Friday Links | October 24, 2014

Iran has arrested four men in connection to the acid attacks on women in the Iranian city of Esfahan. Large numbers of Iranians have demonstrated against the attacks, allegedly aimed at women that were not properly veiled, in the cities of Esfahan and Tehran.

Last week, Nigeria’s government announced a truce with Boko Haram, which was broken by the militant group soon after. While negotiations were on the way to return the hundreds of school girls to their families, on Thursday it was said by locals that Boko Haram had kidnapped again, this time dozens of women and girls from two villages in northern Nigeria. While the Chibok school girl kidnapping has made headlines across the world, Boko Haram has taken many young men, women and children by force.

Three American teenage girls were stopped at Frankfurt airport in Germany, allegedly on their way to join ISIL in Syria. The three girls are not alone: more (young) women (and men) seem to be interested in joining ISIL in Syria and Iraq, not only from the USA, but also from countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Malaysia.
Meanwhile ISIL has released a video in which a young woman gets stoned to death, in the presence of her father. The reports of slavery and ISIL’s treatment of women, and their claim that these actions are permitted in Islam, have many Muslims outraged.

Largely due to the large involvement of Tunisian women during and after the revolution, the post-revolution constitution is viewed to be the most progressive in the Arab region.

The number of Saudi girls running away from home is said to be on the rise; one expert suggests that there are external networks at work forcing these girls in “vice.”

Human Rights Watch calls on the UAE to protect its (female) migrant domestic workers, after a report that indicates that many women are exploited and abused, and unable to leave.

A Somali teenager has been stoned to death by Al-Shabab for allegedly raping a woman; he insists they had consensual sex.

Global Voices Online features an interview with Bahraini activist Maryam Al Khawaja.

A Nigerian court has decided that the ban of hijab in public schools in the Lagos state is not discriminatory and does not breach the law in any way, and therefore will be upheld.

In Pakistan’s Hunza valley, women are breaking taboos by being trained in professions that were traditionally done by men, such as carpentry and mountaineering.

The Saudi Interior Ministry warns women not to join driving ban protests by driving themselves, after calls on social media for women to post pictures and/or films of them driving have intensified over the last few weeks.

A research suggests that one of the reasons why (female) converts of Latin American background choose Islam is because they are repelled by certain “Western” values.

During a performance at the Paris Opera, some of the singers noticed a woman in face veil in the public and refused to continue, unless she would remove her veil or leave. The woman and her companion left.