One lesson from the 1979 Iranian revolution and the 2011 Arab revolutions is that activists seeking to promote women’s rights, human rights and the transition to democracy must challenge patriarchy from within the Muslim legal tradition. 

The horrific rape of a student sparked a remarkable movement against sexual violence in India which has forced the government to change the laws on gender violence. While the struggle continues, a new organisation in Britain, the Freedom Without Fear Platform, redefines the notion of solidarity.

A scandal related to women’s rights and the socialist party in Spain, PSOE, broke out last month on International Women’s Day. Liz Cooper looks at a case of sexual harassment by politicians at work that is at the heart of the current row in the PSOE.

Women's rights activists spent two hard weeks at the Commission on the Status of Women pushing back against fundamentalist opposition and the attempt to roll back women's human rights. Susan Tolmay reports on the battles which resulted in the advancement of women's rights in this year's Agreed Conclusions.

The recent cultural wars between the Orthodox Jewish Hasidim in Brooklyn, New York and their neighbours are really about women’s appropriate role in their families and communities, as well as youthful rebellion among the Hasidim,says Ruth Rosen

The narrative of splits in Protestantism which is based on convenient binaries, with African and Asian churches emerging as the conservatives, and the US and Europe as the liberals, fails to capture the complexity of what is going on at ground level, says Rahila Gupta

Les hommes sont dans une très large mesure, le sexe responsable de crimes violents, sexuels et autres crimes sérieux. Le coût économique de cet « excès masculin » dans la délinquance est ahurissant ? sans parler du prix émotionnel. Pourquoi la structure sociale de la masculinité n’est-elle pas une question politique urgente ?