Women and girls

Five years after Taliban takeover, Afghan women remain trapped in deepening rights crisis

The Afghan women who spoke to The Media Line said that words could hardly capture the hardships they have endured in exile, while their loved ones continue to face difficult conditions back home.

|ByARSHAD MEHMOOD/THE MEDIA LINE
Women wearing burqas pause at the side of a road in Kabul, Afghanistan October 26, 2021.
Rubaha, 8, watches from the entrance of her home as a buffalo is held down for sacrificial slaughter in celebration of Eid al-Adha in the Walled City of Lahore, Pakistan, June 8, 2025.

European Parliament demands Pakistan free 13-year-old Christian girl in forced marriage, conversion

Shahbaz was married to her abductor in March, despite most provinces requiring a person to be at least 18 to marry.

|ByDANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD
Israeli Bedouin women’s rights activist and lawyer, Hanan Alsanah.

The Israeli-Bedouin women’s rights activist bringing women to the negotiation table - interview

“Stubborn” was how the Israeli Bedouin women’s rights activist and lawyer described herself in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

|ByDANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD
(ILLUSTRATIVE) A homeless Palestinian bride walks with her mother (R) during her wedding ceremony at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinians from the Israeli offensive, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip August 17, 2014.

Pressure builds on Palestinian girls to marry as Gaza sees rise in child marriage rates - UNFPA

The likely cause of the increasing number of child brides seen in the Palestinian territory is the displacement, poverty, and collapse of social, legal, health, and protection systems.

|ByDANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD

Palestinian girls play soccer to win in the West Bank

The Palestinian Women’s National Soccer Team trains under harsh conditions in a sport that seems to give hope and incentive for change.

AUGUST 5, 2017ByFRANZISKA KNUPPER
The Palestinian Women’s National Soccer Team

Jordan scraps 'marry your rapist' law

No girl should be "presented as a gift" to her rapist, says a Jordan Parliamentarian.

AUGUST 1, 2017ByTHOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
Jordanian girls wave the flag of Jordan

Pakistani council orders 'revenge rape' of 16-year-old girl

The rape was ordered as revenge for the girl's brother's alleged sexual assault.

JULY 27, 2017ByREUTERS
Pakistani women work in a field outside the village of Multan in south Punjab province