What’s Current: Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul to appeal prison sentence

  • Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Halthoul was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for campaigning for women’s right to drive and an end to the male guardianship system in a special terrorism court. Her family will appeal the ruling.
  • Lebanon’s parliament passed the first laws in the nation criminalizing sexual harassment. Offenders can be sentenced to as much as four years in prison.
  • Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan who reported from Wuhan at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak has been sentenced to four years by a Shanghai court after being found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
  • Two US women’s prisons in Vermont and Florida are investigated for a “disturbing degree” of sexual abuse and rape of female inmates by male prison officials.
Genevieve Gluck

Genevieve Gluck is a writer and advocate for women's sex-based rights and creator of Women's Voices, an audio library dedicated to bringing awareness to feminist texts and speeches.