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While humanitarian disasters highlight all kinds of human rights neglect, it is often the stories of individuals struggling to act in their own right which can arouse far more anger and sympathy. The case of Meriam Ibrahim a pregnant woman sentenced to hang for apostasy after she married a Christian man has resulted in her being kept in detention until she gives birth. Meriam who was born to a Muslim father but raised a Christian has pleaded that she was never a Muslim and should not be charged with apostasy or flogged for adultery but these pleas have fallen on deaf ears and despite international condemnation of her treatment, her fate remains uncertain. Nearer to home, the Iranian actress Leila Hatami has come under attack for a red carpet peck on the cheek at the Cannes film festival. The actress who is attending as a member of the jury of the Palme d'Or prize was greeted in this manner by the president of the festival who defends the kiss as a usual custom in the west. Iranian conservative media however have claimed the greeting “was an affront to the chastity of women in Iran and some groups have called for her flogging for kissing a strange man in public. Both these stories are about women and the judgements made upon them by the judicial and other organisations of a Muslim country. In some ways the decision to punish them should hardly shock as the call for such draconian penalties has become a tragic but all too familiar narrative of many Muslim societies. What is more insidious is that these women are condemned as if they are owned by the state, as if they have no moral or personal autonomy in themselves. Their own lived religion doesn’t matter; only what the state thinks matters. Thus wherever they go, and whatever they do, their personal freedom is of little consequence because the state becomes the moral arbiter of their behaviour. Women often find themselves living with restricted freedoms because they carry so much of the burden of honour and tradition. But in many Islamic countries a woman’s virtue still lies in the hands of her father, husband or brother and add the power of the state to this means that her life is never quite her own. Religions speak of the God given dignity of all people, the inherent freedom we enjoy as moral agents of our lives. The Qur'an itself speaks of humankind as the most noble of all creatures, distinct from other living beings, blessed with knowledge and freedom to choose its destiny. But these stories show the opposite where state religion strips people of their inherent dignity and where religious power forces people into violent subjugation. International pressure will have some effect but unless these countries stop simply talking of a merciful God but act with compassion and dignity, it is only a matter of time till the next case comes along.