On International Women’s Day, a Look at Women’s Rights in the Mideast and North Africa

While women in Afghanistan struggle for the right to be educated and to work, women in Lebanon combat the religious sectarian system that controls many aspects of their lives. Women in the Gulf fight for the liberty to speak out when they are sexually harassed, and women in Israel fight for equal pay. Women’s rights are a global issue, a struggle that women all around the world share. However, women in the MENA region fare worse than in other parts of the world on a range of social, economic, legal, and political measures. In honor of International Women’s Day, and Women’s History Month in the US, UK, and Australia, The Media Line examines the status of women’s rights throughout the Middle East and North Africa in a story ^[1] by Debbie Mohnblatt.