Last Fridays Editors Choice of the best images of the previous 24 hours contained three images from the Middle East with widely differing views of lives lead by young women from across the region.The appearance of these three pictures on the same day was entirely coincidental, but once juxtaposed in this way the stark contrasts are hard to ignore. 

In the first picture by Ali Jarekji, three little girls in pink ballet dresses and tights caper merrily at a dance festival in Amman. The body language of the dancers is comfortable, the gestures expansive and one of them looks out at the audience smiling, perhaps hoping to catch the approving eye of a doting parent.

In Ceerwan Azizs from Baghdad, two girls examine the riddled remains of a car, concern etched on the face of one of them. How could it be otherwise in such an environment where only hours before a car bomb had killed six people and injured 15?

In Mohammed Salems image from Gaza, armed women members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades arrive at a press conference. Black hoods obscure their identities and deny the viewer access to their humanity; the message of the hoods and guns is unequivocal.