Friday Links | June 21, 2013

Col. Latifa Nabizada, the first female pilot in Afghanistan’s air force, was recently profiled by the BBC. Her five-year-old daughter Malalai has grown up flying with her, and hopes to be a pilot too when she gets older.

Feminist activists in Tunisia are working to frame women’s rights as “a social and political issue,” and call on Femen protestors to leave them alone.

Index on Censorship highlights the work of thee Muslim women artists: painter Saba Barnard, filmmaker and stage performance artist Sabina England, and playwright Mediah Ahmed.

Women activists in Aceh, Indonesia say that the way that Sharia Law has been carried out in their province has victimised women; they call instead for an implementation of Sharia Law that will promote justice and protect women and children.

Reuters speaks with Ayesha Farooq about being a female fighter pilot in Pakistan’s military.

A woman in Kazakhstan has been found guilty and sentenced for terrorism and torture, after trying to prepare her 12-year-old stepson to carry out a suicide bombing.

A pregnant Muslim woman in a Paris suburb miscarried after a recent attack, where here headscarf was torn off.

RFERL writes about the little information publicly available about the wife of Hassan Rohani, who was recently elected president of Iran.

Two Saudi women, Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Oyouni, have been jailed for trying to help Nathalie Morin, a Canadian citizen currently in Saudi Arabia, leave her husband and escape back to Canada.

Kaamila Mohamed writes about how a recent Washington Post article about a LGBTQ Muslims Retreat overlooked some of the value of the retreat, and misrepresented her and her experiences.

A new film tells the story of Salma, a poet and politician from southern India.

Women who work in beauty parlours in Afghanistan talk to Al Jazeera about their hopes and fears for Afghanistan’s future.