• Saudi Arabia relaxes ban on school sports for girls

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    Saudi Arabia's Wojdan Shaherkani (top) competes in the London 2012 Olympic Games

    By Lubna Hussain, Producer, NBC News

    RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Girls in Saudi Arabia are to be allowed to take part in school sports for the first time in the latest sign that the Islamic kingdom is inching forward on the contentious issue of women’s rights.

    Female students enrolled in private girls’ schools will be able to take part as long as they wear ‘decent clothing’ and are supervised by female Saudi instructors within the tight regulations of the country’s Ministry of Education, the official Saudi Press Agency announced Sunday.

    “I think it’s a really good idea,” said Hala Tashkandi, a junior student of Applied Linguistics at Prince Sultan University, a private college in the capital, Riyadh. “Physical education for girls is sorely lacking, which is a shame because some of the best athletes I know are female.”

    However, most girls are educated in public schools where the rules forbidding female competitive sports will not be relaxed.

    It means school sport will remain restricted to members of the wealthy elite, despite the country’s need for more female athletes. Last year, the country's first two female Olympians took part in the London games following pressure from the International Olympic Committee which signaled at the Beijing 2008 games that it would no longer allow countries to restrict entry on the basis of gender.

    Sarah Attar competed in the women’s 800m race, while Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani took part in judo after a deal was reached with officials allowing her to wear her hijab.

    Saudi women are barred from driving and must seek the permission of a male "guardian", usually a father, husband or brother, to marry, travel abroad, open a bank account, work or have some forms of elective surgery.

    Until recently, it seemed Saudi Arabia’s vocal minority of zealots were winning the ideological battle and sustaining the marginalization of women, but recent announcements suggest the tide may finally be turning.

    Streeter Lecka / Getty Images

    Sarah Attar of Saudi Arabia competes in the London 2012 Olympic Games.

    Last week, a campaign featuring domestic abuse was launched to raise awareness in a country where such subjects are still considered largely taboo.

    In January, the country’s reform-minded monarch, King Abdallah, appointed 30 women to the Shura Council despite a huge backlashfrom the religious establishment and comments on twitter and local blogs that branded them “infidels” and women of “loose character.”

    Manal Sanai a final year student at Najd, a private girls’ school in central Riyadh, said she was excited by news about school sports. “Most girls don’t know their potential in sports because of the lack of exposure to any kind of physical activity and this will be a good chance to develop their talents,” she said.

    Sports and activities such as dancing do take place, but only in private clubs with membership fees of upwards of $2,000 a year and can still be raided by the Mutawwa – or religious police.

    Jan. 15: NBC News producer Lubna Hussain is a London-born Saudi citizen.  She writes a column for Arab News, a prominent Saudi publication.  She also hosts a public affairs talk show called "Bridges" on Saudi television.  She shared her observations about the current status of women in Saudi Arabia.

    Afaf Al Hamdan, the former manager of the Al Manahil Center for Women, which runs several physical educational programs catering to the city’s wealthy elite, questioned why sport would not be extended to public schools.

    “The big bulk of students are in government schools and don’t have the means to pay for private clubs,” she said. “If these classes are run in a female environment with students dressed properly, then there is nothing against Sharia [law].

    “All women in this country, unlike those of my generation who had never even heard of exercise, should have access to the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.”

    That sentiment was echoed by Tashkandi, who pointed out that the Olympians Shaherkhani and Attar were only given two weeks to train because of wrangles over their participation.

    “There’s so much potential and it could be incredibly helpful in terms of their physical and mental health as well,” she said.

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  • Comic Sarah Silverman's sister detained by Israel

    Michal Fattal / Reuters

    Susan Silverman (C), a reform rabbi sits on the ground and prays with her daughter (L) after being asked by Israeli police to remove their prayer shawls at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on Monday. Israeli police detained the two and eight other women on Monday for wearing prayer shawls, which Orthodox tradition sees as solely for men, a spokesman said. Susan Silverman is the sister of American comedian Sarah Silverman.

    By Daniel Estrin , The Associated Press

    JERUSALEM — Israeli police Monday detained 10 women, including the sister of American comic Sarah Silverman, as they tried to pray at a Jerusalem holy site, the head of a liberal Jewish women's group said.

    Anat Hoffman, who was among those detained, said the women were stopped because they were wearing religious garb that Orthodox Judaism reserves for men only. The incident occurred at the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites.

    Silverman's sister Susan, a Jerusalem rabbi from the liberal Reform stream of Judaism, was detained along with her teenage daughter.

