The women of Iran are forbidden to stand in the upcoming presidential election on June 14, and are being strangled by ever-increasing restrictions. What has happened to the courageous Iranian women's movement of dissent that gave inspiration to the protests of the Arab Spring uprisings?

A member of the Guardian...

Is permission to ride a bike the first step toward lifting the ban on Saudi women driving a car? A recent government ruling allows women to ride bikes or buggies in parks and recreational areas on condition they wear full Islamic dress. In case riders become tangled in...

An article in a Hamas daily accused women for spreading a recent outbreak of Swine flu. The columnist blamed women for being transmitters of epidemics, due to their predilection for congregating in groups to exchange news and rumors. He suggested that outbreaks could be averted if men imposed...

The gang rape, torture and murder of a 23-year-old student in India set off a tsunami of outrage and nationwide demonstrations against culture-bound gender violence. More reports have surfaced recently. A woman was gang-raped on a bus in Punjab state, another was attacked and...

The plight of Iranian women prisoners of conscience was under the radar. Now that many names of those in Evin prison have been published, these courageous women must not be forgotten and the Iranian government should be pressured for their immediate release.

Iranian Nobel...

A bill that challenges illegal discriminatory practices in U.K. shariah forums is gathering support in Britain's parliament. Its passage will be followed with interest in Western countries under pressure to recognize aspects of shariah (Islamic law), particularly in the United States, where formal recognition of shariah in court...

Last week, Afghan girl Mah Gul was beheaded on the instruction of family because she rejected prostitution. Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai was shot in the head by Pakistani Taliban gunmen in the Swat Valley because she campaigned for women's secular education. Absence of outrage by Muslim leaders...

The recent wave of worldwide protests and riots against an anti-Islamic online video "Innocence of Muslims," attests to the inflammatory potential of blasphemy accusations in the Muslim world. In the process, the Muslim reform movement, especially women's reform, is an overlooked casualty, easily lost in the outrage and...

Iran's woeful deception and hypocrisy on women's human rights is particularly prominent this week while Tehran hosts the 16th Non-Aligned Movement summit to "eliminate international problems" and assumes the NAM's presidency for the next three years.

The summit follows the recent announcement of a ban on female students...

The public execution of Najiba, a woman accused of adultery, is testament to the brutal customary laws of Taliban and Pashtun cultural practice in Afghanistan. Other examples of increasing recent violence against Afghan women include the rape and torture of 18-year-old Lal Bibi by Afghan Local...

An injured horse last month disqualified equestrian Dalma Malhas from representing Saudi Arabia at the London Olympics. She would have been the first female athlete from the kingdom.

Brunei and Qatar have entered several women for the first time, and although most Muslim countries send female...

In the latest edition of Foreign Policy magazine, Muslim reformer Mona Eltahawy called for a genuine revolution in the Middle East. Unlike the Arab Spring, this one would release women from oppression. "First we stop pretending," she said. "Call out the hate for what it is."

Is misogyny...

Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the eminent Turkish Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was recently welcomed in Europe, the U.S. and Australia.

However, this organization has an agenda to criminalize criticism of Islam, which threatens to strangle dissent and reform.

Established in 1969 and based in...

The swing toward Islamism in the Arab Spring is deeply disturbing for liberal Egyptian women who see the country's election captured by religious parties that could strangle women's rights.

First and second-round reports indicate a landslide to the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist Nour...

The Saudi monarch's decree to give women voting rights for municipal elections in 2015 was generally welcomed as a giant step on the road to reform.

However, the celebration could be premature in a country where women cannot have coffee with male colleagues for fear of...

Maryam Namazie is a powerful voice against political Islam, and a major campaigner against sharia courts in Britain, but she is a lapsed Muslim and Westernized. Is she disqualified from the debate and are her warnings relevant to the West?

Born into a religious Muslim family, Namazie left Iran aged...

Attempts to introduce sharia family law into Western societies run against the tide of reforms spearheaded by female activists in the Muslim world.

Many aspects of these laws are unpalatable to a society that has enforced equal rights for divorce, custody, inheritance and court testimony, and criminalized polygamy, forced marriage...

The women of Afghanistan have had a window of freedom for ten years but now they are facing possible betrayal and abandonment during U.S. talks with the Taliban. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, must make every endeavor to safeguard Afghan women's rights. The outcome may ultimately define her term in...

Violent attacks by the Taliban have been increasing. Last month, the principal of a girls' school near Kabul was assassinated. Yet some observers would have us believe the Taliban have changed their misogynist ideology and deserve another chance in negotiations and power sharing.

Last November, when US President Barack Obama...

Saudi Arabian women ushered in a wave of new suffragettes when over 50 women risked arrest last Friday in defiance of the driving ban. Even riding a bicycle is forbidden to women in Saudi Arabia. In 2008, the governing Shura Council recommended women be allowed to drive but...