The most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of
women in the world.

Latest items for RCDW-LAW-1

Feb. 11, 2024, 3:17 p.m.
Countries: Switzerland
Variables: RCDW-PRACTICE-2, RCDW-LAW-1, RCDW-LAW-2

"Switzerland has proposed a £900 fine for anyone covering their face under a 'burqa ban' law. The draft law was today sent to parliament by the Swiss government and includes several exemptions, including suggesting waiving the ban on aircraft, in diplomatic premises and places of worship" (para 1-2). "Also, under the draft law, masks deemed necessary to protect oneself while exercising fundamental rights to expression and assembly would be allowed as long as authorities approved and public order was assured" (para 5). "Following consultations, the cabinet watered down calls to anchor it in the criminal code and fine offenders up to 10,000 francs" (para 9). "Full face veils were banned...more
Jan. 22, 2024, 6:37 p.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1, RCDW-LAW-2

"Women have stopped being issued driver's licenses and are ordered to cover their whole bodies in western city Herat, Afghanistan's third largest" (para 2). "Last week the authorities ordered them to cover fully in public, preferably with a burqa" (para 24).
Jan. 21, 2024, 10:39 a.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"A quick look at Iran’s constitution concerning the hijab reveals the erroneous interpretation—and how the regulation of women’s appearance is built into the laws and constitution of Iran. According to Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code, failure to appear without hijab in public is punishable by imprisonment from 10 days to two months or up to 74 lashes. So whether an entity dedicated to enforcing the law—in this case, the morality police—exists, the compulsory hijab is a constitutional mandate" (para 4) "On Dec 5, an entire amusement park was shut down when a female employee showed up to work without a headscarf. In another incident, a member of parliament...more
Jan. 21, 2024, 10:36 a.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"An Iranian woman has been jailed for ten years for 'encouraging prostitution' after removing her headscarf at a protest" (para 1).
Dec. 20, 2023, 11:14 a.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"A senior Iranian official said this weekend that Iran had abolished the morality police, the state media reported, after months of protests set off by the death of a young woman who was detained by the force for supposedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress laws"(para 1). "Shadi Sadr, a prominent human rights lawyer who has fought for women’s rights in Iran for decades, said on Twitter that scrapping the morality police would not be big news because 'hijab is still compulsory and enforced by other means such as expulsion from university or school'"(para 13). "Abolishing the morality police could have a major effect on the state’s ability to control...more
Nov. 22, 2023, 5:13 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"[The school rulebook] suggests that if a female student is Muslim, she must wear jilbab. That is what's implied" (2). "[The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] issued a national regulation that implies and has been interpreted by officials and schools around the country to require all female Muslim primary and secondary school students to wear a jilbab as part of their school uniform" (5). "[T]he 2014 regulation has been understood in many regencies and provinces as requiring a headscarf for all Muslim girls" (7). "[A] 2001 regulation on Islamic dress, which remains in force, requires female Muslim civil servants to wear a jilbab in addition to their officially prescribed...more
Nov. 22, 2023, 4:57 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The Islamists did not advocate to make the hijab mandatory; no law or regulation required women and girls to wear the hijab" (19).
Nov. 22, 2023, 4:33 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"February 3, 2021, Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim, Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, and Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas signed a decree that allows any student or teacher to choose what to wear in school, with or without 'religious attributes'" (12). This law is not enforced (MV-coder comment). "[The Ministry of Education under Daoed Joesoef issued a decree that] implicitly banned schoolgirls from wearing the hijab as it did not include any type of headscarf as a choice for girls’ uniforms in any of the categories" (21). "All schoolgirls in Padang, including Christians and Buddhists, from kindergarten to high school, were required to wear a jilbab" (48).more
Nov. 22, 2023, 4:32 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"In March 2005, Article 10 of the decree [issued by Mayor Fauzi Bahar of Padang on Muslim attire] states that, 'Muslim students at primary schools, Islamic madrasah, junior high schools, and senior high schools must wear Muslim/Muslimah attire; non-Muslims should adopt [long skirts for girls and long pants for boys]'" (28). "In August 2005, Gamawan Fauzi, the governor of West Sumatra, issued a circular calling on all Muslims to wear Islamic attire; this included women and girls in all public spaces... Also, in 2005, South Kalimantan Governor Rudy Ariffin issued a decree requiring women civil servants to wear a hijab and long skirt" (29).
Nov. 22, 2023, 12:14 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"In the 1930s, the then-ruler, Reza Shah, prohibited women from wearing the hijab, and police were ordered to forcibly remove headscarves from women wearing them. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, in the early 1980s, Iranian authorities imposed a mandatory dress code requiring all women to wear the hijab, including in workplaces" (107-108).
Nov. 22, 2023, 12:12 p.m.
Countries: Germany
Variables: ERBG-PRACTICE-1, RCDW-LAW-1

