Freedom is coming: How Iraq’s Saddam Hussein neighbour Zainab survived violence to build women’s most powerful tool in the world

Freedom is coming: How Iraq’s Saddam Hussein neighbour Zainab survived violence to build women’s most powerful tool in the world

In 1991, at age 19, Zainab escaped Iraq through an arranged marriage to an older Iraqi man living in the United States. Her family saw it as salvation – a way out before the Gulf War made leaving impossible. Zainab thought it was freedom. She was wrong. The marriage that saved her from Saddam’s Iraq became its own prison. Her husband was controlling, isolating and abusive. She’d escaped one authoritarian regime only to land in another – this one domestic, private, and just as suffocating.

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In Mauritania’s ‘divorce market’ marriage split is pursued by wives and celebrated with ‘divorce party’

In Mauritania’s ‘divorce market’ marriage split is pursued by wives and celebrated with ‘divorce party’

Despite these concerns, Mauritania’s “divorce market” stands out as a powerful example of how cultural practices can redefine social norms and empower individuals, particularly women, in ways that defy conventional expectations.

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Panic as teargas canister hurled at women’s rally in Siaya County sends crowd scampering

Panic as teargas canister hurled at women’s rally in Siaya County sends crowd scampering

The women legislators, among them the host Ombaka, went on with their programme. They called on Kenyans to be united under the broad-based government which, they said, had done a lot for the common man.

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