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The Guardian - UK

World

Sarah Little and Tom Levitt

‘I am a prisoner’: women fight Middle Eastern laws that keep them trapped at home

Lina Jordan Middle East Aya Human Rights Watch Saudi Arabia Amman Human Rights Israel

Muslim woman on street in Amman, Jordan — A woman on the street in Amman, Jordan, one of the countries in the region where women’s freedoms remain restricted. Photograph: Artur Widak/Getty Images

She may be nearly 30, but Aya* is forbidden from leaving her home in Amman, Jordan. She can’t go for lunch with her friends and has no legal right to decide where to live, work or study.

Aya’s story is common across the Middle East and north Africa, where countries including Jordan, Iran and Saudi Arabia still have laws requiring women to either “obey” their husbands, live with them or seek their permission to leave the marital home, work or travel.

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