Muslim Women and Islam

Islam is a major religion practiced by 2 billion people around the world, centered around the Qu’ran. Islam is often demonized based on false racist and xenophobic assumptions in the Western world.

Taliban’s New Penal Code Codifies Violence, Obedience and Gender Apartheid

PUBLISHED 2/24/2026 by

On Jan. 7, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada signed off on the “Penal Principles of Taliban Courts,” a sweeping new penal code that fundamentally reshapes Afghanistan’s legal system: formalizing violence, criminalizing dissent, legalizing slavery and stripping women of legal personhood under the guise of religious law. It took effect immediately without public announcement or consultation. 

The regulation only became public weeks later after an Afghan human rights organization, Rawadari, published the text, raising alarm over provisions that legalize slavery, authorize private violence and institutionalize repression across nearly every aspect of life.

According to the regulation, absolute obedience to the Taliban’s supreme leader is mandatory. The penal code also codifies a rigid social hierarchy, dividing society into four classes and explicitly recognizing individuals as either “free” or “enslaved,” with harsher punishments imposed on those deemed lower status. Human rights advocates warn this structure institutionalizes discrimination and revives concepts long prohibited under international law.

Women are among the most severely targeted. Under multiple iniquitous provisions, husbands are authorized to punish their wives through discretionary violence, while domestic abuse is only recognized as a crime in limited circumstances and carries a maximum sentence of 15 days imprisonment for the perpetrator. 

In contrast, forcing animals to fight carries a longer prison sentence than severe violence against women—reinforcing a sinister legal hierarchy in which women’s lives are afforded less protection than animal welfare. 

These codes are not merely domestic policies. They will shape the psychological, social and moral landscape of an entire population and a new generation growing up under the Taliban’s brutal regime. Children are being raised under a system where violence is law, obedience is survival and women are denied humanity. The cost of inaction will not be measured only in today’s abuses, but in the long-term destabilization of Afghan society and the normalization of extremist governance beyond its borders.

Keeping Score: Renee Good Fatally Shot by ICE; Women Work Longer and Are Paid Less Worldwide; N.Y. Fights Back Against Federal Childcare Freeze

PUBLISHED 1/15/2026 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week:
—”We had whistles. They had guns,” said Becca Good, wife of Renee Good, who was killed in Minneapolis by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.
—In central Texas, five months after the Sandy Creek flooding, “many are still homeless, and only 36 percent of FEMA claims in our area have been approved,” said survivor Brandy Gerstner. “FEMA must be independent, fully funded and strengthened—because when it fails to function, real families pay the price.”
—Anti-Muslim and anti-South Asian hate increased around the election of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
—The Department of Veterans Affairs announced new abortion bans.
—Meta has removed the social media accounts of dozens of reproductive health and LGBTQ groups.
—Women worldwide earn just a third of what men do when unpaid domestic labor is taken into account.

… and more.

A Call to the Muslim Community: Fighting for Reproductive Justice Is in Line With Our Faith

PUBLISHED 10/28/2025 by and

The Islamic ethical concepts of communal obligation (fard kifayah) and compassion for others (rahma) call on us to fight back against injustice wherever it arises—whether from within our community, or the cruel attacks on our bodily autonomy and accessibility to safe and affordable reproductive care, including abortion care. 

What Muslims need is nonjudgmental support grounded in compassion (rahma), the ability to consult (shura) experts with medically accurate information, and the agency to make decisions that align with their faith.

(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)

The Price of Speaking Out in Iran Keeps Rising

PUBLISHED 4/24/2025 by | UPDATED 1/9/2026 at 10:29 A.M. PT

Since Dec. 13, 2024, Nasrin Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan—a fellow activist—was arrested for his efforts on behalf of women’s rights in Iran. Now, Khandan sits in the notorious Evin Prison, where his visits are limited and conditions deplorable. Sotoudeh wrote the letter below to him on April 22, 2025, from Tehran:

“I spent over seven years in prison. Not as a criminal, but as an attorney who loves the law and believes in human rights. During that time, my husband Reza took care of our children, who were still very young. He brought them to school and to play dates and to doctors’ appointments, he cooked and he worked hard to pay our bills. Now, the children are grown up, I am free on medical leave and Reza is the one in prison. It is a strange and painful situation.

