And the winner is...Egypt: Worst place for women in the Arab World

According to a poll of gender experts, Egypt is now the worst country for women's rights in the Arab world.

The survey, which was conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, found the Comoros islands at the top of the list for women’s rights. The high rankings come from factors such as reproductive rights, women in the economy and women in the family.

Factors contributing to the low ranking for Egypt are sexual harassment, high rates of female genital mutilation and a growth in conservative Islamist groups.

The poll was completed by surveying three hundred gender experts. The experts hailed from 21 Arab League states to include Syria.

This is the third year the study has been done. Its focus is on women's rights and how each country stands since the Arab Uprisings in 2011.

Moving up the ladder, the number two position for worst place for women is Iraq followed by Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen.

From the top of the list, after Comoros, where women hold 20% of ministerial positions, are Oman, Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar.

Leading issues that caused Egypt to rank so low on the scale were connected with laws that discriminate against women and an increase of trafficking, the survey said.

"There are whole villages on the outskirts of Cairo and elsewhere where the bulk of economic activity is based on trafficking in women and forced marriages," said Zahra Radwan of US-based rights group Global Fund for Women.

While trafficking is a large concern in Egypt, sexual harassment was the larger scale reason for low ranking and concern in Egypt.

Ninety-nine percent of women and girls in Egypt have been subjected to sexual harassment based on numbers from a UN report in April.

"The social acceptability of everyday sexual harassment affects every woman in Egypt regardless of age, professional or socio-economic background, marriage status, dress or behavior," said Noora Flinkman of Egyptian campaign group HarassMap.

In other countries on the report, Iraq is now ranked as more dangerous for women than under it was under the ruling of Saddam Hussein. Several reasons were listed for the low scores to include women's involvement in politics, workplace discrimination, freedom of movement and property rights.

Albeit the low marks on high level government and work issues the conservative country scored better than many other Arab states when it came to access to education and healthcare, reproductive rights and gender violence.