Women's rights

UN rights chief says Taliban decree expands executions, deepens repression

The Taliban has restricted women's movements and barred girls from education beyond primary school since coming to power in 2021, via a series of morality laws limiting expression and employment.

|ByREUTERS
An Afghan Taliban fighter sits on a tank near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak, Kandahar Province, following exchanges of fire between Pakistani and Afghan forces
First Lady Michal Herzog, the cover story of this issue, greets schoolchildren during an official visit to Australia.

Two years after October 7, Israeli women still battle for equality - from the editor

As International Women’s Day approaches, the newest edition highlights women and their place in Israeli society since October 7

|ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH
Golda Meir, Israel’s first and only female prime minister, led through a small circle of senior advisers known as ‘Golda’s Kitchen’ from 1969 until 1974 – an exception in a political system where women’s authority has remained limited and largely isolated.

Visible everywhere, powerful nowhere: The paradox facing Israeli women in 2026 - analysis

Women are everywhere in Israeli life, but absent where power and protection are decided.

|ByCHANI KAPLAN
THE RABBINICAL Court’s Division for Agunot in Jerusalem.

Knesset panel advances bill to expand rabbinical courts’ power over civil matters

Critics have warned of the bill's democratic implications, including those involving women's rights, which may deepen the rift between the haredi and secular communities.

|ByKESHET NEEV

Iran's Khamenei suggests West destroys women’s dignity in social media post

The Iranian Supreme Leader took to X this week to chastise the West over its treatment of women.

DECEMBER 29, 2023ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks on during a meeting at the IRGC Aerospace Force achievements exhibition in Tehran, Iran November 19, 2023

Human rights groups’ hypocrisy on Hamas rape - opinion

Respect has been forfeited from self-described human rights advocates when they failed to defend the human right of Jewish women to not be raped.

DECEMBER 25, 2023ByRAFAEL MEDOFF
A PROTEST against the sexual violence committed in the October 7 massacre – and the international silence afterward – takes place outside UN Headquarters in New York City earlier this month.

UK home secretary makes jokes about spiking his wife's drink

James Cleverly is facing calls to resign after making jokes at a Downing Street reception about date rape drugs.

DECEMBER 25, 2023ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly walks on Downing Street on the day of a cabinet meeting, in London, Britain September 5, 2023

Afghan women struggle for rights under increasing Taliban repression

Since it took over in 2021, the Taliban has claimed that it is merely aligning Afghan society to Islamic values, but women and girls are being left with ever-fewer options.

DECEMBER 9, 2023ByARSHAD MEHMOOD/THE MEDIA LINE
An Afghan woman walks with her children on the anniversary of the fall of Kabul on a street in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 15, 2022.

Why don't women's orgs call to free Israeli women held hostage in Gaza? - opinion

Why aren’t they calling from the rooftops for the release of their Israeli sisters from the jaws of the terrorist group Hamas?

DECEMBER 9, 2023ByANDREA SAMUELS
SEVENTEEN ISRAELI women are still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. Why are international women’s groups not rallying?

Israeli and Jewish activists take campaign for greater concern about Oct. 7 sex crimes to UN

The Israeli UN mission calling for investigations into reported sexual violence by Hamas on October 7th during a conference at the UN on Monday

DECEMBER 5, 2023ByJACKIE HAJDENBERG/JTA
The Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations on Dec. 4 held a special session on sexual violence committed by Hamas during the terror attacks on Oct. 7.

A surge in femicide cases in Egypt raises alarm

Egyptian women’s rights activist to TML: “Recently, any woman’s refusal to comply could result in her murder.”

OCTOBER 4, 2023ByDEBBIE MOHNBLATT/THE MEDIA LINE
An Iranian woman walks on a street amid the implementation of the new hijab surveillance in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2023

Israel's Druze sector threatens to cut ties with IDF after young woman drafted

Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif warned that "if the State of Israel wishes to maintain its alliance with the Druze community - it must set the record straight."

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
Israeli soldiers and rescue forces seen at Mount Harif military base in the southern Negev desert, close to the border with Egypt, on June 3, 2023

Iran Guards detain dual national for 'organizing unrest and sabotage'

The Revolutionary Guards detained a dual national suspected of "trying to organize unrest and sabotage," on the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023ByREUTERS
Khatareh Plesnick, from Baltimore, poses during a march in support of women's rights in Iran on the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, outside the White House in Washington, U.S., September 16, 2023.

The shofar’s call to remember Mahsa Amini - opinion

The call of the shofar is a demand not to accept a broken world and a warning not to look the other way when people need us. 

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023BySHEILA KATZ
AN IRANIAN fan holds a jersey in memory of Mahsa Amini, inside the stadium before a World Cup soccer match between Iran and Wales, in Qatar, last November.