By Caitlin Dewey
The Washington Post - October 27, 2013
With Saudi Arabian women behind the wheel since
Saturday to protest their country's refusal to grant driver's licenses
to women, they’re 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.
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’Ivoire, Mauritania, Syria, Chad,
Pakistan and Yemen. Women’s rights abuses are by no means limited to
North Africa, West Africa or the Middle East, though that’s where we
tend to hear such stories most frequently.
“A lot of the most severe stuff comes out of legal or de facto
guardianship systems,” said Rothna Begum, a researcher who tracks
women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa for the advocacy
group Human Rights Watch.
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