Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Middle East

Middle East Women Won Changes, Rights in ’18 Despite Backlash

AFP 12/10/2018

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | –

Women rights defenders have stood up for change across the Middle East and North Africa in 2018 despite a plethora of abuse from governments and armed groups, Amnesty International said Monday.

Paying tribute to women activists in a report released on Human Rights Day, Amnesty said they had been “at the centre of compelling stories of hard-won change”.

Women in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and the Palestinian territories had taken part in protest movements “and felt the backlash of authorities’ anxieties about those challenging the status quo”.

Amnesty said 66 women human rights defenders had been detained this year in Iran, 14 in Saudi Arabia and three in Egypt.

“From successfully campaigning to lift the driving ban in Saudi Arabia to protesting against Iran’s abusive and degrading practice of forced hijab, women across the MENA region have been standing up,” said Heba Morayef, the rights group’s director for the region.

“In the process they often risk arrest and detention.”

Amnesty singled out “the outrageous arrest of Amal Fathy amongst many other women activists” in Egypt.

She had been “arbitrarily imprisoned since May simply for posting a video online speaking about her experience of sexual harassment and criticising the Egyptian government for neglecting survivors”.

In the Palestinian territories, activist Suha Jbara had described “how she was tortured by her interrogators in the Palestinian security forces over the course of three days in November”.

She said she had been “beaten, slammed against a wall and threatened with sexual violence, as well as punished for going on hunger strike”.

Philip Luther, Amnesty’s MENA research and advocacy director, gave a positive balance for the gains of women in the region.

“Despite the shortfall in international pressure, the hard-won gains of women human rights defenders in this and previous years raise hopes that more change is on the horizon,” he said.

© Agence France-Presse

Featured Photo: RABAT, MOROCCO – MARCH 08: Women take part in a protest on ‘violence against women’ regarding the International Women’s Day in front of Parliament Building in Rabat, Morocco on March 08, 2018.
Jalal Morchidi / Anadolu Agency.

Filed Under: Middle East, women

About the Author

AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from conflicts to politics, economics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. Headquartered in Paris, France, and founded in 1835, Agence France Presse is the third largest news agency in the world, after the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters. It has bureaus in 150 countries.

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • In New Low, Israel's Netanyahu has Recklessly allied with ISIS in Gaza
  • Illegal and Immoral: Israel's Kidnapping of Greta Thunberg and the Madleen Aid Ship on the High Seas
  • How Israeli and International Businesses and Financial Institutions Sustain Illegal Occupation
  • Gov. Newsom asks Trump to Withdraw Troops from Los Angeles and Protests Intensify
  • The Madeleine ship: A Message of Solidarity with Gaza and resolve to break the Blockade

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved