Editor’s note: Anneke is taking a break from the Friday Links at the moment because she has just given birth to her third child.  We wish her and her family all the best, and I apologise that the links will not be nearly as extensive in Anneke’s absence! The situation of the more than 200 girls […]

A new campaign aimed at discouraging young British Muslims to go to Syria to fight, is now asking Muslim women to play an active role in convincing their male family members to stay put. Mistrust of the police among Muslim women, however, makes that many women would be afraid to report their family members, one […]

The predominantly Kurdish southeastern region of Turkey has the highest number of female mayors after the March 30 elections, partly because of a quota for women in the popular pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). One of the new female mayors in this region is former child bride Berivan Kilic. The controversial draft law in […]

Indonesia had its elections last Wednesday. This time around, parties had to ensure that 30 percent of their candidates were female, but in a country notorious for its corruption, many of these female candidates come from political dynasties or are celebrities; it is even suggested that to become a female candidate not much more is […]

Elections in Afghanistan are scheduled for April 5. While many activists don’t expect that the outcome will change much for the situation of women in country, millions of women throughout the country have registered themselves as voters. Jamila Karimi is a MP, known for staying far from corruption, who hopes to be re-elected in the […]

The mayor of Indonesia’s second-largest city Surabaya, Tri Rismaharini, has vowed to close down the city’s largest brothel complex; other mayors have made similar promises, but this particular mayor is known for her can-do approach. Hundreds of Crimea Tatars, mainly women and children, are leaving Crimea for Ukraine, out of fear of how Russian rule […]

The recent case of a teenage German girl travelling to Syria to allegedly actively join the “jihad” has German experts worried about the threat that men, and increasingly (often very young) women, involved in such activities can present to German society. France has indicted two people for aiding another teenage girl who has allegedly travelled […]

March 8 was International Women’s Day and, as usual, there was a sudden rise in news items that feature women, some of which will be featured in this week’s Friday Links. At the same time, women around the world were involved in protests. A few dozen Iraqi women took to the streets to demonstrate against […]

Saudi women activists are calling on the government to end the “absolute authority” that male guardians have over women in the kingdom. The petition is said to have been sent to a human rights committee. FIFA, the organisation that governs soccer/football, has authorised the wearing of religious head wear, such as hijabs and turbans, during […]

Activists describe the situation of women detainees in Egypt as “horrific” and much worse than under Mubarak; many of the recent detainees are young women and even minors, who face sexual abuse, torture and harsh treatments. War widows in predominantly Muslim southern Thailand often face a heavy burden, but in a protected village of widows they find […]