Jeffrey Fields, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Joe Biden is set to make his first visit as president to the Middle East, during which he will meet the Saudi crown prince the US accuses of ordering the murder of a journalist.
A round-the-clock strike of Muslim women in a working-class neighborhood of Delhi is India’s most enduring pocket of resistance to religious discrimination, inequality and gender violence.
In countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, it’s now official policy that women should go to college and work outside the home. But cultural pressure to marry and have kids remains strong.
Saudi women may now travel without a man’s permission, easing one of the most repressive aspects of the country’s ‘guardianship’ system. Women in Saudi Arabia gained the right to drive last year.
Despite a repressive legal system that puts men in charge of female relatives, women in Saudi Arabia also attend school, become lawyers, see friends and fight for their rights.