A Muslim woman was granted a $120,000-settlement after filing a lawsuit against the Ramsey county jail in Minnesota, the United States. The case alleges that the county jail forced Aida Shyef Al-Kadi, 57, to remove her hijab in front of a male officer and her abaya (full-length garment) in front of policewomen. 

In 2013, a judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Al-Kadi for missing a court hearing she had in June over a traffic offense. Al-Kadi had to take her daughter to the hospital at the time and it coincided with the date of the hearing.

The woman, born and raised in Ohio, moved to Minnesota in 2005 for the sake of her daughter, who needed specialized medical care.

In August 2013, Al-Kadi turned herself in. She was told to remove her hijab and abaya for a booking photo. When she refused, officers placed her in a holding cell where she was forced to remove her hijab in front of a male cop. She was also forced to strip so she wears the jail's uniform in the presence of two policewomen.

Al-Kadi eventually agreed to taking off her hijab after being promised the photos would not be leaked to the public. She was then given a bedsheet to use as a hijab. Months later, she found the photos on a third-party blackmail website which asks users for money to remove a photo.

The muslim woman took it upon herself to file a lawsuit against the county jail for putting her through "one of the most humiliating and harmful experiences" of her life. She argued that the officers at the jail violated her constitutional rights and discriminated against her religious preference and beliefs.

"I knew that I did not want any other Muslim woman to experience what I did," Al-Kadi said after winning the case.

Alongside her lawyers, she made an appearance at the Minneapolis headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to report her good news. Her settlement was approved last month. 

The settlement not only meant that Al-Kadi would get $120,000 in compensation, but that the jail would have to set rules regarding religious beliefs. 

One of the jail's amended policies in 2014 includes that inmates who wear the hijab would not be forced to remove it in front of male officers, according to The Guardian. Female inmates must be instructed to pull back the headscarf to show the hairline but not the ears before putting the scarf back into place. Sheriff's corrections officers are to be trained on the mannerisms in which to treat the inmates depending on their religious beliefs and any religious attire they wear. 

"Even though I was afraid, I wanted to pursue my rights under the Constitution of the United States. I wanted to do it in a way that would make it less likely that any other Muslim woman would experience the harm that I did," Al-Kadi told the audience at CAIR.

Although the county jail is not required to admit to any wrongdoings, they are, nevertheless, responsible for taking down any and all the copies, hard or electronic, of Al-Kadi's publicly released mugshots. 

Arab women have long been fighting the injustices they're often subjected to in patriarchal societies across the region. 

This year, thousands of them launched powerful movements that are laying ground for change in their respective countries. From uniting against civil war threats in Lebanon to igniting Tunisia's very own #MeToo movement, Arab women made their voices heard.

Here's how they did it: 

Tunisian MP Zouheir Makhlouf, a man who won a seat in the country's Oct. 6 elections, was the center of a scandal this year when a leaked video showed him "masturbating in his car" outside a high school. 

The footage prompted the launch of #EnaZeda, which is Tunisian Arabic for #MeToo, under which many women shared their testimonies of sexual harassment in the country. 

Soon after the movement gained momentum, a prosecutor general opened an investigation into Makhlouf on grounds of "sexual harassment and moral injury." But it seems as though the investigation was tossed aside because the MP joined the country's parliament one month after his story went public. 

In light of his return to parliament - something that grants him legal immunity - women took to the streets to protest Makhlouf's role as a lawmaker when he's been apparently pardoned of harassment himself. 

In September, a Rabat court sentenced now-freed Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni to one year in prison on charges of having had an illegal abortion and premarital sex. The abortion she was forcefully accused of having underwent was repeatedly denied by Raissouni and her doctor. 

Her arrest and subsequent sentencing sparked outrage across the country and led women to proudly announce they have defied the country's unjust laws that punish sex out of wedlock and abortions. 

The movement saw 490 Moroccan women sign a manifesto in support of Raissouni. Award-winning Leila Slimani, an outspoken Moroccan writer on Muslim women's sexuality, was among the hundreds who co-wrote and signed the manifesto in solidarity with the journalist. Others include Moroccan filmmaker Sonia Terrab and Moroccan politician Nabila Mounib.

Their activism played a huge role in securing Raissouni release after she was granted pardon from the country's monarch King Mohammed VI. 

When they're not dominating the streets or standing in the front lines of Lebanon's ongoing uprising, Lebanese women unite against all threats of civil strife. 

Late in November, clashes erupted on the civil war flashpoint between Ain al-Rummaneh and Chiyah, bringing back memories of Lebanon's devastating history of 15 endless years of civil war.

Women and mothers weren't about to let things escalate further. They quickly organized marches in the area that lies across an intersection that once divided Beirut. Together, they denounced sectarian strife and called on the younger generations to build a nation free of sectarian divides.

Saudi women have been calling on the abolishment of the country's male guardianship system for years. Parts of the scheme have already been dismantled as authorities recently reversed laws that previously banned women from traveling and seeking medical attention without the permission of a male guardian. 

But the fight is not over yet for the women who want to witness the downfall of the system in its entirety. 

In April, Saudi women marked the 1,000th day since the launch of the #StopEnslavingSaudiWomen campaign, a movement that aims at showing "the world what the life of women in Saudi Arabia is really like under male guardianship laws."

On Twitter, thousands wrote about their fight and highlighted several movements launched for the cause. 

In November, thousands of women took to the streets in Amman to demand the implementation of stricter domestic violence laws in the country. 

The movement was launched in condemnation of the case of a husband who gouged his wife's eyes out in front of her children. 

The domestic abuse incident sparked nation-wide outrage in Jordan where activists continue to raise alarm over the rise of violence targeting women.