On Sunday, human rights activists organized a demonstration in front of the parliament in the Moroccan capital city of Rabat to demand the repeal of a law on sexual violence. The protest was a response to the suicide of a 16 year old girl, Amina Filali, after being forced to marry her rapist.  In Morocco, Article 475 of the penal code allows for the "kidnapper" of a minor to marry his victim to escape ...

On March 8, 2012 a protest was staged in Cairo involving a wide spectrum of feminists, human rights activists, political actors, members of the 9th March movement for academic freedoms, and members of Kifaya, demanding equal representation for women in the soon to be elected constitutional assembly. According to Hania Sholkamy of the American University of Cairo, the group gathered to air grievances about “proposed changes to personal status laws which could mean that Egyptian women lose ...

On Friday, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a two-panel discussion focusing on the roles and challenges of women and minorities in Syria’s revolution. The speakers in the first panel were Rajaa Altalli, director of international relations for the organization Syrian Christians for Democracy, Farah Al Attasi, executive director of the American Arab Communication and Translation Center, Rasha Alahdab, founding partner of Syrian Women for Syria, and Rafif Jouejati, CEO ...

Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), and twelve other co-signers issued a letter to Egypt's Ambassador Sameh Shoukry today, stressing their concerns about the treatment of women in Egypt after the January 25 revolution. In the letter the congressmen stated that "we are extremely disturbed by violent scenes of soldiers' abuse against women activists", and that "events of the last month are only the latest in a string of developments which ...

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) has launched an interactive website to complement its Status of Women in the Middle East and North Africa project. SWMENA.org "features all data collected through surveys between 2009 and 2010 concerning the social, political and economic status of women in Lebanon, Morocco and Yemen presented in three languages: English, Arabic and French." "The user-friendly site allows for data-comparison between countries, demographic filters and user-customization ...

On Wednesday, the subcommittee on international operations and organizations and the human rights, democracy, and global women’s issues subcommittee on near Eastern and South and central Asian affairs held a panel discussion titled “Women and the Arab Spring.” The first panel included Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the United States Department of State, and Dr. Tamara Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs and Deputy Special ...

Human Rights First Society, a Saudi Arabia-based group, released a statement lauding King Abdullah's announcement that Saudi women will be able "to vote and run for Municipal Counsels in the Kingdom and will be members in the next Shura Counsel." HRFS expressed caution, however, and advocated further reforms: "We welcome and applaud these steps which are in the right direction but call on King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to follow these steps with ...

In Egypt, some activists say the SCAF "doesn't seem to understand the kind of rage on the street," and that "it's only a matter of time before the public takes to the street again and this time with full force." This discontent stems from the perception that Egypt's army still represents the old regime. Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi's Saturday testimony in the Mubarak trial as well as SCAF's revival of ...