Kashmiri Muslim women laugh as they push each other playfully outside a polling station in Wattergam, some 75 Kilometers (47 miles) from Srinagar, India. @ AP Photo/Dar Yasin

Zakia Soman is a founder member of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), a mass organization of muslim women in India. According to a survey conducted by her organization, more than 90 percent of Muslim women surveyed in India want the “triple talaq” divorce ritual and polygamy banned from family civil law in the country.

(Copyright: Reuters/S. Modola)

Female Genital Mutilation is a crime against women. This week’s edition of Women in the News takes a look at brave women who are willing to be a witness to help other women. Read also other news about women that made it to the headlines.

© imago

Worldwide an estimated 140 million females are affected by FGM. Check out here the scope of the problem in graphics and numbers, and read other news about women.

© picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Qadri

Several articles that we’ve posted triggered discussions between readers. Some of the topics are connected to religion and tradition. Check out here if your comment has been chosen for this week’s Comments of the Week.

© Aarthi Parthasarathy

Royal Existentials is a weekly web-comic series that uses Indian vintage art and imagery as a backdrop for contemporary dialogues. Members of the Mughal family contemplate on conflict, problems of patriarchy and feminism. The miniature paintings tell ironic stories of Queens and Handmaidens who talk about smashing Patriarchy.

© picture-alliance/dpa/J. Lai

According to Afghan police officials, unidentified attackers abducted a German female aid worker in Kabul. Read more about the story and other news about women here.

© Karolin Klüppel

Karolin Klüppel, a Berlin-based photographer, travelled to the Indian State of Meghalaya to capture one of the world’s rare matrilineal tribes through her photographic lens.