Catwalk models at Italian fashion designer Guillermo Mariotto's most recent show wore green wrist bands in a show of solidarity with the "green movement" in Iran.

Mariotto himself wore a T-shirt with "Neda Alive" written on the front.

See still pics of the show's stunning fashions here, a Farsi-language video of the show here and Iran-related links here.

More than 200 female Muslim scholars and community leaders from around the world have gathered in the Malaysian capital this weekend to launch an ambitious initiative to reinterpret Islamic teachings, in the hope of improving the lot of Muslim women around the world.

“We’re thrilled to build upon the collective experiences of Muslim women from around the world and establish a true global support network of Muslim women working for social change at the dawning of this new political era," said Daisy Khan, one of the organisers.

Click here for the full story by:
Rasha Elass
The National, Abu Dhabi

Related links:
Conference told of plan for female Muftis (an excellent folo by the same reporter)

This image taken by UK politician Pete Pattison is from a photo essay in The Economist on slavery in modern-day India, where poor people may not be in chains, but they are shackled by debt, paid virtually nothing and treated harshly.

Susan: I can't helped but feel sickened when I read stories such as this one. Honestly, it makes me physically ill.

A court on Tuesday halved the jail term of a 29-year-old man who shot his raped sister 12 times and killed her "in the name of honour", a judicial official said.

The Criminal Court initially sentenced the man to 15 years with hard labour for killing his sister in 2008 in Mwaqqar, but immediately reduced it to seven-and-a-half years. The judgement can be appealed within 30 days.

"The woman disappeared from home for six months after she was raped last year," the official told AFP.

"Police kept the woman in custody for her protection and later handed her over to the family, but the brother shot her 12 times in different parts of her body once she arrived home, killing her immediately."

Read the full story in:
The Jordan Times

Women continue to struggle to gain equal access to education, the job market and political life in much of the Arab world, according to the UN’s latest report on combating poverty.

The yearbook on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), released by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, reveals that global economic slump is undermining attempts to tackle hunger, illiteracy and gender equality.

Researchers highlight the “particularly dismal” progress on women’s rights in parts of the Arab world, where women suffer as second-class citizens in politics, education and the workplace.

The so-called Western Asia region, which encompasses Arabia, the Levant, Iraq, Turkey and Cyprus, has a disproportionately low number of girls in schools and what researchers describe as “extremely low” job prospects for women.