    Sarah Silverman wrote on her Facebook page that she was "SO proud" of her sister and niece for their "civil disobedience." The original post included more explicit language typical of Silverman's humor.


    The women belong to "Women of the Wall," a liberal group that goes to the Western Wall each month to worship. They conduct certain rituals, such as wearing prayer shawls and skullcaps and singing out loud, practices reserved for men under strict Orthodox interpretations of Judaism. Hoffman, who was among those detained, is chairwoman of the group.

    Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the women were detained because they acted against court-ordered regulations that bar women from wearing prayer shawls at the Western Wall so as not to offend Orthodox Jewish worshippers. Rosenfeld said the women were released after several hours.

    The group has been gathering at the Western Wall for a quarter century, but in recent years its activists have been increasingly detained by police. Hoffman, who chairs the group, said no woman detained has ever been formally charged with any crime.

    "This is just attrition," said Hoffman. "They want to the group to become frightened."

    The Monday detentions took place after about 300 people gathered at a prayer service at the Western Wall to protest Orthodox control of the site. Among the worshippers in the group, Hoffman said, were about 100 male supporters, including veterans from the legendary Israeli paratroopers' battalion that captured Jerusalem's ancient walled Old City, including the Western Wall, in the 1967 Middle East War.

    In December, after Hoffman was arrested under similar circumstances, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the head of the semi-governmental Jewish Agency to come up with solutions that would allow for non-Orthodox women to pray freely at the site.

    Hoffman said two of the women held by police were American rabbis from the egalitarian Conservative Jewish movement who missed a scheduled meeting with the Jewish Agency chief to discuss the very issue that landed them in police custody.

  • Taliban shooting victim Malala Yousufzai 'feeling better' after surgery

    University Hospitals Birmingham via AFP - Getty Images

    Malala Yousufzai speaks to critical care consultant Dr. Mav Manji at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, after she underwent surgery.

    By Alice Baghdjian, Reuters

    A Pakistani schoolgirl who underwent reconstructive surgery in Britain after being shot in the head by the Taliban said on Monday she felt much better and was focused on her mission to help others.

    A team of doctors carried out a five-hour operation on 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai on Saturday to mend parts of her skull with a titanium plate and help restore hearing on her left side with a cochlear implant.

    Speaking 24 hours after waking up from surgery at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, Yousufzai said she was already walking around.

    Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old shot by the Taliban in October, spoke to the media for the first time Monday and thanked them for their prayers, which she says has given her new life. NBC's Keir Simmons reports.

    "I can walk a little bit, I can talk and I'm feeling better," she said from her hospital bed in a video clip released by the hospital.

    "I think I will just get better very soon, and there will be no problem. The thing is my mission is the same, to help people, and I will do that," she said.


    Yousufzai was shot in the head at point-blank range in October by the Taliban for advocating girls' education, and was brought to Britain for treatment.

    Doctors at the hospital said they were impressed by her recovery so far and hopeful she would be discharged fairly soon, describing her as focused and enthusiastic.

    "She should be feeling sorry for herself 24 hours after an operation like that, not talking about helping other people," said Dave Rosser, the hospital's medical director.

    Slideshow: Schoolgirl attacked by Taliban in Pakistan

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    Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai was shot by the Taliban for speaking out against Pakistani militants and promoting education for girls.

    Launch slideshow

    The attack on Yousufzai, as she left school in the Swat valley, drew widespread international condemnation, and the schoolgirl has become a symbol of resistance to the Taliban's efforts to deny women education and other rights.

    "There's still a lot of support (for Yousufzai) coming in, a lot of communication coming in from around the world," Rosser said.

    Related:

    Malala, teen champion of girls' rights, nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

    Al-Qaida, Taliban struggle to justify attack on Pakistani teen

    Thousands rally in Pakistan for Malala

    'Strong young woman': Taliban shooting victim leaves UK hospital

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Malala, teen champion of girls' rights, nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

    By Kari Huus, Staff writer, NBC News

    NHS via EPA

    Malala Yousufzai of Pakistan leaving Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Britain, on Jan. 4 after she was discharged. She will have to undergo specialist cranial surgery at a later date.

    Malala Yousufzai, the Pakistani girl who rose to international fame after the Taliban nearly killed her for her efforts to promote girls’ education, has been formally nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

    Her name was put forward by three members of the Norwegian parliament from the ruling Labor Party on their website Friday, which was the deadline for nominations.

