We have a new blog that has commentary, opinion reports, cultural and educational information about current events that affect women in Islam around the world. To see the web site, go HERE.

December 14, 2011
Kuwait
A top Islamic scholar objects to women running in elections. The Head of Sharia Scholars League in the GCC countries Dr Ajeel Al-Nashmi maintains that women have the right to participate in political issues by expressing their opinions or demanding their rights in the media.

Women from the physical point of view are not fit to practice politics that requires debating, staying awake for long hours at night, appearing before men and mingling with them, Al-Nashmi indicated. Update HERE.

December 15, 2011
Norway (translation by IslamInEurope)
“70% of the increase in crime and domestic violence at Christmas are of families of non-Norwegian background. The cultures we speak of drink little alcohol and don’t celebrate Christmas,” Stein Erik Olsen told Nettavisen. “What we’ve seen in Stovner (borough) is that the number of cases goes down during Ramadan.”

Olsen says one of the challenges with other cultures is that they have their own laws and a different attitude towards women than what is accepted in Norwegian society. “In the worst of our cases it’s quite extreme who the culture rules the family, and how laws and regulations different than the Norwegian ones apply.

Pakistan (hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
Kashmala Bibi (a false name used to protect the woman) says her cousin’s breasts were cut into pieces when five militants walked into their house and saw the woman breastfeeding her child. One of the insurgents then asked the other women around to eat the pieces.

This is one of the many tales of horror recorded in a report titled “Impact of crisis on women and girls in Fata”. The report, released by human rights organisation “Khwendo Kor” (Sisters’ Home in Pashto) with financial support from UN-women, is based on case studies of women from the tribal belt living in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s IDP camps.

Forced marriages, honour killings, exchange of women between tribes and marriages with first cousins resulting in disabilities of offspring have made the women in the tribal areas increasingly dependent. The role of women in society has decreased from 39% to 19%.

Bangladesh (hat tip to Atlas Shrugs)
Human rights groups in Bangladesh have demanded a severe punishment for the husband of a young woman who allegedly cut off most of her right hand. Police say Rafiqul Islam, 30, attacked her because she pursued higher education without his permission. The incident is one of a number of acts of domestic violence targeting educated women in recent months.

December 18, 2011
Egypt (hat tip to American Thinker)
Egyptian soldiers beat female protesters with metal poles as they dragged the women through the streets.

Clashes with security forces continued for a third day yesterday near Egypt’s parliament. Soldiers erected huge concrete barricades, but an exchange of stones and firebombs continued. The army also used water tanks to spray the crowd and fired gun shots in the air.

At least ten have been killed in the violence, including two children aged 12 and 13. Two died after their skulls were fractured by stones thrown during the battles and at least six were shot dead, despite army and government claims that no live fire was being used. Update HERE.

December 19, 2011
Pakistan (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
A teenage Pakistani woman on Monday told of her terror as her husband chopped off her nose and lips in a furious marital row, and threatened to kill herself unless the police brought him to justice. The horrifying case underscores the brutal violence suffered by some women in Pakistan, where a domestic violence bill lapsed in 2009 after being held up in the Senate due to objections from religious parties.

December 20, 2011
Egypt – Libya – Tunisia
The Arab Spring revolutions put women’s rights in the spotlight. The tendency toward fundamental Islam rule in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia will be detrimental for equal rights for women.

“I think where the Islamic laws will eventually bite is the rights of women. They already have declared (in Libya) that polygamy rules will be relaxed and who knows where that is going to go,” said Laleh Khalili, senior lecturer in Middle East Politics at the University of London.

December 21, 2011
Pakistan
At least 675 Pakistani women and girls were murdered during the first nine months of 2011 for allegedly defaming their family’s honor, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan report said Tuesday. “Some victims were raped or gang raped before being killed, he said. At least 19 were killed by their sons, 49 by their fathers and 169 by their husbands,” he added.

The report underscores the pervasive violence against women in conservative Muslim Pakistan, where there are no domestic violence laws and authorities faced with ‘honor killings’ prefer to leave such matters in the hands of local elders.

December 22, 2011
Egypt
An adviser to Egypt’s military rulers said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday that a brutal attack on a female protester by Egyptian soldiers on Saturday was justified because the woman had insulted the army.

Thousands of Egyptian women took to the streets of Cairo this week to protest the beating of the woman, whose black abaya was stripped back to reveal her underwear during the attack. Asked about video and photographs of soldiers hitting and kicking the woman, Gen. Abdel Moneim Kato, a retired officer who advises the ruling military council in Cairo, told the Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that the female activist “had been insulting the army through a megaphone” before she was stripped and beaten.

