{"id":1871,"date":"2013-10-30T18:55:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T16:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2013-10-30T18:55:52","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T16:55:52","slug":"7-ridiculous-restrictions-on-womens-rights-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2013\/10\/7-ridiculous-restrictions-on-womens-rights-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"7 ridiculous restrictions on women\u2019s rights around the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY CAITLIN DEWEY<\/strong>
\nThe Washington Post<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The World Economic Forum’s 2013 gender gap index. Countries in red and orange have the largest disparities between men and women. (WEF)<\/p><\/div>\n

With Saudi Arabian women behind the wheel since Saturday to protest their country’s refusal to grant driver’s licenses to women, they\u2019re challenging not only long-standing restriction, but also a the larger system of Saudi Arabian gender-based laws, some of the harshest in the world.<\/p>\n

According to one measurement, though, there are actually several countries that rank lower on women;s rights than Saudi Arabia. The World Economic Forum, which publishes the preeminent ranking on gender gap issues, ranked Saudi Arabia 10th from the bottom in its 2013 report — ahead of Mali, Morocco, Iran, Cote d\u2019Ivoire, Mauritania, Syria, Chad, Pakistan and Yemen. Women\u2019s rights abuses are by no means limited to North Africa, West Africa or the Middle East, though that\u2019s where we tend to hear such stories most frequently.
\n\u201cA lot of the most severe stuff comes out of legal or de facto guardianship systems,\u201d said Rothna Begum, a researcher who tracks women\u2019s rights in the Middle East and North Africa for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
\nBut she adds that, especially in Saudi Arabia, \u201cthings are modernizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are nine other remarkable legal restrictions against women, from Asia to Latin America:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. India (some parts): Road safety rules don\u2019t apply to women. In some states of India, women are excepted from safety rules that mandate motorcycle passengers wear helmets — an exemption that kills or injures thousands each year. Women\u2019s rights advocates have argued the exemption springs from a culture-wide devaluation of women\u2019s lives. Supporters of the ban say they\u2019re just trying to preserve women\u2019s carefully styled hair and make-up — which isn\u2019t exactly a feminist response.
\n2. Yemen: A woman is considered only half a witness. That\u2019s the policy on legal testimony in Yemen, where a woman is not, to quote a 2005 Freedom House report, \u201crecognized as a full person before the court.\u201d In general, a single woman\u2019s testimony isn\u2019t taken seriously unless it\u2019s backed by a man\u2019s testimony or concerns a place or situation where a man would not be. And women can\u2019t testify at all in cases of adultery, libel, theft or sodomy.
\n3. Saudi Arabia and Vatican City: Women can\u2019t vote… still. This is amazingly the case in Saudi Arabia, though a royal decree, issued in 2011, will let women vote in Saudi elections in 2015. Vatican City is the only other country that allows men, but not women, to vote.
\n4. Ecuador: Abortion is illegal, unless you\u2019re an \u201cidiot.\u201d Begum says this is the policy in Ecuador, where abortions have long been outlawed for everyone but \u201cidiots\u201d and the \u201cdemented.\u201d Politicians are considering a policy with the more politely worded term \u201cmentally ill,\u201d but that won\u2019t change abortion\u2019s legal status in Ecuador — or, more importantly, the fact that the law is frequently used to criminalize miscarriages.
\n5. Saudi Arabia and Morocco: Rape victims can be charged with crimes. Many, many countries fail to protect the victims of rape, but some go a step further — punishing women for leaving the house without a male companion, for being alone with an unrelated man, or for getting pregnant afterwards. The most infamous case may be Saudi Arabia\u2019s \u201cQatif girl,\u201d but a recent suicide in Morocco also made headlines — 16-year-old Amina Filali killed herself after a judge forced her to marry her alleged rapist, in keeping with a policy that invalidates statutory rape charges if the parties marry.
\n6. Yemen: Women can\u2019t leave the house without their husbands\u2019 permission. Yemen, where this law remains in force, does allow for a few emergency exceptions, Begum says: if the woman must rush out to care for her ailing parents, for instance.
\n7. Saudi Arabia: Women can’t drive. Read more about the ban and how women are challenging it here.
\nThe good news? According to the World Economic Forum\u2019s most recent gender gap report, equality has made \u201cmodest\u201d gains in the Middle East. And Begum, of Human Rights Watch, says there\u2019s lots of agitation for more change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen in Saudi Arabia are highly educated and qualified,\u201d she said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to be left in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caitlin Dewey is a social media reporter on the Digital Audience team. Before joining the Post, she was an associate online editor at Kiplinger\u2019s Personal Finance. She has also written for The New York Times, The Atlantic and other publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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