    Malala’s name was put forward because of "her courageous commitment to the right of girls to education. A commitment that seemed so threatening to the extremists that they chose to try and kill her," said parliamentarian Freddy de Ruiter on the Labor party web site.

    De Ruiter made the nomination with fellow members of parliament Gorm Kjernli and Magne Rommetveit.

    Malala was attacked in October with two other girls while traveling home from school in Pakistan’s Swat valley.  The gunman boarded the van and asked for her by name before firing three shots at her — singling her out for writing a blog that criticized the Taliban for barring girls for getting an education.

    A week later, Malala was flown to a hospital in the UK for treatment. She is now facing a final major surgery to place a titanium plate over the hole left in her skull. While in the hospital she has received thousands of messages from well-wishers around the world, and continued to speak out on behalf of her cause, becoming a global icon.


    The Norwegian MPs said they believed that Malala was "a worthy winner for many reasons. She has become an important symbol in the fight against destructive forces that want to prevent democracy, equality and human rights."

    She was also reportedly nominated by members of parliament in France, Spain and Canada. NBC News has not confirmed that information.

    To be sure, it is very early in the Nobel process, which culminates with a winner in October.

    The Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation, which has been awarding Nobel awards for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace since 1901, said 231 names were submitted for the Peace Prize last year, including 41 organizations.

    Nominations can be made only by a select group of people worldwide, including national lawmakers, university presidents and previous Nobel winners.

    Malala Yousafzai, 15, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for refusing to bow to pressure by extremists who don't want girls in Pakistan to receive an education. The winner will be announced in October. NBC's Lester Holt has more.

    The foundation does not disclose the names of nominees until 50 years later. However, those who name the candidates sometimes disclose them, as in Malala’s case.

    Among other reported nominees for the 2013 prize are Belarusian human rights activist Ales Belyatski, who is in jail, and Russian Lyudmila Alexeyeva.

    The list of prior Nobel Peace Prize recipients is populated with presidents and large organizations — including UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, and the European Union in 2012 — and storied individuals, such as the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela.

    If Malala were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she would be the youngest by far and one of just 15 female recipients.

    The average age of the 100 individuals is 62, according to the Nobel foundation. The youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate so far is Yemeni journalist Tawakkol Karman, who was 32 when he was awarded the honor in 2011.

    Related:

    Video: Next hurdle for Malala after Taliban attack: Skull surgery

    Video: Outpouring of support for Pakistani teen attacked by Taliban

    Follow Kari Huus on Facebook

  • Next hurdle for Malala after Taliban attack: Skull repair

    The Pakistani schoolgirl, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt, will soon have what doctors hope will be her final operation, before she returns to full health. Malala Yousufzai's surgeons will fit a titanium plate over a hole in her skull which was shattered by the gunman's bullet. ITV's Rupert Evelyn reports.

  • UN calls for ban on 'grotesque practice' of female genital mutilation

    Florian Seefried / Getty Images

    Model and writer Waris Dirie, shown in 2010, is an advocate against female genital mutilation.

    By Baruch Ben-Chorin, NBC News

    In 1970, when Waris Dirie was a 5-year-old in Somalia, her mother held her down on a rock. She gave her a piece of root from an old tree.


    "Bite on this," she said. Her mother leaned over and whispered: "Try to be a good girl. Be brave for Mama, and it will go fast." Then, an old woman who was with them in the African bush cut off parts of her genitals with a broken razor blade.

    With this graphic description, in her 1997 book "Desert Flower" an international bestseller, Dirie became one of the leading activists in a global campaign against female genital mutilation, or FGM — a practice that millions of girls are subjected to each year.

    On Thursday, in a major victory for that campaign, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a global ban on FGM.

    The resolution urges the 193 U.N. member states to condemn the practice, and to launch educational campaigns to eliminate it. It urges all countries to enact and enforce legislation to prohibit FGM, to protect women and girls "from this form of violence" and to end impunity for violators. Although not legally binding, UN General Assembly resolutions carry considerable moral and political weight.

    Activists hailed the U.N. move.

    "This an important moment for everyone engaged in the fight against FGM — and most particularly for all the girls and women who have been affected by this grotesque practice," said José Luis Díaz, U.N. representative for the non-profit rights group Amnesty International, which was among the groups that pushed for the resolution.

    "The UN resolution places FGM in a human rights framework and calls for a holistic approach, stressing the importance of empowerment of women, promotion and protection of sexual and reproductive health and breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence.”

