• Somalia’s women’s minister, Asha Osman Aqil, has been kidnapped by Al Shabab. God keep her safe.

• Egyptian women take a stand against harassment with HarassMap.

• Emirati women will enjoy full participation in an upcoming election to be held in September; they may both vote and run in the election.

• How the Muslim community rose to Rumana Monzur’s defense after her husband attacked her.

• Pakistan appoints its first female foreign minister. More from the BBC.

• The Obedient Wives Club not doing very well in Singapore.

• A Muslim woman says she won’t fall victim to fear or hate after surviving a brutal assault.

• On feminist trends in Pakistan.

• The Star looks at the powerful women of Turkey’s Dinçer family.

• A review of the play Dirty Paki Lingerie, written and performed by Aizzah Fatima.

• Common Ground News Service looks at the gains women are making toward the right to drive in Saudi Arabia.

• [Read more...]

• The British Jihad Against Violence gets some coverage in Common Ground News.

• Surprise! The Iranian government will support books about hijab and modesty.

• USA Today profiles Kulsoom Abdullah’s and her fight to wear hijab during weightlifting competitions.

• Women in rural Bangladesh raise money for their own microfinance programs.

• British Muslim men are urged to “find women from within their own community” instead of “outsourcing” wives.

• Muslim women in parts of Australia would be required to remove their veils and show police their faces under a new law proposed in one of the country’s state legislatures. Meanwhile, Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship Minister Nick Kotsiras said that he was comfortable with Muslim women wearing the burqa and full-face veil niqab.

• How some German Muslims, including women, are held back by stereotypes in the workplace.

• The Bangkok Post looks at the business of Islamic fashion.

• PopMatters interviews Sabina England. And so does AlterNet.

• How are women faring in new South Sudan?

• Lingerie shops in Saudi Arabia are targeted for raids by the morality police because of female clerks, despite an official decree that women should work in them.

• On street harassment in Afghanistan.

• Asra Nomani writes about ending gender segregation in U.S. mosques.

• AltMuslimah explores the idea behind the Obedient Wives’ Club.

If you see news we’ve missed this week about Muslim women, feel free to leave links in the comments!

• A nine-year- old Peshwari girl was forced to wear suicide vest.

• An Indonesian woman was put to death by decapitation in Saudi Arabia this week.  Her daughter plans to press charges, while Indonesia wonders whether or not its citizens are so well protected abroad. Meanwhile, another maid is murdered in Saudi Arabia. May Allah give them peace and justice.

• Kenyan Islamic groups clash over appointment of female qadis.

• You can’t wear hijab as a soccer referee in Quebec: another consequence of FIFA’s anti-headscarf ruling. More from Al Arabiya and the Calgary Herald.

• But you can wear niqab and vote in Australia.

• Al Jazeera on Turkish women and the elections.

• On the popularity of a radio station in Kashmir and its female disc jockey.

• The story of the Pakistani woman who was paraded naked through her village. May Allah give her justice.

• 117 communities in Gambia abandon FGM and forced and/or early marriage.

• On polygyny in Kazakhstan. [Read more...]

• An interview with Maryam Kershevarz about the film she directed, Circumstance, a fictional story about a relationship between two high school girls in Tehran.

• Farzaneh Milani reflects on driving bans and activism in Saudi Arabia. More on that here and here.

• A new film called Tales of the Waria looks at transgendered women in Indonesia.

• Lebanon’s government has a new all-male cabinet, which is totally okay with at least one MP, because “we welcome their opinions, my house is full of women, and I am very popular among the female population.”  Oh good.

• In Iraq, women from a feminist organization were attacked at a democracy demonstration.

• Tunisian activists work to make sure that women’s rights are protected in the new government.  More here.

• KABOBfest writes a great response to the “Gay Girl in Damascus” saga.

• More on the woman who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault.

• A look at Leila Ahmed’s latest book – what does that veil really symbolize, anyway?

• Bothaina Kamel is the first woman to run for president in Egypt.

• A participant at the Seeker’s Guidance retreat finds shaykhas hidden “right under our noses.”

• On Muslim superheroes in comic books. [Read more...]

• In case you didn’t hear, FIFA barred Iran’s women’s soccer team from the field over their headgear. Plenty has been written about why it happened, and the subject may be reopened for discussion. Maybe they can wear this?

• Some cool research focuses on Muslim women who lived through the Khmer Rouge.

• Lamia Shakkour, Syria’s ambassador to France, may or may not have resigned. We’re not sure, because the woman who resigned may be an impersonator.

• Controversy in the southern U.S. as a Georgian woman fights to wear hijab while weightlifting and a Louisiana woman fights to wear hijab in jail.

• A Muslim women’s group in Britain has launched a “Jihad against Violence” to generate greater awareness of women’s rights. You can listen to an interview with Radio Australia about the group here.

• IPS looks at how political crackdowns in Iran are spurring women to action.

• Pakistani women understand that it’s lonely at the top.

• Members of the newly formed Sisters of Deenul Islam in Sierra Leone have expressed their determination to bring to an end the discrimination faced by women wearing head scarves.

• We’re just not sure what to think about Amina Abdullah.

• Some women who think obedience to one’s husband in all things will save marriage and society got together and started a club in Indonesia.

• On the Arab Spring’s impact on women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.

• Huma Abedin has been in the media all week because her husband is sleazy and she’s pregnant.

• The Nation speaks with Wajeha al-Huwaider during a week when several Saudi women are arrested for driving.

• Azizah al-Hibri is appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Did we forget to include any news about Muslim women this week? If so, feel free to leave links in the comments!