Merve Kavakçı, the Turkish female lawmaker who was thrown out of parliament because of her hijab and later even stripped of her citizenship, will be restored in her rights, according to Turkish media outlets. The details of what this may include are yet unclear.

The island nation of the Maldives is in turmoil, with ongoing protests in support of the ruling president Waheed and other protests in support of deposed president Nasheed. Last week Maldivian women organised their own rally, in support of Nasheed, their elected leader.

According to a research in The Netherlands, a surgery to reconstruct the hymen does not lead to the desired outcome: bleeding when having sexual intercourse.

The widow of the “7 July bomber,” Muslim convert Samantha Lewthwaite, has been on the run with her children, as she allegedly has ties with a terrorist cell in Kenya, who were planning attacks in the African country.

The UN pressures the FIFA to allow female soccer players to wear a safe, velcro opening hijab.

Saudi women might be allowed to join the Islamic police force of the country; currently, a commission is looking into the possibilities of recruiting women.

According to a local expert, every month, around 15-20 Hindu girls are forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men in Pakistan. Many Hindu families fear for the future of their daughters in the country, and some of them have actually left Pakistan.

Palestinian Hana Shalabi has been arrested and held without trial for over 2 weeks, and has been on a hunger strike since. She has said that she will continue her strike until she is freed.

Provincial candidate Waheeda Shah Bukhari has shocked Pakistan, after videos of her slapping elections officials became public. She did win a majority of the votes to guarantee her a seat in the provincial parliament, but the election commission is refraining from declaring her the winner. For obvious reasons.

The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women’s Rights is the title of a book that will be published next week to coincide with International Women’s Day. The book includes over 30 essays by different authors, among them Somali gynaecologist Hawa Abdi and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Shirin Abadi.

Divorce in Iran is a costly affair, many marriage contracts include an agreement that in case of divorce the wife receives her weight in cold coins. With gold prices soaring and divorce rates increasing, more men are unable to pay, and many of them end up in prison.

Popular Uzbek singer Yulduz Usmanova will perform again in her home country, after being banned for around 5 years over alleged antigovernment remarks.

Om Zied, the female journalist that has always been an open critic of former Tunisian president Ben Ali, remains critical of the current regime, but not pessimistic. [Read more...]

Afghan female MP Fawzia Koofi targets Afghan presidency, even though she receives death threats for openly pursuing this goal. Her response: “We die anyway“.

In Indonesia, children born either out of wedlock or out of unregistered marriages (such as temporary unions) can now claim legal ties to the father, which makes them eligible to inherit from the father and should improve the status of these children in society. Many Indonesian men enter polygamous marriages, without officially registering them, out of fear that the other wife/wives or the public will find out.

A rising trend in family violence in Kosovo worries experts, much of the violence can still be related to war trauma.

The daughter of the recently freed Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, Mrs. Nurul Izza Anwar, is mentioned a future prime minister of the country. In an interview with The Telegraph she says that Islam and democracy can co-exist.

The BBC features a picture report on the daily life of Somali samosa seller Faduma Aden Mohamud.

Two women are among the 14 presidential candidates in Senegal, but they are not viewed by many as likely candidates to win the elections.

In FATA (Federally Administrated Tribal Areas) in Pakistan, girls’ schools are still a casualty of war.

Angie Nasser, reporter and blogger at NOW Lebanon, says that after the new alterations in the domestic violence law, Lebanon is no country for women.

In a northwestern city in Tunisia, “salafists” have clashed with the police, after they assaulted two women who were promoting the opening of a store, wearing “inappropriate” clothing. According to an eyewitness, they are not real salafists, but people who want to bring the salafists a bad name, as true Muslims would never attack women…

Whether to wear or not to wear niqab is an endless debate in Yemen, as is the place of niqab in both tradition and religion is topic of debate.

In the Central African country of Malawi, nurses and midwives can now wear the hijab on the job. This decision comes after a long deliberation, and after the government decision that Muslim women can wear the hijab on passport pictures. Malawi has a significant Muslim minority, which makes up around 13 percent of the population.

The Express Tribune features the different faces of contemporary female Muslim royalty.

A new book in Indonesia, Seven Urban Women: A Note, shares the observations of seven Indonesian women residing in Jakarta.  In many of the stories, religion is an important topic. Unfortunately for now the book is only available in Bahasa Indonesia, not English or any other language.

Due to the violence in the area, Jos in Nigeria has a quite large population of women, who have become the “breadwinners” of their families as their husbands have passed away, and now struggle in order to be able to sustain their families.

Sheikh Fu’ad Mohamed Khalaf Shongole, a major Al-Shabaab speaker, urges parents to send their unmarried daughters to join the warfront against the Somali government. Currently Al-Shabaab has only employed (young) men; parents and girls are worried.

Bosniak victims, many of which female, protested in the snow against the draft law to scrap Bosnia’s state court and prosecutor’s office, fearing that they will never get justice at a Serb-run court.

Editor’s Note: It’s been a hectic week for nearly everyone at MMW, so we apologise for not having a real post today.  Thankfully, Anneke is on the ball, so we’ll be splitting her great list of links into two posts this week.  We’ll be back to normal next week, insha’Allah.

A proposed reform of the National Women’s Council by the ruling military council in Egypt is facing resistance from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.

Mrs. Mariyatha from Kerala, India is an inspirational community leader in the fight against polio.

In Abu Dhabi, women lament the loss of a women’s-only beach; having to share the beach now with male guests takes away a lot of the freedom many women felt at a female only beach area.

For Persian new year, Iranian officials introduce a new uniform for female civil servants in fashionable colors, dark grey and navy blue. This bright attire is voluntary, an official has been quoted saying, and there’s talk of a uniform for university students. Can’t wait!

Tens of thousands of women in the Southern Pakistani city of Karachi took to the streets to rally for improved women’s rights and more gender equality.

Thousands of refugees from the volatile region of northern Mali, mainly women and children, are fleeing into neighbouring Niger, but the situation in Niger does not bring much relief.

The tradition of “baad,” where a girl is used to “pay” for a shameful crime committed by her family members, is illegal in Afghanistan (and in Islam as well), but nevertheless “baad” is flourishing in Afghanistan’s rural areas, according to a UN report in 2010.

Human Rights Watch calls on the International Olympic Committee to ban Saudi Arabia from participating at the 2012 London Games, as it is still discriminating against women in sports. Saudi Arabia lacks a government sports infrastructure for women, and there is no physical education for girls in school.

A seminar in Hyderabad, India, addressed the problem of the immense popularity of black magic practitioners, which many Muslim women turn to in times of need, taking up precious time and money, without much result, obviously.

Ramallah, Occupied Palestine-based Nisaa FM is the only radio station in the Middle East devoted solely to women’s issues.

A French (non Muslim) mother has received custody of 11-year old daughter in Pakistani court, even though the girl claims she wants to remain with her (Muslim) father.