    The procedure, as detailed in Dirie’s book, is often crude, painful and dangerous — leading to many fatal infections.

    After cutting her genitals, the old woman used "thorns from the Acacia tree to puncture holes in my skin, then poked a strong white thread through the holes to sew me up,” she wrote. “My legs were completely numb, but the pain between them was so intense that I wished I would die."

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    "Lying there alone with my legs still tied, I could do nothing but wonder, why? What was it all for? At that age I didn’t understand anything about sex. All I knew was that I had been butchered with my mother’s permission."

    Dirie fled her Somali community, and an arranged marriage, at 13, and went on to become a top model, and an actress in one of the James Bond movies. In 2002 she set up Desert Flower Foundation in Vienna to support her work against FGM.

    FGM is often undertaken to reinforce traditional beliefs about what is considered proper sexual behavior, according to the World Health Organization. Many communities believe the process, also called female circumcision, reduces a woman's libido and therefore reduces the chances of her engaging in premarital or extramarital sex.  

    When a vaginal opening is closed off or narrowed through the process, the pain of opening it, and the fear that it would be found out, is considered further deterrent to "illicit" sexual intercourse.

    Though no major religious writings prescribe the practice, practitioners often believe the practice has religious support. Religious leaders take varying positions with regard to FGM: some promote it, some consider it irrelevant to religion, and others condemn it and contribute to its elimination.

    The World Health Organization estimates that about 140 million girls and women worldwide are living with the consequences of FGM. In Africa, an estimated 92 million girls age 10 and older have undergone FGM.

    Watch the Top Videos on NBCNews.com

    Amnesty International estimates 3 million girls face FGM each year. The group says the practice is commonplace in 28 countries in Africa, as well as in Yemen, Iraq, Malaysia, Indonesia and in certain ethnic groups in South America. It also occurs in among immigrant communities, including those in Europe and the United States, though it is unclear how frequently.

    Thursday’s U.N. resolution could have a significant impact on halting FGM, according to Amy Fairbairn, director of communications for Tostan, a non-profit development organization working in Africa.  But because FGC is a social norm in some countries and regions, she believes change requires more work on the grassroots level. (The organization  prefers to use term "female genital cutting" because it is less judgmental.)

    "The ban reaffirms an important message that the international community does not believe female genital cutting should continue," she said. "At the country level, it may help more countries to look at this practice and to look at the most effective ways of approaching it."

    She said that Tostan promotes the end to GFC within communities as part of an overall human rights program, which generates more homegrown incentive for change.  

    "There is tremendous progress under way," she said. "Most notably for us, there is historic progress in the growing movement to end FGC in West Africa, where to date nearly 6,000 communities have publicly abandoned the practice, over 5,000 of those in Senegal alone where the FGC-Free Senegal movement is really gaining momentum."

    NBC News' Kari Huus contributed to this report.

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  • 'It pains me': Clinton decries plight of women in male-dominated countries

    Kevin Lamarque / AFP - Getty Images

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a speech "Frontlines and Frontiers: Making Human Rights a Human Reality" at Dublin City University in the Irish capital Thursday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    In an emotional speech as she nears the end of her term of office, Hillary Clinton warned there would be "many sacrifices and losses" before daughters were "valued as sons" across the world, according to reporters traveling with the secretary of state.

    Clinton, speaking Thursday at Dublin City University in Ireland, was given a humanitarian award by the non-governmental organization Concern Worldwide, whose chief executive Tom Arnold hailed her as "one of the greatest" secretaries of state "in the history of the Republic."


    Clinton spoke about what human rights meant to her personally, describing what it was like to be a female official visiting male-dominated countries.

    "As the mother of a daughter, and as someone who believes strongly in the right of every person, male and female, to have the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential," Clinton said, "it pains me so greatly when I travel to places around the world and am received almost as an exception to the rule, where the male leaders meet with me because I am the secretary of state of the United States, overlooking the fact that I also happen to be a woman."

    "We are on the right side of history in this struggle, but there will be many sacrifices and losses until we finally reach a point where daughters are valued as sons, where girls as educated as boys, where women are encouraged and permitted to make their contributions to their families, to their societies just as the men are," she added.

    'Moved' by Pakistan schoolgirl's story
    Clinton, who opened the school's new conflict resolution institute, picked out the case of Malala Yousufzai, a Pakistani schoolgirl shot by a Taliban gunman over her outspoken belief that girls should receive an education. Her activism started in 2008, when she was about 11 years old, and she wrote a blog for BBC News about her experiences.

