Chapter Ten - Banned for Women

CHAPTER TEN

Banned for Women

THE WORD THEY use is protection, but the reality is control.
Because in country after country, the law isn’t equal.
It’s gendered.

Some rules only exist to regulate women.
What they wear.
Where they go.
What they can say.
Who they can marry.
What happens to their bodies.

This chapter isn’t just about inequality.
It’s about legal systems that make womanhood a crime.

Start with dress codes.

In Iran, the hijab isn’t a choice. It’s the law.
Refusing to wear it can mean fines, arrest, or violent enforcement.
The morality police patrol the streets.
When a young woman named Mahsa Amini was killed in custody for “improper hijab,” the whole country erupted. But the law didn’t change.

In Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, women must wear full-body coverings in public.
Their faces must be hidden.
Their voices too.
Music by women is banned.
Education is banned.
Employment is mostly banned.
It’s not just policy.
It’s a cage.

In Saudi Arabia, the abaya was once mandatory.
Reforms have loosened some restrictions, but enforcement still exists in practice.
Especially in conservative areas.
Especially if you’re foreign.
Especially if you’re loud.

Then there’s movement.

In Yemen, women can’t travel without a male guardian.
In Gaza, at various points, women have been required to obtain male-guardian permission to leave.
In some regions of India, women are barred from entering certain temples because they menstruate.

This isn’t about safety.
It’s about surveillance.
And the belief that a woman’s body needs permission to move.

Now look at marriage laws.

In many Middle Eastern countries, women can’t marry without a guardian’s approval.
In some, they can’t file for divorce without proving abuse or infertility, while men can divorce at will.
In Sudan, marital rape isn’t recognized, because consent inside marriage doesn’t legally exist.

Even in Israel, marriage and divorce for Jews are controlled by religious courts.
A woman can be denied a divorce if her husband refuses to grant it.
She becomes what’s called an agunah, “a chained woman.”

Then there’s pregnancy.

In El Salvador, abortion is banned completely, even in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s life.
Women have been sentenced to 30+ years for miscarriages.
Not abortions.
Miscarriages.

In Poland, the law is so strict that doctors often refuse lifesaving procedures, leading to preventable deaths.

In Texas, private citizens are encouraged to report anyone aiding an abortion.
The law deputizes strangers.
Turns neighbors into bounty hunters.

This isn’t just oppression.
It’s outsourcing enforcement.

And what about work?

In Afghanistan, women can’t work most jobs.
In Saudi Arabia, women only recently gained the right to work without male approval, but the stigma remains.
In many cultures, women are paid less, promoted slower, and pushed out if they become pregnant.

The law might not always say it out loud.
But the system whispers it clearly:
You don’t belong here.

Even biology is punished.

In Nepal, menstruating women have been forced into isolation huts.
Some have died there.
From cold.
From fire.
From animal attacks.

The belief is that menstruation makes them impure.
So they must be quarantined.

In India, girls are still denied education because of stigma around periods.
In Africa, period poverty keeps thousands of girls home from school.

It’s not just unfair.
It’s strategic.

Keep them uneducated.
Keep them dependent.
Keep them silent.

This isn’t about modesty.
Or morality.
Or religion.
It’s about power.

The power to tell a woman what she can wear.
Where she can go.
Who she can be.
And what happens inside her own body.

If half the population lives under different laws, it’s not law.
It’s domination.