Friday Links | August 3, 2012

This week I will not include any Olympic news, and there is plenty of it, in the Friday Links; a post on Muslim women in the 2012 Olympics will follow.

Thanks to a new law on gender parity, a record number of women have been sworn in as legislators in the new parliament of Senegal. Women now have 64 seats out of 150.

After the murder of Farida Afridi in Pakistan’s tribal area, working women in the northwest region are now fearful of their safety.

Huwayda Khalid is a 14-year-old Lebanese girl, living with the scars of the July 2006 war, which not only took her father and two siblings, but also one of her eyes.

The Free Syria Army claims that more and more Syrian women are joining the armed struggle against the Assad and his followers.

Protesters in Kabul, Afghanistan, call attention for the case of 16 year old Shakila, who was raped and murdered last year, allegedly by an influential member of the provincial government. He denies the charges and claims she committed suicide.

Somali women fight for their promised share of 30% of the seats in parliament, after they failed to reach the same quota in the National Constituent Assembly.

The BBC features the story of Pakistani Allah Rakhi, who has undergone a reconstructive surgery to restore her nose, after her now ex-husband mutilated her over 30 years ago.

Turkish talk show host Sibel Uresin caused a national stir when she suggested to her husband that he would marry her single friend as a second wife. Turkey is officially a secular country, and polygamy is forbidden by state law, but research has shown that polygamous marriages are being conducted by religious officials and are even fairly common in some regions.

The Guardian features a piece on how the blockade has affected the women of Gaza.

Laila Ibrahim Issa, the 23 year old Sudanese woman sentenced to death by stoning earlier this year, has been imprisoned with her six-month-old baby, who is reportedly in poor health. May Allah ease their suffering.

Afsana Badi has become India’s youngest village head at age 18; Gulf News publishes an exclusive interview with the teenager.

A Saudi woman made regional headlines after she allegedly converted to Christianity and fled to Lebanon, but now her father claims she is kidnapped and held against her will in Sweden by a Christian group…

Despite fears that female education is on the decline in Afghanistan, during this year’s secondary school examinations girls outclassed their male counterparts.

Palestinians have gone to the streets to call for more protection for abused women, after a man allegedly slit the throat of his wife in the middle of a Bethlehem market.

RNW features an interview with Yemeni activist Bushra Almaqtari, who has put her life in danger, due to her work as an activist, and feminist.

Even though the Iranian government has had a population control policy for decades, now Iranian couples are encouraged to have as many children as they can with promises of financial support from the government.

Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer warns for a cultural genocide in Xinjiang province, as Beijing is stepping up the influx of Han Chinese and Uyghur women are still transfered to eastern China as laborers as part of what is now a decade old policy.

Indian High Court comes to the aid of a young Muslim woman, who married her Hindu husband, ordering her family not to interfere with her and her husband’s life, as they are both adults.  The woman, K Fathima, says she has received threats from her family and a “fundamentalist organization”.