Mali has adopted a new family law<\/a>, which is actually a step back for the position of women in this predominantly Muslim country. According to this new law, women have to obey their husbands and men are head of the households.<\/p>\n After her retirement, Prof. Hasnath Mansur committed herself to the improvement of the lives of Muslim women in India<\/a>.\u00a0Poverty, not religion,\u00a0is the reason that so many Muslim women have not had education, she claims.<\/p>\n Up to three-quarters of Kyrgyz brides are married as a result of what is called \u201cbride kidnapping,\u201d <\/a>and in many cases, without the consent of the bride. The practice is now illegal, but hardly any case has made it to the court room.<\/p>\n In\u00a0South Africa,\u00a0some border officials have\u00a0had some\u00a0\u201cincidents\u201d with hijab wearing women recently<\/a>. The women claim that they do not have any problem with taking the hijab off in order to be able to check the identity, but will only do so\u00a0in a proper setting and that was something the officials did not provide.<\/p>\n While preparing for her morning prayers, an 89-year-old Tajik woman\u00a0was attacked by a wolf in her own backyard<\/a>. She lived to tell the story, but wolves are a big problem this time of the year in parts of the Central Asian country.<\/p>\n Spiegel<\/em> features an article on the Turkish glossy Al\u00e2<\/em> with the title: \u201cVogue of the Veiled<\/a>.\u201d Always good to know that there are men out there who know\u00a0exactly what women need in a magazine!<\/p>\n Fifteen Muslims in the USA won a conditional dismissal of charges<\/a> after the amusement park disturbance that they caused, when the women were told that they could not go on some rides with their hijabs on.<\/p>\n Pakistani teenager \u201cMariam\u201d won her case against her father, who sexually abused her over the course of several years. This is the first public\u00a0incest case\u00a0in the country<\/a>, and her story has inspired a report on incest victims in the country.<\/p>\n The proposed ten percent Libyan election quota, which was reserved for women,\u00a0has been dropped<\/a>, according to a Western diplomat.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Morocco, there Bassima Hakkaoui is now the only female Minister in the government<\/a>.\u00a0According to local activists, this is not surprising, and an indication about the direction this conservative\u00a0government wants to go\u2026 \u00a0<\/p>\n Pashtun singer Nazia <\/a>announced during her January 21st concert in the UAE that she will quit singing, to live a life as a devoted Muslim woman.\u00a0Fans are devastated; many Pashto artists quit their careers early.\u00a0Or get killed.<\/p>\n Even though Islam states that women should share in the inheritance of their family members, in many cases in Kashmir, reality is that women inherit nothing<\/a>, and are considered to be the poorest section of society.<\/p>\n When Sharah, an Afghan woman, went to the hospital to give birth to her baby, she found out that she was not carrying just one \u201cbundle of joy,\u201d but six<\/a>. Shocking news, especially in Afghanistan, which is one of the worst countries to be a young child, with one in 10 children not reaching the age of five.<\/p>\n The Islamic Fiqh Council in Khartoum, Sudan has spoken: \u201cNo soccer for the Sudanese women!\u201d <\/a>Creating a female soccer team is apparently an \u201cimmoral act.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Souad Al Oraimi, a sociology professor at the United Arab Emirates University, calls for more proactive Emirati women to realise social acceptance<\/a>. In her opinion, local women\u2019s associations should transform from service providers to women\u2019s rights advocates.<\/p>\n Carnita Matthews, the Muslim woman from Sydney, Australia, whose case prompted laws that allow the police to ask people to uncover their face, has lost the bid for the state to pay her legal bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n During a political meeting among tribal elders in Northern Pakistan, the only female member, a young woman called Dur-e-Shawar, talked about gender equality and women\u2019s rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n In her article Hania Sholkamy tries to answer the question why women are at the heart of Egypt\u2019s trials and tribulations<\/a>. Zainab Magdy argues that Egyptian women have always been in the margin<\/a>, but during the revolt they have been in the centre, and now there is no way back.<\/p>\n Amani Musa Hilal, the daughter of\u00a0the Janjaweed leader Hilal, and polygamous Chadian president Idriss Deby got married last weekend in\u00a0Khartoum, Sudan<\/a>. The Sudanese president was present and he was representing the\u00a0bride during the ceremony.\u00a0It is said that the dowry was $26 million, of which\u00a0$25 million was paid to Amani\u2019s father and his Janjaweed. Guess how many guns one could buy from that\u2026<\/p>\n Manal al-Sharif, the woman activist known for her campaign to legalize women drivers in Saudi Arabia, was not <\/strong>killed in a car accident earlier this week<\/a>, in contradiction to what was published on many newssites earlier this week.<\/p>\n Nigeria\u2019s Daily Trust <\/em>newspaper has\u00a0presented Niger Republic jurist Fatimata Salifou Bazaye <\/a>with the African of 2011 award for her\u00a0\u201ctrack record as an incorruptible judicial officer.\u201d<\/p>\n A Muslim woman in hijab in Arkansas, USA, was asked toleave the court room or remove her \u201chead gear<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0In The Bahamas, a Muslim woman was not allowed to enter a bank<\/a>, because she was wearing a khimar\/long hijab and new security policies forbid any headgear and sunglasses.<\/p>\n In Malerkotla, Punjab, India, two Muslim women (and their partners) battle it out<\/a>, publicly, for January 30 elections.<\/p>\n In South Tajikistan, at least 16 underage girls have been married off<\/a>; in some cases parents have even\u00a0forged the documents of the daughters to make them appear older.<\/p>\n