Outrage as UN picks Saudi Arabia to head women's rights commission

Saudi Arabia will now be responsible for promoting gender equality worldwide. The kingdom has been chosen as the next chair of the UN's top forum for women's rights, despite its questionable record at home.

Fleeing Afghanistan - Facing the threat of deportation and bureaucratic hurdles

Two years after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the human rights situation remains dire. It is not only people who had been employed by the US or its allies who have found themselves subject to repression and revenge. Human rights activists, artists and women’s advocates are all targets.

The Taliban barred women from higher education last December, accusing them of violating the country's strict Islamic dress code. The university ban is just one of several measures imposed by the Taliban aimed at erasing women from public life.

The Iranian protester who escaped his execution - BBC Newsnight

 

Since the "Women Life Freedom" protests erupted in September last year, 500 young protesters have died, and as many as 20,000 young women and men have been injured and or detained by Iran's Security forces. The BBC believes hundreds are still in jail. 

Earlier this year, Newsnight reported that many injured prisoners have been kept in dire conditions and that prison authorities refuse to send them for medical treatment.    Ashkan Morovati, a 26-year-old boxer who was shot repeatedly during the protests in broad daylight and imprisoned, has miraculously escaped execution and fled. 

Taliban ban women workers in NGOs, more than 25 million Afghans in need of help

 

The UN says it will continue to work in Afghanistan despite a Taliban order banning women from working for aid agencies. That order is in addition to a long line of Taliban diktats preventing women from accessing jobs, education and social equality.

Taliban oppression escalates, destroying women's lives in Afghanistan

 

In a new report titled "Death in Slow Motion," human rights group Amnesty International says the "suffocating crackdown against Afghanistan's female population is increasing day by day."

Thousands of Afghan women fear the Taliban won't let them work - BBC News

 

In Afghanistan thousands of women don’t know whether they will be allowed to return to work, under the new Taliban regime.

Images of Afghan women erased from view as Taliban consolidate power - BBC News

 

As the Taliban consolidate their grip on power in Afghanistan, the country is already visibly changing. In the capital, Kabul, colourful murals are being painted over, with women’s faces blacked out. Political slogans supporting the Taliban have replaced them.

Afghan single mother describes her desperate situation under Taliban rule | DW News

 

'Zahra' is a single mother and works as a gynecologist in Afghanistan. But since the Taliban took over, she can't leave the house anymore. Without work, she has no source of income.

Taliban promise amnesty and freedoms for women and media - BBC News

 

Taliban leaders, who've never been seen in public before, have been making their first statements on Afghan soil, to a world shocked by their lightning seizure of power.

How can violence against women be tackled?

 

Spotlight initiative being launched in Africa in partnership with the African Union to confront the crisis.

The abuse of women is one of the most widespread human rights violations.

It has many forms, including physical and sexual violence, female genital mutilation and child marriage.

The long-term effects on the survivors are severe.

Dead Woman's Pass: A Ni Una Menos Story on the Inca Trail

An Indigenous woman embarks on a journey to Machu Picchu that will force her to confront horrors from her past.

An Indigenous woman embarks on a journey to Machu Picchu that will force her to confront horrors from her past.  

Maxi Manuttupa is a single mother in Cusco, Peru. Haunted by past traumas, she is anxious to find a safer home for her daughter. She decides to earn more money by becoming a porter.

Ireland's Mother and Baby Scandal

We investigate disturbing allegations about the fate of thousands of babies born to unmarried mothers in Ireland.

Saudi Women: Reform or Repression?

Saudi female activists ask why arrests, detention and alleged torture continue, despite apparent reforms.

Just how free are women in Saudi Arabia today? The Saudi government has said it supports the empowerment of women and young people. While there have been reforms, including lifting the ban on women driving in June 2018, the arrest and detention of women speaking out against the government appear to have continued.

Al Jazeera World looks at the individual cases of five Saudi women currently in detention, or who have fled the country following apparent harassment for their political views. It asks whether Saudi Arabia is publicly championing the rights of women while privately punishing those who challenge the status quo.

Zahida: On the Road with Pakistan's First Female Taxi Driver

"It wouldn't work if I left the house thinking that I'm a woman. To compete with men, I had to be like a man."  - Zahida, Pakistan's first female taxi driver

In 1992, Zahida became Pakistan's first female taxi driver and a local legend.

Twice widowed, she is independent, feisty and street-wise, with a reputation for being a master hustler.

But now, aged 56 and with a seven-year-old daughter to raise, she is still fighting to make a living on the dusty roads of Rawalpindi.

"My life is one big struggle," she reflects.

India's Women Warriors

In India, women fight to enter a sacred temple as part of a larger battle against discrimination within Hinduism.

Millions of pilgrims from across India flock to one of the country's most sacred Hindushrines every year.

But Sabarimala Temple has long been off-limits to almost half the world's population.

Women aged between 10 and 50 are considered impure by the hardline Hindu men who come to the temple to worship.

"Women cannot follow the rituals," says Aswani Dev, an ardent devotee. "A woman is an object that jeopardises the mind of a man."

Korean Lovers in Baghdad

A young Iraqi woman's obsession with all things Korean inspires her dream of moving to South Korea.

Heba is a young Iraqi woman with a good job as an electrical engineer and the prospect of a decent future.

At 28, she owns a modern flat in the newly-built Bismayah New City in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, where she lives with her mother and younger sister. It's a vast development of neat, white and beige apartment blocks, wide, well-lit walkways and plenty of green spaces, where children can play and ride their bikes.

Heba says living there makes her feel safe and secure.

India's Forbidden Love: An Honour Killing on Trial

The survivor of a brutal honour killing testifies against her parents in the murder trial of her lower-caste husband.

In March 2016, Kausalya and her husband Shankar were brutally attacked on a crowded street in southern India.

Shankar, who came from a lower Dalit caste, died of his injuries. Kausalya survived and accused her parents of orchestrating an honour killing.

Witness follows Kausalya as she fights for justice through the courts, testifying against her parents in a trial where they face the death penalty.

Korean Lovers in Baghdad

A young Iraqi woman's obsession with all things Korean inspires her dream of moving to South Korea.

Heba is a young Iraqi woman with a good job as an electrical engineer and the prospect of a decent future.

At 28, she owns a modern flat in the newly-built Bismayah New City in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, where she lives with her mother and younger sister. It's a vast development of neat, white and beige apartment blocks, wide, well-lit walkways and plenty of green spaces, where children can play and ride their bikes.

Heba says living there makes her feel safe and secure.

The Apology: Stories of Asia's 'Comfort Women' (video)

Women forced into sexual slavery during World War II fight for justice and struggle to make peace with the past.

The Apology follows the personal journeys of three former "comfort women" who were among the 200,000 girls and young women kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

Some 70 years after their imprisonment in so-called "comfort stations", the three "grandmothers" - Grandma Gil in South Korea, Grandma Cao in China, and Grandma Adela in the Philippines - face their twilight years and fading health.