    "All of us were moved by the story of the young Pakistani girl, Malala, who was targeted by the Taliban for the effrontery for going to school — more than that, speaking out for the rights of girls in Pakistan to go to school," Clinton said.

    'We are strong': Malala's wounded friends back in Pakistan school

    "She was miraculously spared from being literally shot in the face and is making what appears to be an excellent recovery," she added. "For every young woman whose name comes to our attention, there are countless others who suffer in silence, who face cultural and social and religious barriers to their human rights and dignity."

    Clinton said she did not mind that she had been called an idealist and also a realist.

    "In reality, I think we all need to be more of a hybrid, perhaps idealistic realists," she said. "Because leading effectively cannot be done without our values. And a great deal of what is happening today bears that out."

    Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

    Clinton, who is standing down as secretary of state, said she had traveled to more "far-flung places than I could have imagined as a young girl growing up in the middle of America in the decades that followed World War II."

    "And I must say that among the most striking things that I have learned is how much we have in common," she said. "I've sat down with people everywhere, discussing what was in their hearts and on their minds. And it doesn't take long to find commonality which is often overlooked, ignored, dismissed, and rejected otherwise."

    Clinton chokes up
    Clinton choked up a little when speaking about "a great friend of mine," Inez McCormack, a labor leader in Northern Ireland who she said had worked to bring peace and reconciliation to an area blighted by sectarian conflict.

    "Inez lives in Derry, where she's fighting cancer, and I called her before coming here to check in on her, and asked her how she was doing," she said. "She's very brave and putting up with all the treatments, knowing that it's a hard road for her. And she did not want to talk about herself; she wanted to talk about her daughter, who moved up the date of her wedding, which made her very happy."

    Dozens of police hurt in Northern Ireland sectarian clashes

    "But she wanted to talk about how we had to keep working to bring people together so that they would recognize the common humanity and experience in the other," Clinton added.

    Clinton was due to travel to Northern Ireland Friday to lend support to a fragile peace that was one of the greatest successes of her husband's presidency.

    Cops hurt as British unionist protesters try to storm Belfast City Hall in flag spat

    She visits a province transformed by the 1998 peace agreement but still riven by sectarian loyalties, with a prison officer shot dead by nationalist militants last month and unionist protesters rioting over the removal of a British flag. 

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • 'Men don't have to worry about being caught': Sex mobs target Egypt's women

    Charlene Gubash / NBC News

    Volunteers scan a crowd in an effort to detect and prevent sexual harassment during a demonstration against President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday.

    By Charlene Gubash, NBC News

    Editor's note: This story includes a correction.

    Updated at 7:48 a.m. ET: CAIRO - Walaa Al Momtaz doesn’t leave her home for up to five days at a time. The neatly veiled 22-year-old misses her friends at City University, where she studies English and German, but what she faces upon leaving her house defeats her.

    Men and boys constantly harass and threaten Al Momtaz on the bus, on the street and at the university.

    "Every day men talk to me in a bad way, laugh at me and say things about what I am wearing," she told NBC News. On a recent bus trip, a man stuck his hand through a gap in the seat to touch her.

    Al Momtaz has gotten off relatively lightly. 

    On Nov 25, Al-Ahram state newspaper reported three women were sexually assaulted during anti-Morsi demonstrations by hundreds of men. 

    In September, Eman Mostafa, 16, was gunned down after she spit in the face of a man who harassed her in the province of Assiut, according to police reports.

    The Feb. 11, 2011, attack on CBS News' Lara Logan as she filed a report for "60 Minutes" in Tahrir Square, epicenter of the uprising that forced dictator Hosni Mubarak to step down last year, brought international attention to the problem of sex attacks on women in public places. 

    Public violence against women was rampant well before the movement that unseated Mubarak in 2011. According to a 2008 study by an Egyptian NGO, 83 percent of women have been victims of harassment. 

    In the post-Mubarak era, activists and protesters have reported many particularly violent assaults on women. Some experts allege the government and security officials are failing to take the problem seriously. More than 700 claims of harassment were filed across Egypt over the four-day Id al-Adha holiday in late October.

    Egypt's Morsi flees palace as protesters battle cops

    "It is not a country of law, not a state of law anymore. It has given men a chance to harass women without being accused," said Afaf Marie, director of the Egyptian Association for Community Participation and Enhancement, an NGO.

