I feel like I should offer up some kind of apology for the lack of posts on here recently, but I know that people who read this blog are a pretty forgiving bunch, so I won’t. I’ve not even got any excuse for the silence to be honest, I just haven’t felt like writing anything; or at least, I haven’t felt inspired to write anything (well, nothing that couldn’t be covered by 140 characters in a tweet anyway), and as I’ve said before, I’m really not into writing just for the sake of it, so I try not to.

But lots of other people have been writing, and lots of things have been going on in the world, so I thought I’d do one of my rare linky posts today to highlight some of them:

Following on from the arrest of Manal al-Sherif for “besmirching the kingdom’s reputation abroad and stirring up public opinion“, women in Saudi Arabia have taken to the wheel today in defiance of the Saudi ban on women drivers – Saudi Arabia women drive cars in protest at ban

A TrustLaw poll of experts has named Afghanistan as the most dangerous country in the world for women. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India, and Somalia are also in the top (or should that be bottom?) five – Full result

Somalia’s women’s minister, Maryan Qasim, is shocked that her country was only at number 5 – The women of Somalia are living in hell

The long awaited Bailey Review into the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood has been published. Some of us (well me anyway) have vowed to read it from cover to cover, but only once we’ve recovered from the revelation that the Chief Exec of the Mother’s Union is a bloke called Reg, and he’s not a mum – Letting Children be children

The London Slutwalk took place last Saturday. The media treated it mainly as an opportunity to publish photos of scantily clad women (just for a change), and rumours abound that the whole thing was ultimately appropriated by the ECP and other Wages for Housework groups. More on that anon no doubt – Slutwalk London

Melinda Tankard Reist has a great piece up by Christine Jackman about the abuse women are subjected to on the Internet. And yes, I know I already linked to this in my CiF piece last week, but some people might have missed it, and it’s important – Bitch shut your mouth: e.bile against women who speak out

And that’s about it for now, although please feel free to point out anything you think I might have missed and post links etc in the comments.