by Jane Gabriel, openDemocracy, UK - There are believed to be more than three million Iraqi refugees living in Syria: initially allowed in without restriction and treated as guests, they are finding it harder to survive as months turn into years. For the women refugees, often alone or widowed with children, poverty is driving increasing numbers to earn a living through prostitution and ‘muta’ marriages – ‘temporary marriages of pleasure’.

by Jane Gabriel, openDemocracy, UK - Dr Azza Baydoun has analysed every ‘honour killing' in Lebanon that has gone before the courts since 1999 and found that behind the plea of offended honour lies the crime of femicide. The women were shot, stabbed, beaten, strangled, burnt or poisoned, by men, because they were women: if they had been men they would not have been killed.

by Jane Gabriel, Open Democracy, UK - Behind the news of suffering and conflict in Darfur, some women are finding ways to move forward and claim the rights granted to them in the 2005 Sudan Interim Constitution.