Early this week, Samantha Lewthwaite was linked to the Kenyan mall massacre, but a post on Twitter by the organization behind the attack, Al Shabaab, which said that no women were involved in the attack. On Thursday, however, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for the “white widow.” According to Interpol, the warrant has been issued in connection with terrorist offences in 2011, and had nothing to do with her alleged connection to the massacre last weekend, which left at least 67 people dead and many more missing.
As the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon worsens and without (m)any options for employment, some refugees turn to or are forced into prostitution, and sexual abuse is rampant.
It is said that an Indian political party ordered 10,000 burqas to be made, so that they could be worn by rally attendees to fake Muslim support.
A Saudi student in Canada is calling for another campaign against the ban on driving for women in Saudi Arabia on October 26 of this year. This week, six Saudi car owners were fined for allowing women to drive their cars.
Groom Ahmed Soboh, 15, and his bride Tala, 14, on their wedding day in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, last week. Image by Mohammed Salem/Reuters
According to local media reports, the British government has ordered a review on the question whether staff working for the National Health Service should be permitted to wear a face veil on the job.
Many American Muslim women have a hard time obtaining an Islamic divorce, and often turn to “imam shopping” in order to find a religious leader who will grant them the religious divorce.
According to UN official Zainab Hawa Bangura, both sides in Syria’s conflict are responsible for sexual violence.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation features an article on controversial Kuwaiti artist Shurooq Amin.
Yussur Abrar has been appointed as Somalia’s first female bank governor; with a much-maligned predecessor who has left a real mess, she will face some large challenges.
It is expected that a leading Pakistani religious authority will allow DNA to be used as primary evidence in rape trials, which would make it less complicated to prosecute rape in the country.
Saudi Arabia tops the list of countries for laws that limit women’s economic potential, according to a report by the World Bank last week.
Despite a fast increase in Arab women enrolled in Israeli universities and colleges, only 27 percent of Arab women in Israel are employed. Al Monitor speaks about this with Aiman Saif, director of the Authority for the Economic Advancement of Minorities (Arabs, Druze and Circassians).
Last Wednesday, around 25 girls were married in a relief camp in India, after clashes forced them to leave their homes in Muzaffarnagar, India. The weddings were scheduled before the conflict, and most grooms are living in areas that are not affected by the conflict. By marrying the girls off in a mass wedding at such short notice, it is hoped that they will be safe.
According to a report, Morocco is only to send older females as domestic workers to Saudi Arabia, and they are only allowed to be employed in large family units.
Child rape is getting more attention in the Pakistani media, and as a result it seems that now more cases get reported too.
The Libyan Ministry of Education has spoken out against segregating the sexes in universities, colleges and schools, stating that it would deprive students of a decent education, as most teachers are female.
Last weekend the Islamic Solidarity Games opened in Indonesia and while sports bikinis for female athletes were initially allowed, after much controversy it was finally decided that women would have to “dress appropriately”.
Three Syrian men have gang-raped a teen girl in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp; one man has been arrested, the others are still at large.
The Swiss canton of Ticino has voted for a ban on face veils last Sunday.
Charges have been dropped against Saudi princess Meshael Alayban, who was accused of human trafficking in the state of California, USA.
NPR interviews Nezha Hayat, the first woman to serve on the board of directors of a major bank in Morocco, about her background and the position of women in Moroccan society.
Three teen girls in Canada have been accused of assaulting a Muslim girl as she was leaving a local mosque to grab a coffee.
The Malaysia Insider profiles the World Muslim Woman Netizen 2013: Nurul Husna Zainal Abidin.