Saudi women’s rights activists Thursday posted photographs and videos of themselves behind the wheel on social media websites, defying a de-facto ban on women driving in the kingdom. The social media flurry came two days after three female members of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council requested that the issue be discussed in the forum.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced its selection Friday morning and it wasn't Malala. (The prize went to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.) To find out how that news was received among school girls, I stopped by the Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) — a public high school near Cape Town, South Africa, that I have been profiling this year.

If you want to change the world, invest in a girl. Today marks the second anniversary of International Day of the Girl, instituted by the United Nations General Assembly to promote the rights of girls, highlight the unique challenges they face around the world, and reaffirm a global commitment to protect and empower them. Given worldwide violence, extremism, poverty, and injustice, we cannot afford to cast aside the contributions that 850 million girls can make to build a safer, more prosperous, and equitable world.

While Muslim women wearing niqabs in Britain might be a constant bugbear for EDL types, it's generally not something the rest of the population are particularly concerned about. But once every couple of years, a "niqabi" demands the right to keep wearing the veil in a situation where other people think it shouldn't be worn, so it becomes a Big Deal for a while and the media kick up a grand, preachy fuss until it all blows over.

Nearly 35 years after the Islamic Revolution, gender discrimination is still a challenging issue for Iran. On the one hand, the situation for Iranian women has improved considerably in many respects under the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). On the other, there is a clear and seemingly impregnable ceiling for women in administrative and government positions.

The Executive Director of U.N. Women says your tweets can help stop violence against women. “I would like all those men and boys…to stand up against violence against women,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said during the 2013 Social Good Summit Sunday. She explained that men can make a difference by “tweeting about it, hosting conversations, fighting against those sites that abuse women.”

The business world is awash with talk of soft power. It is, say gurus and thinkers, the key to durable success and it's largely thanks to women that the trend has risen to prominence. But what is it? Well, simply put, soft power is the application of emotional intelligence.

She has already made history by becoming the first woman assigned to one of Pakistan's front line dogfighting squadrons. Now at the age of 26 Flight Lieutenant Farooq says she is ready for the ultimate test. "If war breaks out, I will be flying on my senior's wing as his wingman, well, wingwoman," she said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph at the headquarters of the Pakistan Air Force in Islamabad.