The president does not understand the difference between women's human rights and the subordination of women in the name of religion.

Johann Hari has a piece (warning: graphic descriptions) on the way in which Muslim women are abused around the world. One of the most pertinent sections is when he talks about how Britain and the West have being willing to sacrifice the struggle for women's rights in return for other benefits, whether economic or military: "Our governments are equally hobbled from supporting Muslim women &nda...

Gauri van Gulik, a researcher in the women's rights division of Human Rights Watch, argues the case that Muslim women 'should be allowed to wear a headscarf while on duty in a government job'. She says that to deny them...

Patriotic, pious, peaceful and patient. Labour's anti-terror strategy depends on mythical figures as elusive as WMD Somewhere out there is the Muslim that the British government seeks. Like all religious people he (the government is more likely to talk about Muslim women than to them) supports gay rights, racial equality, women's rights, tolerance and parliamentary democracy. He abhors t...

Jean Lambert, the Green Party MEP for London, will tomorrow be speaking at a public meeting to celebrate International Women's Day and highlight the situation of women around the world. The meeting, arranged by the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, will explore the difficulties women face on daily basis; from those fighting for their basic human rights in wartorn countries like Ir...

One of the things that is most execrable about Canada's so-called human rights commissions is that they trade on the words "human rights". And, like counterfeit money devaluing real money, their counterfeit human rights, like the "human right" not to be offended, devalue the term that once was reserved for real rights like freedom of religion, the equality of men and women before the law...

In Cairo the president had a golden opportunity to stand up for women's rights, but he chose to pander instead.

If this email is not displayed properly, click here TAKING ACTION TOGETHER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS   End impunity: stand up against sexual violence Dear Friend, This International Women’s Day (8 March) we are drawing  inspiration from courageous women standing up for equality in the face of violence and marginalisation. Women like Justine Bihamba.Living in the Democratic Republic of Congo...

The UN has made some stupid decisions in its history but latest one surely takes the biscuit. Iran, multiple human rights abusing rogue state, has been elected to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations Economic and Social Council is an absolute travesty. In Iran women lack the ability to choose their husbands, have no independent right to education after marriage, no rig...

Those who refuse to believe that Hamas are using the population of Gaza as human shields/bomb fodder should watch this video. In it Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, on Al Aqsa TV in February last year, declares that ‘death has become an industry’; ...the women exceed at this, and so too do the mujahideen and the children. That’s why they have formed human shields of the women the children ...