In 39 cases documented by Human Rights Watch in 2011, police subjected transgender detainees to either physical abuse or degrading and humiliating treatment that in some cases amounts to torture, as well as sexual abuse.

Ayat al-Qurmouzi was accused of participating in an assembly held for the purpose of committing crimes and inciting hatred against the ruling regime

Saudi activists and family affairs experts voiced their concerns over parents’ unjustified rejection of suitors and warned of the grave consequences on both the girls and the society.

According to a local U.N.-funded group working with the victims, the law criminalizes the women instead of their rapists -- and society ostracizes the women.

As divorce rates reach unprecedented levels, more families in Mauritania are now fully supported by women who struggle to make ends meet in the middle of poverty and illiteracy.

the country's north will reinforce its Islamic law after a referendum expected to grant independence to the south

The main purpose of the Heightening of Social Safety plan was to combat improper clothing, but security forces, during the implementation of this plan, also began to monitor mobile phones, hair styles, brands of male clothing and even the coloring of women’s covering and scarves.

Some women, called zan-e sighaei (temporary wife), in Iran where prostitution is illegal still use temporary marriages for business purposes

Not everyone has an ID in Yemen, and the man behind the desk will certainly not ask a woman to show her face in order to verify her identity

A population in the Gulf Cooperation Council states of around 36 million, of whom 48 percent are female; women, however, make up only one-fifth of the total labor force.

Iran and Saudi Arabia may get seats on the board of a new UN super-agency to promote women's rights, prompting outrage from human rights and women's activists

Even the poorest families in Afghanistan have matches and cooking fuel. The combination usually sustains life. But it also can be the makings of a horrifying escape: from poverty, from forced marriages, from the abuse and despondency that can be the fate of Afghan women.

There could be any number of reasons, but many point to disregard for human rights.

Many Mauritanian women and their families are now stipulating the one-wife as a prerequisite before marriage, but religious scholars have condemned it as a violation to Islamic teaching.

Saudi judges have elevated a father's authority to a pillar of law. The result of unquestioned fatherly authority far too often has been family strife and unwarranted suffering for the adult children.

Islamic sharia law allows a man to "discipline" his wife and children provided that he does not leave physical marks, according to a ruling by the supreme court in the United Arab Emirates.

In a landmark decision, Turkey's Higher Education Board earlier this month ordered Istanbul University, one of the country's biggest, to stop teachers from expelling from classrooms female students who do not comply with a ban on the headscarf.

Iranian women have been forced into slavery, the former lawyer for Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, the Iranian woman facing death by stoning

In the last week of September, the As-Sahab Foundation, which disseminates al-Qaeda messages and propaganda, released a video clip showing a group of militants launching mortar attacks on Pakistani army sites.

Moushira-khattabAmaal Hassan Kamel has not existed officially for most of her life. The 49-year-old housewife didn't receive a birth certificate or identity card until two months ago. Like millions of Egyptian women and children, she lived in the bureaucratic shadows, unable to apply for a decent job or to request travel documents.

Confusion surrounded the fate of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani yesterday, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, who now faces execution by hanging for the alleged murder of her husband

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's closest aide has called for more rights for Iran's "oppressed" women – the latest comments from a man who has become a lightning rod for divisions in the country's ruling elite

Though more liberal than its neighbours, the country is feeling the impact of political Islam.

Joumana Haddad, the editor of an erotic Arabic-language magazine and author of a new book that challenges sexual taboos in the Arab world, is drawing praise and death threats alike.

Activists are launching a project to highlight incidents of sexual abuse and help transform attitudes to women in the process

Around 1,000 people rallied in Paris on Sunday to show support for Iranian mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani who is facing execution by stoning

the government halted the sentence of death by stoning of a woman convicted of adultery, but he reiterated that she was still facing accusations of murder

Amnesty International welcomes an Iranian official’s statement that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's sentence of stoning to death has been temporarily suspended but urged the authorities to overturn the death sentence against her entirely.

The European Union has condemned the death sentence by stoning for a widowed Iranian woman convicted of adultery.

mix-up over a photograph led to a sentence of 99 lashes for the Iranian woman whose earlier death sentence by stoning from Iranian authorities caused an international outcry

Libya's new nationality law granting women married to foreign spouses the right to pass their own nationality to their children is a significant move forward for women's rights, Human Rights Watch said today.

A Sri Lankan woman working as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia says she has been severely abused for complaining about being overworked.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Union's foreign policy chief said Friday the EU was about to reject "practices of another age", after a woman was sentenced to death by stoning in Iran.
France urged the European Union earlier Friday to threaten Iran with new sanctions over the case of 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, despite Tehran's warning to the West not to interfere.

female circumcision is prevalent mostly in the provinces of Khuzestan, Lorestan, and Kurdistan. The city of Hormozgan and the ports of Bandar Kang and Jask are among southern cities where female circumcision is customary.