    Some activists fear that women's rights will suffer under the rule of President Mohammed Morsi, who is an Islamist.

    Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi reportedly left the palace via the back door to avoid further confrontation, as crowds vented their fury at Morsi's decree granting him nearly unlimited powers. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    Government inaction has allowed the problem to spiral out of control, Heba Morayef, director of Human Rights Watch for the Middle East and North Africa, told NBC News. Police no longer inspire fear as they did before the revolution. In addition, locals say it appears there are fewer police on the increasingly lawless streets -- and often none in Tahrir Square.

    "The state is failing to respond,” she said. "Men don’t have to worry about being caught.”

    Analysis: Supporters of Islamist president push Egypt to tipping point

    In addition, filing charges against an attacker is a daunting process in a society where sex is taboo, and police often don’t take allegations seriously, Morayef said. 

    "Failure to prosecute is a major factor in the escalation of violence against women in public places," Morayef said.

    Friend or foe
    On Nov. 19, journalist Sonia Dridi was wrapping up her live report for French Channel 24 from Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square when a crowd of up to 30 men surrounded her.

    As the bodies closed in, Dridi said she concentrated on staying on her feet.

    "I was just looking at (fellow correspondent Ashraf Khalil) and felt hands touching me.  I was trying to concentrate,” Dridi told NBC News by telephone.  “At some point I said to Ashraf, ‘Oh my God, they are touching me.’”

    She didn’t know who was a friend or an attacker. 

    "It is so confusing that at some point I had the impression that those (who were) saying they would help were trying to take advantage,” Dridi said.

    In 'new Egypt', mobs sexually assault women with impunity

    The mob pounded on the glass doors after she reached the safety of a Hardee’s restaurant on Tahrir Square, which has become a sort of refuge for women. Dridi realized her shirt was opened and broke down in tears.

    "The thing that was so sad was that the Hardee’s waiters were … waiting to help me because they are so used to that," she told NBC News. 

    The brave
    Despite the risks, some women are venturing into potentially dangerous situations to stand up for what they believe in.

    "I am afraid of harassment," said Mai Alam, 53, who was in Tahrir Square protesting against a recent Morsi decree giving himself sweeping powers.  "I am with my husband and I keep pepper spray in my purse at all times.”

    Charlene Gubash / NBC News

    Mai Alam, 53, a state TV employee, was accompanied by her husband at a recent rally in Tahrir Square. She carries pepper spray to ward off would-be attackers.

    “But this issue is more important than my fear of sexual harassment,” the Egypt TV employee added.

    And while women find ways of coping with violence, activists have formed groups to protect them. They say the police often don't intervene when women are attacked.

    During a recent holiday, citizen vigilante groups patrolled Cairo during the recent  Id al-Adha holiday, The New York Times reported.

    At a recent march, men wearing fluorescent vests stood on rickety wooden towers and used binoculars to scan the crowd for signs of sexual mobbing.  Local group Fouada Watch has set up a hotline for women, anti-harassment patrols seek to protect women in hot spots and bring alleged offenders to the police, and online services like Harassmap pinpoint dangerous sites. 

    Analysis: Egyptians warn that Morsi is no friend of US

    Prime Minister Hisham Qandil recently announced that a law was being drafted to combat sexual harassment through harsh penalties, calling the issue a "disastrous phenomenon."

    As the government decides what, if anything, to do about the epidemic of violence, women like Al Momtaz continue to try and carve out a normal life in a country that has empowered the bad along with the good. 

    "Everybody thinks that democracy and freedom are a license to do whatever they want," she said.

    NBC News' Taha Belal contributed to this report.

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  • Death threats force Afghan actress into hiding

    Sahar Parniyan, 22, is Afghanistan’s most famous actress. She stars in the country’s number one comedy, “The Ministry,” an offshoot of the popular American TV show, “The Office.”

    See our full coverage on international hot spots crucial to U.S. foreign policy ahead of elections in our At the Brink series here. And tune in today to special coverage on all NBC News platforms from NBC’s team of anchors and correspondents deployed in five countries across the region.

    Her character on the show has also been outspoken about women’s rights. But now, after receiving death threats, she is now in hiding.

    NBC’s Atia Abawi reports from Kabul.

     

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  • Women brave attack to protest sexual harassment in Egypt

    Mohamed Muslemany

    Banker Marwa Salah protests against sexual harassament in Tahrir Square, Cairo, on Friday.

