“It’s a matter of principle.” Women have to uncover their faces during the Canadian citizenship ceremony, according to an announcement from the Canadian Minister of Citzenship and Immigration last Monday.
Conclusions from a conference on Saudi women, by a male speaker (of course): “Do not look at Muslim women through Western prism!”
A major city in Western China has started a campaign against the hijab/Islamic dress and beard, according to a message on its website. The message has vanished soon after, and government officials decline to comment.
Kenyan newspaper The Standard features Muslim activist Amina Zuberi, her life and projects.
Libyan women are battling for empowerment in post-Gadhafi Libya.
Kadriye Avci Erdemli, Istanbul’s deputy mufti, aims to make all mosques in Istanbul women-friendly by February 2012.
In Saudi-Arabia, a woman was beheaded for practising witchcraft.
Libya’s most famous alleged rape victim Eman al Obaidi has arrived in the USA, is struggling to get her life together and does an exclusive interview with the CNN.
New laws in Pakistan should protect women against different forms of abuse, such as acid burning.
Women from the Bohra community (a Shi’a sect) in India go online to fight female circumcision. Approximately 90% of women in this community have undergone this procedure, often with traumatic consequences. May Allah ease their suffering!
FT Magazine features an article on the Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tawakul Karman and other female voices of the Arab Spring.
Hind Ahmas is set to be the first woman to go to jail in France for wearing the face veil in public.
Al-Arabiya features Sahar al-Shamrani, who wants to be the first Saudi woman to reach the South Pole. Her goal: to show the world what Saudi women are capable of. As long as she doesn’t go there driving, I do not think it will be getting much attention, with the exception of Al-Arabiya, obviously.
In Puntland, Somalia, the local government is discussing whether to ban all forms of Female Genital Mutilation, or leave room for the “sunnah practice” of female circumcision, which is common in Somalia.
Gulnaz, the Afghan rape victim, who was jailed because of ‘adultery’ has been freed this week. In an interview with the BBC, she said she might marry her attacker after all.
Rachida Dati, the first Muslim woman of North African descent to hold a major French government post, fell from grace, and now accuses the French MP of sexism and hindering the political advancement of minorities.
The Kazakh students, who were not allowed to attend university while wearing hijab, have been successful in their fight. They can’t wear all black though, as that is not according to “Kazakh tradition.”
Aiming to transform the lives of rural Moroccan women, Wafa Zerrouki has set up a rural weaving workshop.