Africa: Impact of Shariah On Gender and Sexual Minorities (The Inner Circle)
3/07/2009 Over the last decade The Inner Circle (TIC) has discovered that Muslims who are queer struggle to make peace with their sexuality and their faith. They often trade in the one at the expense of the other and find it difficult to accept both identities. Through various interventions, TIC has made some inroads and empowered quite a number of Muslims who are queer and imparted tools that help them to retain both identities and resolve related conflicts. However these individuals still have to go to their orthodox, often very conservative, communities at the end of the day and they are not empowered to deal with the residing homophobia in their communities.

France: Ban the Burqa (The New York Times)
3/07/2009 "I am a Muslim, I am a feminist and I detest the full-body veil, known as a niqab or burqa", writes Mona Eltahawy "It erases women from society and has nothing to do with Islam but everything to do with the hatred for women at the heart of the extremist ideology that preaches it. We must not sacrifice women at the altar of political correctness or in the name of fighting a growingly powerful right wing that Muslims face in countries where they live as a minority.

Israel/Gaza: AI report on 22 days of death and destruction (Amnesty International)
3/07/2009 To date, five months after the end of Operation “Cast Lead”, the Israeli authorities have failed to establish any independent and impartial investigation into the conduct of their forces and actively oppose any such investigations being established. They have refused to co-operate with and to grant access to the country to an international independent fact finding
mission set up by the UN Human Rights Council and headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, undermining its ability to fulfil its mission. They have also rejected the findings of a UN Board of Inquiry, which investigated nine attacks on UN facilities and personnel during Operation “Cast Lead."

Syria: Honour killing law amended (BBC News)
3/07/2009 Syria has scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences handed down to men convicted of killing female relatives they suspect of having illicit sex. Women's groups had long demanded that Article 548 be scrapped, arguing it decriminalised "honour" killings. Activists say some 200 women are killed each year in honour cases by men who expect lenient treatment under the law.

UPDATE: India: Court decriminalises gay sex (Reuters)
3/07/2009 An Indian court ruled gay sex was not a crime, a verdict that will bolster demands by gay and health groups that the government scrap a British colonial law, which bans homosexual sex. In a country where public hugging and kissing even among heterosexuals invites lewd remarks and sometimes beatings, gay sex has been a taboo, leaving the government unsure how conservative Indians would react if the law was repealed.

Egypt: Women's political participation critical to addressing developmental issues (IPS)
2/07/2009 Egypt elected the first Arab woman to parliament in 1957, but in the half century since, the most populous country in the Arab world has gone from being a leader in women's political participation to a lagger. "Many Arab countries went ahead, but Egypt stayed behind," says Hoda Badran, head of the Cairo-based Alliance for Arab Women (AAW). Female parliamentary representation has declined since 1984, when women occupied 36 of the 458 seats in the People's Assembly, the lower house of Egypt's parliament. Women secured just nine of 454 seats in the last legislative election in 2005. Only four women were elected, the rest were appointed by the president.

Iran: Stoning to be omitted from penal laws (Press TV)
2/07/2009 Head of the Majlis judiciary commission Ali Shahrokhi says stoning, heresy and cutting hands will be omitted from Iran's penal laws. “The Majlis judiciary commission studied the new Islamic punishment bill and decided that it is unnecessary to include some penalties, such as stoning, in the law,” Shahrokhi told IRNA on Monday.

Pakistan: Women Rights & Ground Realities (WWO)
2/07/2009 An investigative report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) claims that one woman is raped every hour, while another is killed on the pretext of karokari. According to a Human Rights Watch report 95 percent women are the victims of domestic violence. Under pressure from the male relatives, the decaying concepts of family honour and economic dependence the victims seldom raise their voice against the cruelty. If someone dares to speak out, her voice is suppressed either by the family elders or police and other law-enforcement agencies, including the flawed judicial system, writes Simy Zafar (General Secretary of the Working Women Organization).

Indonesia: Presidential Poll Race Disappoints Women’s Activists (IPS)
1/07/2009 As the country prepares to elect its new president next week, Indonesian activists are trying to push gender issues onto the political agenda. Three candidates will contest the presidential election on Jul. 8. The incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is a strong favourite to win, but neither Yudhoyono nor his challengers - current Vice President Jusuf Kalla and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri - have presented a platform for dealing with women-specific problems.

India: A nation's gay revolution (The Guardian)
1/07/2009 The Indian government is reviewing legislation that outlaws homosexuality. The Indian gay and lesbian community may have been told not to get their hopes up about the government decriminalising homosexuality, but the fact that talks have even begun this week to discuss repealing section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, should be cause to celebrate. In India, homosexuality is illegal and carries a life sentence.