    By NBC's Charlene Gubash

    A handful of women saw the ugly side of Tahrir Square Friday when they were attacked and sexually harassed soon after they held a small demonstration protesting against just that.


    Sexual harassment has plagued recent Tahrir Square rallies and peaked Tuesday when a woman molested by hundreds of men fainted and fell to the ground in front of a female Associated Press journalist who had to be carried away to safety herself.

    Journalist Nadia Abul Magd attended the Friday demonstration as 15 women and a few men on a corner of Tahrir Square quietly held signs decrying harassment. She said that just as the protest moved to an adjoining street, waves of men fell upon the protesters, hurling broken glass and rocks at demonstrators and harassing some of the women.  Other men in the crowd tried in vain to protect them.

    “We were surrounded by men from both sides and by [the time we reached the corner] I saw a wave. I saw so many that attacked some men and women,” said Abul Magd. “Every few minutes there was a wave. It was definitely a coordinated attack.”

    She said the attackers intended to scare all women from the square and ruin the image of thousands of other legitimate protesters demonstrating against the candidacy of the former Prime Minister, Ahmed Shafiq.   

    When we had dropped in hours earlier, a few men had already started arguing with women protesters.

    “What are they demonstrating against?  Harassment! How can you distract like this from the public interest, which is getting rid of Shafiq!” shouted an angry young man. He gestured toward the throng of thousands filling Tahrir Square and oblivious to the smattering of women holding signs. “There are 500,000 people out there. This is not the time.”

    Mohamed Muslemany

    Lubna Ezzat, an engineer, protests against sexual harassment in Tahrir Square, Cairo, on Friday.

    Two other men crowded against the short line of female protesters and held up their own anti -Shafiq fliers while venting fury at the women for staging a separate protest against sexual harassment.   

    The women explained why they took the risk to protest for the right to walk the streets unmolested.

    “You know when you leave home it will happen, either touching or bad language. Every day [harassment] happens here on the streets.  Some days it’s escalated,” said May Abdul Hafiz, a travel agency supervisor. She explained that women are considered at fault for encouraging unwanted male attention by dress or behavior. “You are not supposed to say anything because they think you brought it on yourself.”

    Yasmin, a 28-year-old filmmaker who gave only her first name, called harassment a “disease.”

    “It doesn’t matter what I wear or what age they are, old, young, no reason. We want to change this situation. … We want to criminalize harassment,” Yasmin said.

    Mohamed Muslemany

    May Abdul Hafiz, supervisor of a Cairo travel agency, demonstrates against sexual harassment at Tahrir Square, Cairo, on Friday.

    Marwa Salah, a banker, said women’s rights will come with civil rights.

    “When you have freedom you will have your rights. It’s about freedom for all Egyptians,” said Salah. “We have been brainwashed for 60 years. All people were so busy fighting poverty, women’s rights were a low priority.”

    Abul Magd said the march Friday was targeted by men who wanted to prove they could sexually harass even those who dare protest against sexual harassment in order to prove that Tahrir Square is no longer safe for women or for those who try to protect them.

    But the women had the last word. Friday night some of the assaulted protesters were invited to appear on a popular Egyptian talk show where they shared their concerns about sexual harassment in front of a nationwide audience.

    With anger growing in Egypt over the  Mubarak verdict, protestors returned to Tahrir Square to demand justice for those who died in Egypt's revolution. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world 

     

  • Malawi women protest stripping attacks on streets over wearing trousers

    By msnbc staff and news services

    CHOGM via Getty Images file

    Malawi President Bungu wa Mutharika on Thursday says he won't tolerate attacks on women for wearing non-traditional dress.

    Women in Malawi plan to protest in the streets Friday over recent beatings by street-vendor mobs who beat and stripped naked several women for wearing trousers or miniskirts instead of the south Africa country's traditional dress.

    Malawi's president on Thursday ordered the arrest of anyone who attacks women for their apparel.

    "I will not allow anyone to wake up and go on the streets and start undressing women and girls wearing trousers, because that is illegal," President Bingu wa Mutharika told state radio on Thursday. "Every woman and girl has the right to dress the way they wish."

    "No one should lie that I have asked vendors to assault women dressed in trousers. It's a lie and I will not allow that," the president said.

    Malawi had laws until 1994 under the autocratic rule of Hastings Banda that banned women from wearing short skirts and men having long hair or flared trousers, the BBC reported. It dropped the restrictions when multi-party democracy was introduced.

    However, this week street vendors attacked several women in Lilongwe and commercial capital Blantyre over their dress, saying they were enforcing a government decree.