Canada (hat tip to Vladtepesblog)
A video interview with Ezra Levant: “The War on Muslim Women and Girls.” (warning: graphic images)

December 25, 2011
Sri Lanka (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
A Muslim extremist style killing has been reported from Sammanthurai of Ampara district of Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, police say. According to the police, a Muslim father has allegedly beaten his underage daughter to death yesterday evening. The 17-year-old daughter was killed by father allegedly for having a relationship with a person belonged to another religion

Iran
Authorities in Iran said Sunday they are again moving ahead with plans to execute a woman sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery conviction in a case that sparked an international outcry, but are considering whether to carry out the punishment by hanging instead. More HERE.

Pakistan
Read an exclusive interview with Asia Bibi by Pam Geller. Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, has been sentenced to death under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy law for insulting Islam. She is now in prison. The law is often used to settle grudges, persecute minorities and fan rage of the Islamic devout.

December 26, 2011
Israel (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
Bedouin and other Arabs in the northern Negev are increasingly involved in predatory relationships with young Jewish girls, according to Voice of Israel government-run radio. The relationships sometimes begin as romantic involvements, often with under-aged minors, and develop into rape, abductions and abuse.

Seven victims last month alone are aged 11-18. These are only cases that were reported to police, but many others are believed to have taken place without being reported. Complaints were filed to the police in four cases of such abductions last month in Kiryat Malachi alone, and a fifth case of rape.

December 28, 2011
Britain (hat tip to Atlas Shrugs)
The number of women from Britain’s ethnic communities coming forward to report so-called “honour” attacks has more than doubled in three years, new figures show

December 29, 2011
Turkey (hat tip to Atlas Shrugs)
In the wake of a report that 160 women were murdered in Turkey in 2011 by male partners or relatives, some are calling for women at risk to be given free guns and lessons in how to use them.

The new statistics, released by the group “We Will Stop the Murders of Women”, paint a dire portrait of the state of women’s rights in Turkey, as the Istanbul newspaper Today’s Zaman writes.

Afghanistan (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
Sporting or extra-curricular activities have become a new Taliban-imposed taboo for tribal students as militants targeted two schools in the Khyber tribal region for letting students, including girls, compete in sports or cultural events.

“Girls’ education is also considered un-Islamic by these self-proclaimed champions of the religion of Islam. … They have now started targeting schools where students, particularly girls, had participated in any extra-curricular activities.”

December 30, 2011
Afghanistan (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
A video shows the extent of the injuries suffered by a 15 year-old Afghan child bride Sahar Gul who was locked up and tortured by her husband. According to officials in northeastern Baghlan province, Gul’s in-laws kept her in a basement for six months, ripped her fingernails out, tortured her with hot irons and broke her fingers – all in an attempt to force her into prostitution. Police freed her after her uncle called authorities. (Warning: graphic images) More HERE. And HERE.

January 2, 2012
Libya
Ten percent of the seats in a proposed Libyan constituent assembly will be reserved for women, a draft electoral law published on Monday said, triggering harsh reaction from a human rights watchdog.

The Libyan Human Rights Alliance strongly criticised the proposed bill. “As it is now, Libyan women currently make up over 50% of the population in Libya, and the idea that they will be strictly limited to only 20 seats is extremely outrageous,” said the alliance in a statement released in English.

January 3, 2012
Gambia
A number of religious leaders in Gambia have called for a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) which is widely seen as an obligation for Muslim women in the country, Gambia’s Daily Observer newspaper reports. Imams and traditional chiefs have joined women’s groups in calling for a law against FGM (also known as female circumcision), which they say puts women’s reproductive health at risk.

Germany
This is a short “must-see” video of a Catholic nun who works with Iraqi Christian girls who have been raped and tortured by Muslim men. The title is “This Is What Islam Does” [to Kafir women].

Norway
All sexual assaults involving rape in past 5 years were committed by “non-Western” males. In this video, the politically correct Norwegians never identify the men as Muslims but will only call them, “Asian.”

Pakistan (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
Three men entered the home of a married Pakistani woman named Jameela’s and tried to assault her. When Jameela put up resistance, they beat her black and blue before tearing her clothes off.

Bangladesh
A total of 6,616 women fell victim to repression across the country last year, says the report. Of them, 1,014 women were victims of stalking, 96 were killed after rape and 38 died after being set on fire. Moreover, 81 women were acid burnt while two of them died following the attacks.

January 5, 2012
Pakistan (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
A woman was beaten with a stick allegedly by her husband for threatening to leave him.

Pakistan (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
A Pakistani woman was attacked and killed by her brother-in-law. Zahida, 37, was reportedly strangled, shot and then burned to death in her house by her sister’s husband, Muneer Ahmed.

