Media reports indicate that the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is planning to lower the age of marriage for women. Afghanistan’s First Lady Rula Ghani wants to set an example for women in her country. Will she be succesful? Read more for women’s news that made it to the headlines in the last few days.

Bangladesh: Don’t Lower Marriage Age

The Bangladeshi government should set 18 as the minimum age for marriage to comply with international prohibitions against child marriage, Human Rights Watch said. Recent media reports indicate the prime minister’s cabinet is considering a revision to the law to make 16 the minimum age of marriage for girls. The minimum age for men would be 18. Read more here.

A letter from Dr Abdus Salam to Malala

This post in Pakistani newspaper Dawn is an imagined piece on what Dr. Abdus Salam, Nobel peace prize recipient, would have told Malala today. Read more here.

Islamic State admits, justifies enslaving Yazidi women and children

The Islamic State has admitted and tried to justify enslaving and selling Yazidi women and children, captured during a blitz advance in Iraq and Syria. In an article published in the latest issue of the jihadist Dabiq magazine, a major PR instrument of ISIS, the group described the fate faced by the Yazidi minority after jihadists launched their onslaught on Sinjar region in Iraqi Kurdistan in August. Read more here.

US nurse  contracts Ebola

A nurse here became the first person to contract Ebola within the United States, prompting local, state and federal officials who had settled into a choreographed response to scramble on Sunday to solve the mystery of how she became infected, despite wearing protective gear, and to monitor additional people possibly at risk. Read more here.

India’s acid victims still suffer despite new rules

THE Indian teenager’s voice trembles as she recalls the day she lost her face when her brother-in-law and his friends pinned her down and doused her with acid. Read more here.

German photographer Ann-Christine Woehrl took pictures of women who survived acid attacks – and discovered extraordinary strength.

ubedi and other members of the Hindu minority in Bhutan were banished by the king of their Himalayan mountain kingdom in an ethnic cleansing that began a quarter-century ago. Since then, tens of thousands of Bhutanese have moved to refugee camps across neighboring Nepal. Read more here.

First Lady Rula Ghani aims to elevate Afghanistan’s women

As the wife of the newly elected president, Rula Ghani stands to be the first publicly visible wife of an Afghan leader in nearly a century. Instead, Rula Ghani, a Lebanese Maronite Christian in a predominantly Muslim nation, wants to provide support for every “woman who wants to better herself and improve her standard of living within the context she is living now.” Read more here.