Join for a discussion on the progress women have made across five countries in the Middle East in terms of literacy and higher education as well as uneven strides in employment and social freedoms.
"During the custody battle [in Saudi Arabia], Ghassan AlHaidari accused Bethany of gender mixing, adultery, and insulting Islam and Saudi Arabia. Gender mixing, a punishable crime, entails having a male friend. To prove the charge of adultery, Ghassan submitted a photograph of Bethany with a male, who Ghassan claimed to be her boyfriend. The crimes of adultery, insulting Islam, and insulting Saudi Arabia carry a death penalty in Saudi Arabia."
The kingdom’s courts are meting out harsher punishments than ever to citizens who criticize the government, with prosecutions built on Twitter posts ending in prison sentences of 15 to 45 years.