Worldwide Women's Human Rights

Organizations across the globe are coming together to help women get basic human rights that are not given to them.



The Girl Effect

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Angry Afghan Shiites Swarm Women's Protest

Afghan Women's Rights were brought into the spotlight recently by a very small and brave group of Afghan Women.

Kabul (AP) - A group of some 1,000 Afghans swarmed a demonstration of 300 women protesting against a new conservative marriage law on Wednesday. The women were pelted with small stones as police struggled to keep the two groups apart.

The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse -- a clause that critics say legalizes marital rape. It also regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.

Women's rights activists scheduled a protest Wednesday attended by mostly young women. But the group was swamped by counter-protesters -- both men and women -- who shouted down the women's chants.

It seems men and women of Afghanistan once again wish to use their cultural beliefs, and call them part of the muslim religion. The strange part? The women were protesting a new law, applying only to Shiites, that obliges women to sleep with their husbands on demand and bars them from leaving the home without their husbands’ permission. Only Shiites?

According to the New York Times:

The young women stepped off the bus and moved toward the protest march just beginning on the other side of the street when they were spotted by a mob of men. “Get out of here, you whores!” the men shouted. “Get out!” The women scattered as the men moved in. “We want our rights!” one of the women shouted, turning to face them. “We want equality!” The women ran to the bus and dove inside as it rumbled away, with the men smashing the taillights and banging on the sides.

Three Cheers for these Afghan women and their families that support them! This is hardly a faith issue, but more of an oppression issue. Men seem so threatened by this, and if any of those women are harmed......they will be heros!

Unfortunately, I’m afraid Zara is wrong: She’s not in the majority, at least in Afghanistan. Polls show that men and women alike in Afghanistan mostly don’t believe in equal rights. Women are a bit more likely to support gender equality than men, but only a bit more. The best predictor of whether someone favors women’s rights in Afghanistan isn’t whether the person is a man or woman, but whether the person lives in the city or the countryside. People in the cities are far more sympathetic to equal rights — in other words, it’s a sign of Kabul’s progress that the demonstration happened at all. It would never have been imaginable in, say, rural Zabul or Kandahar provinces, not least because the women would never have been allowed out of their homes.

I’m enormously impressed by the courage of these women, but I do worry about a backlash. Afghans are very nationalistic, and the women today were denounced as pawns of Christians and foreigners. Remember that during the first Gulf War in 1991, Saudi women held a demonstration to demand the right to drive, and the protest attracted enormous attention. Yet in the end it so antagonized and frightened men that it probably set back and delayed the cause of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. I hope that’s not the case here, because Afghanistan can’t develop economically and achieve stability so long as girls are kept home and women are mostly barred from the work force.

The start of these Women's Protests will be the only way to give women of this area some basic human rights. Its the men and the culture that wish to strip them of this, and those women are being cheered on all across the globe!

Angry Afghan Shiites Swarm Women's Protest as the rest of the world CHEER THEM ON!

Saudi Child Bride

CNN Stated:

According to the lawyer, the girl's father arranged the marriage in order to settle his debts with the man, who is "a close friend" of his.

The judge did ask for a pledge from the husband, who was in court, not to consummate the marriage until the girl reaches puberty, according to al-Jutaili.

The judge ruled that when the girl reaches puberty, she will have the right to request a divorce by filing a petition with the court, the lawyer said.

The reason for this verdict?

The mother's lawyer, Abdullah al-Jutaili, said the judge found that the mother -- who is separated from the girl's father -- is not the legal guardian, and therefore cannot represent her daughter.

It seems that even if the government says you can't do this (child marriages) the judges can outrule the government, and allow it anyway.

In an interview with CNN, al-Huwaider said the Saudi government has signed international agreements involving children's and human rights, "and they know that this is very harmful to the kingdom's image. There is a strong wave to teach and spread human rights here in Saudi Arabia, but we all know that there are two players behind the scenes: a movement that wants reform and change to better the kingdom and another movement that wants to keep us backward and in the dark ages."

The Saudi Justice Ministry has not commented.

The Saudi Information Ministry forwarded CNN to the government-run Human Rights Commission.

Zuhair al-Harithi, a spokesman for the commission, said his organization is fighting against child marriages. "Child marriages violate international agreements that have been signed by Saudi Arabia and should not be allowed," he said.

Al-Harithi added that he did not have specific details about this case, but his organization has been able to stop at least one other child marriage.

So in other words they can sign laws into practice, but that doesn't matter. They can't enforce. BOY their laws are good huh? You have to wonder about the word of the husband, and then the word of the Judge once this child comes to puberty!

My thoughts and prayers are with this child bride from Saudi Arabia. If actions speak louder than words she doesn't stand a chance.

Child brides invade the classrooms

Child brides invade the classrooms according to NDTV



About three weeks to go for class X board exams, an exuberant group of girls can't afford to waste any time. All of them have lost precious years of childhood in a marriage that thrust upon them responsibilities far beyond their age. Now none of them wears the mangalsutra and have broken the fetters to go back to school and rewrite their own destiny.

I hope they are able to pass those exams, and those child brides have better future!

Child Marriage in Afghanistan: 7-yr-old bride, 17-yr-old groom

Child Marriage in Afghanistan: 7-year-old bride, 17-year-old groom. That children doesn't even know what is going on. You seriously have to wonder about this cultures. They are placing children into adult situations.

Child Brides: Tiringo

Here is a series of videos about Child Brides

57% of girls in Ethiopia are married before they reach their 18th birthday. In the first of a series of three short documentaries, Tiringo, married at age 6, explains how early marriage prevented her from attending school.

Child Brides: Tiringo

Child Brides: Alameye



In the Addis Ababa fistula hospital, Alameye, forced into marriage at 16, is recovering from surgery to repair a condition virtually unheard of in the West. The second in a series of three short documentaries examines how early marriage affects a girls health. In Ethiopia, there are 9000 new cases of fistula each year and an estimated 100,000 women go untreated due to a lack of resources. Despite her terrible ordeal at such a young age, Alameye is one of the lucky ones.

These Child Bride Series were made by Kim Haughton. Kim Haughton is an award winning photojournalist based in Dublin Ireland.

Her work has appeared in publications worldwide including:
The Guardian, The Observer, Boston Globe, London Times, Irish Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, TIME and Newsweek.

Child Brides in Ethiopia

This Audio Slideshow was aired on NPR's All Things Considered on January 18, 2007 by Brenda Wilson.

Big Thanks for NPR and Brenda Wilson for this report on Child Brides in Ethiopia.