Women and girls’ rights ‘precarious’ in Middle East and North Africa, new report finds
Published 13 Dec,2020 via The Jordan Times AMMAN — Contradictory laws and policy loopholes are perpetuating lifelong discrimination against girls and women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as found by Plan International’s new regional analysis.
The report focuses on five countries: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, and Egypt, and it found that “despite significant progress” across the region as a whole, gender equality before the law is “precarious” and remains a persistent challenge, according to a Plan International statement.
While national constitutions provide for equality of all citizens, in four of these countries, legislative loopholes are stopping young women and adolescent girls from exercising the full extension of their rights, including laws exonerating and mitigating punishment of perpetrators of sexual violence and “honour killings”.
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The Jordan Times