Earlier this week, Pakistani child rights activist Malala Yousafzai, a teenager herself, was attacked on her way home from school by the Taliban. She was critically injured, but is in a stable condition at point of writing. More than a hundred activist in northwestern Pakistan have rallied against the shooting of the 14-year-old. The Pakistani Taliban has provided a letter to explain the rationale behind the attack of Malala Yousafzai. Pakistani officials have offered a reward for the arrest of her attackers. May Allah protect her.
The New York Times features an article on the quest of one Malaysian transgender woman to be accepted as a female. On Thursday, the four Malaysian transgender women lost their case for the right to dress as women in Malaysian court.
October 11 was the International Day of the Girl, with much attention to early marriages and access to education. Al Jazeera spoke to an Afghan woman, who was forced to marry at age 11. Youth campaigners in northern Bangladesh are trying to end to cycle of poverty, by preventing early marriage. More than three million Afghan girls now receive some sort of education, but women and girls still face many restrictions.
After an Egyptian woman, Iman, was killed last month when she confronted her harasser, Egyptian activists took to the streets to demand new laws to protect women from sexual harassment.
Tanani Saleh is 19, and belongs to the Al-Akhdam minority in Yemen. She has been working on a landfill for almost a decade, has four children to feed and says it is either this, or becoming a prostitute or beggar. Picture is part of a series on the Al-Akhdam by Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Mission, via the BBC.
A 14-year-old rape victim from west Java, Indonesia, who was kidnapped and raped multiple times by a “Facebook friend,” has been expelled from school, as she would have supposedly tarnished the good name of the school. The decision has been reversed, but by some she is still seen as a criminal.
At least a hundred women have protested against the imposition of strict Islamic law last Saturday in Timbuktu, Mali, but they were dispersed by gunmen shooting in the air. Concluding a four day visit to the country, a UN official said that women are the primary victims of violence in northern Mali.
Saudi female lawyers will finally be allowed to obtain licenses to practice law in the country.
A new documentary by Amnesty International finds that in Bosnia, fewer than 40 war rape cases, of the over 1,000 that have been brought forward, have been prosecuted.
The creation of the Bangsamoro political entity, which is part of the peace process on the island of Mindanao, the Philippines, is highly dependent on the involvement of (Muslim) women, activists say.
IWPR reports on the Afghan tradition of baad, where women get traded in order to end conflicts.
Sabah al-Saqari will be running for leadership of the political party of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. It is the first time that a female will run for this position.
Scooters help Kashmiri women and girls seize their independence.
In Darfur last week, a woman and a girl were raped by government militia while they were out fetching water, and on another occasion, an 18-year-old woman was raped several times by gunmen. Overall, violence against women seems to be once again on the rise in the region; women in the Hamidiya camp for displaced persons are complaining about the increased harassment and assault by government forces.
Police and armed pro-hijab activists have clashed in Baku, Azerbaijan. Even though the majority of Azerbaijan’s population is Muslim, headscarves are banned from schools. Sixty-five protesters were arrested.
Sima Samar received a very important award for her work as a human rights activist in Afghanistan; critics, however, say that her organization has failed to publicize the findings of an investigation into past rights violations.
The Dutch abortion boat has been escorted out of the Moroccan territorial waters; a source claims that the whole undertaking was a publicity stunt.
Amra Babic is the first mayor in Bosnia, and Europe, who wears the hijab in office.
In an article on Qantara.de political scientist Hoda Saleh looks at how the situation of women has changed in Egypt since the start of the revolution.
Three female judges have been appointed on the Filipino island of Mindanao to man the Shari’ah courts. There are 26 male judges.
For the first time in 20 years the Somali Police Academy is accepting female students.