Second class citizens — or worse

The subjugation of women — often unwitnessed, overlooked or otherwise ignored — is today’s greatest challenge facing equality among the genders in the Middle East, says Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW). In Beirut, presenting the organization’s annual global report on human rights practices, Roth spoke with Executive about women’s rights in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt and the severe oppression of women occurring in those countries. Islamic State of Iraq and Syria “The ideological suppression of women,” says Roth, in areas under the control of ISIS, namely Syria and Iraq, defines the now familiar barbarity central to the jihadist group. While much of the attention on ISIS, for Western media, has focused on its execution of prisoners, it is ISIS’ treatment of women — albeit underreported — which underlines its rights violations.  Among its most acute atrocities, Roth explains, is the group’s treatment of Yazidi women