Sunday, March 8 is International Women's Day, which recognizes the successes of women around the world. A lot of women sure have achieved a good amount of equality in recent years, but some ladies around the globe aren't so lucky.
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These are the 25 mot sexist laws we've found from around the globe, and they are doing a lot of women no favors.
- Women in Saudi Arabia are infamously banned from obtaining driver's licenses.
- Saudi Arabian women arn't allowed to vote either, so obviously they're not going to be voting for the right to drive anytime soon.
- In India, any sexual act committed by a husband on his wife cannot be considered rape -- at least as long as she's over 15 years old.
- The same law exists in Singapore, but the wife only has to be 13.
- Women in China are banned from working in mines, or "doing any job that requires intense physical labor"
- Females in Madagascar aren't allowed to work at night.
- There are 456 official jobs in Russia that can't be done by women.
- Men in Indonesia, Mali, Algeria, Kenya, and Tanzania are allowed to have more than one wife, but women are not allowed the same privilege when it comes to husbands.
- Another Saudi Arabia one that seems strangely odd -- women aren't allowed to go into cemeteries. One female journalist asked, "Can they go in if they're dead?" Good question. Yes, apparently, in case you were wondering.
- In Cuba, boys can get married at 16, but girls only have to be 14.
- Only women can be prostitutes in the Philippines, where a law from 2012 states that "women who, for money or profit, habitually indulge in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct, are deemed to be prostitutes."
- In Yemen, a woman is considered only half a witness.
- Inheritance laws in both Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates state that "the male inherit twice as much as the female."
- Wives in Yemen don't have a right to turn down their husbands. The law states that she must allow her man to "have legitimate intercourse with her when she is fit to do so."
- Women are not allowed to vote in Vatican City.
- Mothers who suffer the pain of having a miscarriage may be jailed in El Salvador.
- In Morocco, girls are forced to marry their rapists.
- Iranian men are allowed to marry non-Muslim women, but a woman's intended must convert to Islam if he wishes to marry her.
- Tanzanian widows may be turned out of their matrimonial homes, forced to leave children, and any property earned during the marriage.
- Female genital mutilation is a widespread issue in Africa, and un-pursued by authorities.
- Lebanon doesn't have civil codes to cover divorce, property rights, or care of children.
- Japanese girls only have to be 16 to marry, but the boys must be 18.
- In Malta, a kidnapper is given leniency if he plans on marrying his victim. He isn't punished at all if he actually does.
- Girls are considered adults and therefore criminally responsible at eight or nine years old in Iran, but boys aren't held to the same standards until they're 15.
- It's totally legal in Nigeria for a husband to beat his wife, for the "purpose of correcting" her. Also a parent or schoolmaster may beat a child in order to correct him or her.
Do you think it's time for things to change around the world?
Image via Stephen Melkisethian/Flickr
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