    Seodi White, a lawyer and leading women's rights activist, told the BBC that protesters would gather Friday "in solidarity with the victims and to express our indignation at such barbaric treatment of mothers, wives and daughters of our country".

    Malawi's Vice-President Joyce Banda earlier blamed the attacks on Malawi's economic woes, the BBC said.

    "There is so much suffering that people have decided to vent their frustrations on each other," she said.

    The country faces severe shortages of fuel and foreign currency, the BBC said.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

  • Afghan girls punch their way to equality

    NBC News

    Sadaf Rahimi, in pink, throws a punch with her older sister, Shabnam, in the background on Dec. 17, 2011. They are working out in the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul, Afghanistan.

    By Kiko Itasaka, NBC News Producer

    KABUL – It was known as the stadium of death. Ghazi Stadium was where the Taliban held public executions, stonings and mutilations during their brutal rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. This once blood-soaked pitch is now a field of dreams. 

    The stadium was recently reopened after a U.S.- funded refurbishment and thousands of Afghan athletes gathered to celebrate the event.

    It is impossible to forget the dark history of this arena, but Mohammed Sabher Sharifi is determined to move on.  

    "There were many people killed, especially women. Now it is for the young generation of sportsmen, especially the females,” Sharifi said Sunday as he pointed toward an Olympic flag which stands next to the Afghan flag and will remain there until the 2012 games.

    As a member of the Afghan National Olympic committee and coach of the women's boxing team, Sharifi faces a daunting task. He wants to create a winning team of female boxers.

    Every afternoon, in the basement of Ghazi Stadium, in a small, dusty room with battered punch bags and cracked mirrors he oversees 20 teenage girls, as they jump, jog, jab and thrust.

    Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

    Afghan boxing coach Sabher Sharifi trains girls as they take part in a boxing training session at the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul in January 2011.

    Photoblog: Young Afghan women at boxing training session in Kabul

    "Yes, you see, the girls, they can do anything – and look at their strong punches!” he exclaimed.

    The young Afghan boxers arrive at practice fully covered, looking like demure young ladies, but within 10 minutes of starting their rigorous workout, their headscarves are cast off, and they look like sportswomen from all over the world, glowing with health and beaming with hope.

    The stars of the team are the Rahimi sisters – 18-year-old Shabnam and 17-year-old Sadaf. At the recent World Boxing Championship in Tajikistan, Shabnam won a gold medal and Sadaf a silver medal, making Afghan sports history.

    Boxing is an unusual choice for any young woman, anywhere in the world, but in deeply conservative Afghanistan, it is an act of courage.

    “Yes, we have a lot of problems. Here in Afghanistan they think we should stay home, not go to school, and never boxing,” said Sadaf. She said they have received threatening phone calls, but that has not stopped them.

    Shabnam, her older sister, said she boxes not just for herself, but for her country. “My dream is that I should represent my country all over the world, especially in the Olympics, raising the flag for my country.”   

    Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

    Afghan girls practice during a boxing training session in Ghazi Stadium in Kabul in January 2011.

    She brushed aside local criticism of female boxing. "I just want to box, shoulder to shoulder with the men, and show I can do it." 
    Her sister, Sadaf, added, "When we were little, we had a male cousin who was a boxer, and we wanted to be like him."

    They both realize that they are among the first generation of women to be granted this opportunity to fight; women boxing in public or competing in sports was a punishable offense under the Taliban. Women's boxing is a new Olympic sport, too.  The International Olympic Committee only voted to include women's boxing in the 2012 Summer Games in London in August 2009.

    Coach Sharifi said he has faith in his team, but that they need help, especially financially.  

    "We get $1 a day for each athlete. What shall we do? We have poor equipment, we cannot train like others," he said. The team cannot afford to buy decent punching bags, let alone build a proper boxing ring.

    Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

    Young Afghan wrestlers compete in a bout at the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul on May 12, 2011. The Ghazi stadium has returned to its former status as Kabul's premier sporting venue after being used for public executions by the Taliban during the late 1990s.

    But Shabnam remains optimistic. Raising her fists in the air, and with halting English she said, "I see you London 2012!"

    The sisters may not win medals at the Olympic Games.  Indeed they may not even qualify for the games. They need to win their places in May at the World Boxing Championships in Qinhuangdao, China.

    But they have already won a victory: They have shown what Afghan young women who pack a punch can achieve. The Olympic dream is theirs.

    Related link: Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee web site  

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