"Several German states continue to ban teachers and civil servants from wearing niqab at work" (107).
Nov. 22, 2023, 12:11 p.m.
Countries: Germany
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The amendment prohibited teachers in public schools from wearing visible items of religious clothing and symbols, except those that exhibited Christian and Western educational and cultural values or traditions" (106).
Nov. 22, 2023, 12:05 p.m.
Countries: France
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"In 2010, France enacted a national law banning the wearing of full-face veils anywhere in public... The law made it a criminal offense to wear clothing intended to cover the face in public, punishable by a fine of up to €150 (US$210) and/or a compulsory 'citizenship course.' The law also criminalized coercing someone else into covering their face, punishable by up to a year in prison and a €30,000 ($40,950) fine, or two years in prison and a €60,000 fine if the person coerced is a minor. The law entered into force in April 2011" (104-105).
Nov. 22, 2023, 11:48 a.m.
Countries: France
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"In 2010, France enacted a national law banning the wearing of full-face veils anywhere in public" (103).
Oct. 10, 2023, 2:40 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"A number of girls 'removed their hijab at the end of the sports event without observing the religious considerations and legal norms', state news agency IRNA quoted Shiraz police chief Faraj Shojaee as saying"(para 2). "Five people accused of organising the event - where dozens of teenagers also mixed freely contravening strict Islamic guidelines - have been detained"(para 3). "'Holding any mixed sports or non-sports gathering without observing the religious and legal norms is prohibited... and the organisers will be dealt with according to the law,' Shojaee added."(para 5).
Sept. 7, 2023, 9:53 a.m.
Countries: Kenya
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"Kenya’s top court has overturned a 2016 Court of Appeal ruling that allowed Muslim students to wear hijab in non-Muslim schools" (para 1).
Sept. 6, 2023, 5:35 p.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"Shocking footage shows female Afghan students being whipped by a Taliban official after they were barred from entering their university campus because they were not wearing burkas...It comes nearly three months after the Taliban's religious police introduced stricter measures on how women dress in Badakhshan, particularly in the capital Faizabad which is where the university is located. According to the Directorate of Vice and Virtue, proper attire for women in public is either a niqab - a veil covering the head and face but not the eyes - or a burka - a veil that covers the entire body and face, with a mesh window across the eyes. Public universities...more
Aug. 15, 2023, 5:59 a.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"Women in Iran live under some of the strictest laws in the world. We cannot travel abroad without a husband’s permission. We cannot leave the house without wearing a hijab..." (Para.4). "Growing up in Iran, I loved dancing and wanted to run just to feel the wind in my hair. I wanted to laugh aloud and not be ashamed of my curves. I imagined myself to be a sexually active, independent woman and single until I turned 30. But it was not possible to be me in Iran. Many women’s rights activists in Iran have treated enforced hijab as a trivial issue. It is not. Being told how to dress...more
June 19, 2023, 1:46 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"Controlling women's bodies has been a pillar of the Islamic Republic from its inception. After the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his disciples passed a draconian hijab law, in 1983, that established a new dress code for women in public. While this law has existed ever since, its rigid application has ebbed and flowed for the past 40 years. Reformist governments discouraged the morality police—the Gasht-e Ershad or 'Guidance Patrol'—from harassing women, while hard-liners did the opposite, viewing this show of force against women as a non-negotiable principle of Iran's theocratic regime. In 2018, after a woman in Tehran was physically beaten by a police officer for 'insufficient hijab,'...more
May 27, 2023, 2:02 a.m.
Countries: Egypt
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"BBC News Arabic presented the evidence to Adel El Masry, chairman of the Chamber of Tourism Establishments and Restaurants. 'Never in any era of the ministry of tourism has a decision been issued banning veiled women [from leisure venues],' he said. 'This is not acceptable. Discrimination is unacceptable, these are public places.' " (Para.18-19).
May 22, 2023, 2:59 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The Iranian government is planning to use facial recognition technology on public transport to identify women who are not complying with a strict new law on wearing the hijab, as the regime continues its increasingly punitive crackdown on women’s dress." (Para.1). "The secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, announced in a recent interview that the government was planning to use surveillance technology against women in public places following a new decree signed by the country’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, on restricting women’s clothing" (Para.2). "The hijab, a head-covering worn by Muslim women, became mandatory after Iran’s revolution in 1979. Yet, over the...more
May 12, 2023, 11:31 a.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The Iranian government is planning to use facial recognition technology on public transport to identify women who are not complying with a strict new law on wearing the hijab, as the regime continues its increasingly punitive crackdown on women’s dress." (Para.1). "The secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, announced in a recent interview that the government was planning to use surveillance technology against women in public places following a new decree signed by the country’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, on restricting women’s clothing" (Para.2). "5. The hijab, a head-covering worn by Muslim women, became mandatory after Iran’s revolution in 1979. Yet, over...more
May 12, 2023, 11:09 a.m.
Countries: Denmark
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The Danish Commission for the Forgotten Women’s Struggle – a body set up by Denmark’s ruling Social Democratic Party – has recommended that the country’s government ban hijabs (Muslim headscarves) for students in Danish elementary schools" (Para.1). "Huda Makai Asghar, 15, would be forced to take off her headscarf if the ban is implemented. The ninth grader at the Kokkedal Skole – a school outside of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, with close to 800 students – has been wearing the hijab for two years" (Para.3).
March 4, 2023, 8:13 a.m.
Countries: Canada
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The case was a victory for gender equality and more or less settled the matter of whether it’s legal for women in this country to go topless in the same circumstances as men. However, 31 years later, women haven’t widely embraced this hard-won liberty. As Jacobs noted at a rally commemorating her act of rebellion: 'Whereas we now have the legal freedom to be able to take our shirts off, we still don’t have the social freedom.' After three decades, however, it now seems some women in Quebec are ready to push the feminist envelope" (Para. 20-21).
Feb. 18, 2023, 9:46 a.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"Outside the capital there were some signs that Saturday's announcement was fuelling stricter oversight of women's dress. A doctor in southeastern Afghanistan said Taliban officials had told her not to treat female patients who did not have a male chaperone and were not fully covered" (Para.13-14). "A university student in northern Afghanistan said university officials since Saturday were becoming much stricter on dress code, telling her on Monday that her colourful headscarf was unacceptable and she must wear all black" (Para.15).
Feb. 14, 2023, 6:11 p.m.
Countries: Turkmenistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"Husbands can be fined if their wives receive certain beauty or cosmetic treatments" (para 2). "Since April, police have detained dozens of women in the street for wearing false nails and eyelashes, or other beauty accessories. Police also hunt for women who they believe might have had lip fillers and other cosmetic adjustments" (para 5). "The authorities are reported to have carried out raids on salons in the autocratic state. Some women are detained for appearing 'too promiscuous'. Now...a ban has been imposed on padded bras" (para 14-15).
Feb. 13, 2023, 11:08 a.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1, RCDW-LAW-2

