of so-called “missing p
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
International | Libya | Politics

Women’s Groups Want Libya Activist’s Murder Investigated

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Women's rights groups on Friday demanded an international investigation into the killing of a Libyan activist who had become a symbol of her country's efforts to create a democracy.   The shooting and stabbing of Salwa Bugaighis shortly after she cast her vote in Libya's parliamentary elections last year shocked the international community, with U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice calling the assassination "brutal and senseless." After Gadhafi was overthrown, Bugaighis became one of the most outspoken voices against militia fighters and Islamic extremists. She also was deputy

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