Sex outside wedlock is by far the most common cause of incarceration for women in Mauritania, accounting for more than 40 percent of female prisoners.

In Mauritania, northwestern Africa, slavery is a fact of modern life. It’s estimated that 10-20 percent of the country’s 3.5 million people are still enslaved in a system rooted in ethnic discrimination. – Author: Robert Asher and Safa Faki