"After initially adopting a more flexible attitude when taking power last August, the Taliban have recently been issuing more and more hardline edicts, including making the face veil compulsory for women and encouraging them to stay at home" (Para.24).
Feb. 13, 2023, 11:07 a.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1, RCDW-LAW-2

"After initially adopting a more flexible attitude when taking power last August, the Taliban have recently been issuing more and more hardline edicts, including making the face veil compulsory for women and encouraging them to stay at home" (Para.24).
Feb. 13, 2023, 10:57 a.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"And if the Taliban do ultimately allow girls to attend secondary school girls, they are likely to forced to don a face veil and will be carefully watched by teachers appointed by local Taliban officials to ensure they strictly adhere to their restrictive uniforms"(Para.5).
Feb. 2, 2023, 1:11 p.m.
Countries: Austria
Variables: RCDW-PRACTICE-1, RCDW-LAW-1, SRACE-LAW-1

"Furthermore, the Committee is concerned about the following: (a) The decision taken by the State party to ban 'ideologically or religiously influenced clothing' in schools and that it may have a discriminatory impact on migrant girls...It also urges the State party: (a) To mandate the conduct of a comprehensive study to determine the impact of the Education in School Law, which entered into force in June 2019, banning the wearing of 'ideologically or religiously influenced clothing' for girls under 10 years of age in primary schools, on the right to education of girls and their inclusion in all facets of Austrian society as full members of the community and indicate...more