women's human rights defenders
Malaysia: Women Seizing the Political Agenda
Women are claiming a leading role the political reform movement in Malaysia. In July this year, around 50,000 Malaysians braved a massive state-sponsored onslaught against freedom of expression and freedom of assembly to gather in the nation's capital to demand electoral reform. It was the second time that Malaysians gathered in a mass rally to demand these reforms, but the first time that the call was led by a woman, Ambiga Sreenevasan, and where the lead organisation was a women's rights NGO, Empower.
Iran: Activist Narges Mohammadi Jailed for 11 Years
A prominent Iranian activist who was taken seriously ill after being detained by the authorities has been sentenced to 11 years in jail.
Narges Mohammadi, 39, the deputy head of 's Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), a rights organisation presided over by the Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, was picked up last year by security officials who raided her house in middle of the night without a warrant for her arrest.
She was taken to Tehran's Evin prison where she was kept in solitary confinement but was released after a month and taken to hospital.
The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights condemns the violations on female activists
The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights followed up the events of March the 8th on the occasion of International Women's Day in a great worry. The celebration events started with an initiative of young women and men who gathered in Al Tahrir Square in order to salute female and male martyrs of the Revolution as well as their mothers and to remind the society and decision makers with the necessity of involving women in phases of the democratic transition in Egypt.
Amnesty International: Iranian women face prison for rights petition
At any moment, women’s rights activists Fatemeh Masjedi and Maryam Bidgoli could be sent to prison for six months for peacefully collecting signatures for a petition demanding an end to discrimination against women in law in Iran.
Top Iranian Lawyer Unjustly Sentenced to 11 years in Prison
The called the 11-year prison sentence of leading human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh a “gross miscarriage of justice” and said that it should be overturned by an appeals court.