Friday Links | January 4, 2013

An increasing number of Muslim women in the UK is entering into a marriage with a non-Muslim partner, and some religious leaders are willing to conduct these interfaith marriages, despite the dominant notion that Muslim women are forbidden to marry non-Muslim partners.

Institutions in Kosovo are addressing the status of survivors of sexual violence during the war; they are currently not included in a law that grants other categories of war victims and their families, as well as veterans, financial support and assistance.

The Grandmother Project is an international NGO that has been very effective in involving local grandmothers in banning the practice of Female Genital Mutilation in southern Senegal.

A British Muslim couple are suing their nine-year-old daughter’s Greek Orthodox school for banning her from wearing the headscarf in class.

The Los Angeles Times profiles two young Afghani women, who are U.S. trained helicopter pilots, but have been unable to fly in the Afghan air force since returning to their country in October, 2012.

Dr. Yamuna Aminu Kani is the first female gynaecologist and obstretician in Nigeria’s Yigawa state, and the local leader has urged other young Muslim women to pursue in the medical field, as there is such a lack of females in this profession.

Women in Aceh, Indonesia, are only allowed to “side-saddle” as passengers on motor bikes; straddling male drivers is forbidden as it is deemed to be “improper” by local religious leaders.

An Afghan prisoner, sentenced for killing three of his in-laws, has been accused of killing his wife during a conjugal visit in prison.

Female migrants and women and girls from impoverished families in Yemen often fall victim to sex trafficking.

A Moroccan woman was banned from entering an exclusive beach club in Casablanca, because of their no-hijab policy.

Oman is changing, but the change in society in combination with the taboo on premarital sex can lead to tragedy when the girl involved gets pregnant. It is forbidden in Oman to prescribe birth control pills to unmarried women.

Iranian president Ahmedinejad has dismissed the cabinet’s only female minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, after she criticised her colleagues for failing to provide sufficient funds to import vital medicines.

Al-Akhbar shares the stories of some of the female prisoners of Lebanon’s Baabda prison for women.

A community knitting program in Brisbane, Australia says it brings (non-Muslim) Australian and (Muslim) immigrant women together, bridges barriers and ends loneliness, especially during the holiday season. With participants from Mongolia, Iran, the United States and Eritrea, it seems at all newcomers are welcome, but the Muslim/non-Muslim edge always makes it a tad more interesting.

Qantara.de features an interview with Houria Aïchi, a singer of Chaouia Berber origin.

During a recent forum in Australia on the topic of face veils and identification, it was clear that most Muslim women are more than willing to comply and to remove their veils for identification, but the question is rather how to do this in the most sensitive manner.