January 4, 2012
Norway (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
A Norwegian girl was brutally attacked by her boyfriend as she refused to marry him. Twenty four year old Sulvy Leopreez Sakkur was severely beaten by her Egyptian millionaire boyfriend.

The lady confirmed the news in an interview with Al Wafd newspaper. She identified her boyfriend as Ahmed AL Ajati, the son of Egyptian millionaire Yahiya Al Ajati. She said, “The reason behind this was because I refused to marry him and asked him to end our relationship”.

January 6, 2012
India (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
Junior girls in Muslim Orphanage, the state’s biggest orphanage run by the Waqf Board, have been found to be sexually abused by their seniors under the patronage of some of the orphanage staffers.

“Several junior inmates of the orphanage confirmed that they were not only sexually harassed by their seniors but were also forced to witness homosexual acts. Instances of senior girls torturing and beating their juniors if their demands were not met, too, came to light.”

Pakistan (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
A mother of six was smothered to death by her husband after 17 years of marriage on Wednesday evening, allegedly for refusing to take a divorce. The woman had allegedly had a relationship with another man. The husband said he had no regrets as he had saved his family’s ‘honour’ by punishing a woman who was disloyal to her husband.

January 7, 2012
Kuwait (hat tip to InfidelsAreCool)
A Kuwaiti man shaved the head of his sister who he thought was indulging in immoral acts, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily. The man discovered a series of ‘love messages’ on his sister’s phone and decided to teach her a lesson. Sources say the girl tried in vain to convince her brother that the messages were sent by her friends in school.

January 9, 2012
Britain (hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
A devout Muslim held his ex-wife prisoner on the toilet for an hour and physically assaulted her as punishment for wearing Western clothes.

Khalique Miah has been jailed for 18 months for the attack on Zahanara Begum.She was on the loo when her former husband burst in dressed in black, wielding a hammer and referring to her underwear as ‘Satan’. Miah, 35, covered her mouth with a gloved hand to stop her screaming, punched her in the chest and stomach, then climbed on top of her, holding her in place, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Norway (hat tip to TheReligionOfPeace)
An overwhelming majority of men convicted of rape in Stavanger in the last three years come from first and second-generation immigrant communities, a review of the city’s court rulings has shown.

Turkey (Hat tip to WomensNewsNetwork)
Women’s rights groups are preparing for a meeting this week with Family and Social Policy Minister Fatma Sahin, who drafted a new bill to address cases of violence against women in Turkey, where almost half of all women say they have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of their husbands or partners.

Egypt
Female demonstrators have suffered sexual assaults at the hands of Egyptian soldiers protected by military courts. Human rights groups say they have documented the cases of at least 100 women who were sexually assaulted by soldiers or the security police during the time of military rule.

January 10, 2010
Pakistan (hat tip to TheReliginOfPeace)
Police officials claim to have arrested Waqas Bajwa, suspected of slaughtering his wife and child, from Quetta. According to police officials Bajwa was implicated for killing his wife, infant daughter and a neighbour on December 18, 2011. The suspect allegedly fled the scene after committing the triple murder.

Afghanistan
The rights organization Oxfam International reports that 87 percent of Afghan women have experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence, as well as forced marriage, which Amnesty International says account for 80 percent of all marriages. According to the UK-based charity, Womankind, more than half of all girls married are not yet 16.

January 13, 2012
Switzerland (hat tip to JihadWatch)
A Swiss prosecutor has described as a “veritable slaughter” the vicious axe murder of a 16-year-old girl by her 53-year-old Pakistani father, who believed his daughter had tarnished her family’s honour

January 16, 2012
Pakistan
Within the past three months, nine women have been abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. MPA Javed adds that the purpose is not to gain good deeds, but to sell them. A majority of the Christian girls converted are married, he says.

January 17, 2012
Sudan
A leading Sudanese opposition figure is under heavy criticism for proposing that women be allowed to lead prayers in mosques. Sadiq Al-Mahdi, who is a former prime minister in the government, has also been pushing for the abolition of the niqab, the female face veils, as a way of ‘freeing’ Muslim women in Sudan.

Reacting to the proposals, the Shari’a Association of Scholars and Preachers of Sudan denounced the comments as “blasphemy” and demanded the opposition leader atone or face trial. The association is charged with the responsibility of defending Islam, a religion that has strict guidelines for women, especially on dressing.

January 18, 2012
UK
An increasing number of Muslim women activists are receiving death threats, fatwas and even hate-mail from extremist male and female Muslims. Their crime: Rescuing fellow Muslim women from violent and life threatening situations.

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