“Reza has always been a firm believer in full rights for women, and for people of all faiths and backgrounds. When he proposed to me, I told him that I refuse to wear the hijab. He said that’s a personal matter. It’s my business. His answer meant so much to me. Throughout our life together, he has always been faithful to those words.”

Take action: Sign this petition calling for the immediate release from prison of Reza Khandan, organized by Reza’s wife and fellow activist Sotoudeh, among others.

Sundance 2025: ‘Prime Minister’ Shows What it Looks Like When a Leader Prioritizes Compassion Over Politics

PUBLISHED 3/3/2025 by

If you want a glimmer of hope that there are still sane, compassionate and intelligent politicians in the world, Prime Minister—winner of the Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition—will offer just that and more.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s sure-footed and community-minded approach to leadership shines through in this inspiring documentary directed by Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz.

Afghan Women Are Trapped Between Two Prisons: Home and Society

PUBLISHED 2/25/2025 by

“Hopelessness echoes from their [Afghan women’s] voices.”

Since the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2021, Afghan women have been systematically erased from education, employment, and public life, making Afghanistan the only country where girls above sixth grade are barred from school. Once vital contributors to the nation’s progress, women are now trapped in a cycle of oppression that not only devastates their futures but also weakens Afghanistan’s economy and global standing. The world must take urgent action to combat this gender apartheid and support Afghan women in their fight for basic human rights.

Take Action: Nasrin Sotoudeh Shares Petition to Free Husband, Iranian Women’s Rights Activist Reza Khandan, From Prison

PUBLISHED 2/25/2025 by | UPDATED 4/23/2025 at 10:41 A.M. PT

Nasrin Sotoudeh’s courageous husband Reza Khandan was arrested on Dec. 13, 2024, for his efforts on behalf of women’s rights in Iran. Sotoudeh herself has served over seven years in prison, with extra punishments because she refused to wear the hijab mandated by Iranian law.

Take action: Sign this petition calling for the immediate release from prison of Reza Khandan, organized by Reza’s wife and fellow activist Sotoudeh, among others.

Elon Musk and the Phony Far-Right Narrative of ‘Protecting’ Women

PUBLISHED 1/15/2025 by

Across the 2000s, a series of child sex exploitation cases affected British towns, including Telford, Rochdale, Oxford and Rotherham, scarring the lives of hundreds of children. In 2011, Times journalist Andrew Norfolk reported that networks—so-called “grooming gangs”—of largely British Asian men of Pakistani heritage had trafficked and raped hundreds of mainly girls and young women. Elon Musk—the billionaire owner of social media platform X and incoming lead on US government efficiency—has, it seems, just found out about this devastating national scandal.

Musk has aligned himself with a gendered narrative: It is men’s duty to protect women—even when it means breaking rules or using force. This gender binary—strong men must be ready to use force to protect weak women, especially from hostile alien men—is the core narrative of patriarchal, nationalist, ultra nationalist and also Nazi groups.

Iraq’s Planned Child Marriage Bill Threatens the Rights of Women and Girls

PUBLISHED 12/9/2024 by

Iraqi lawmakers’ proposal to amend the country’s family law and grant religious courts the authority to legalize marriages for underage girls is being pushed by the country’s Shiite parliamentary factions, as part of their appeal to conservative voters ahead of the country’s October 2025 elections, if not sooner.

The proposal has sparked a firestorm, particularly after initial reports suggested it could allow marriages for girls as young as 9 years old. Some experts contend the bill could also further fracture Iraq’s stability.

This Is What Autocracy Looks Like: How Turkey’s Justice and Development Party Turned Its Back on Women and Girls

PUBLISHED 10/8/2024 by

Over the years, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has deflected public discontent with his economic and social policies by pointing fingers at journalists and women’s rights defenders, among others.

Since a failed coup in 2016, the Turkish government has become “incrementally more repressive,” explains Asli Aydintaşbaş, a visiting fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the nonprofit Brookings Institution. The outcome of this year’s election “creates a bit of a breathing space in urban areas in terms of free speech issues, but there has not been an improvement on the Kurdish issue,” she says.

(This article originally appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox! )