- Sudanese women use politics to inspire fashion.
- More news about the four Iranian women’s rights activists who have been jailed. Payvand News features an article from one of the three women.
- Faisal al Yafai writes eloquently about feminism in the Muslim Middle East and Western feminists’ problem with the veil. Cycads weighs in.
- Clothing store Mango plans to open in Tehran by the end of the year. I am jealous.
- Afghan women become policewomen in Herat. Via GlobalVoices.
- Rickshaw Diaries covers Islamic Fashion Week. Via DeenPort.
- Middle East Online interviews Maheen Zia, founder of the Union for Short Filmmakers of Muslim Countries.
- Yemen Journey explains how her viewpoint on Islamic orthodoxy has changed after visiting Tarim, Yemen and whether women should visit without mahram escorts. Via DeenPort.
- Latifah Wadih of New York is missing. Via Islamify. Etidal Abdullah of Lackawanna, New York, is also missing. May Allah keep them safe. Mujahideen Ryder has a post about what you can do. Via DeenPort.
- More news on the lawyer who won a discrimination case, which we reported on last week.
- And more news on the abandonment of the Iranian polygamy bill.
- Syria has opened its first women’s shelter. Improvisations gives her two cents.
- The Saudi Gazette reports on an Egyptian female-only beach.
- A sole woman has been appointed to a previously all-male Indian waqf board.
- The burqa will be banned in Dutch schools and universities. Islam in Europe gives a historic rundown of the issue.
- The Yemen Times features an article about Muslim women in marriage…written by a Muslim man.
- More news about Muslim swimsuits!
- Nuseiba discusses the image of the veiled Muslim woman on the cover of books.
- Achelois gives her thoughts on Queen Rania as a representative of Muslim women and shares two important websites that can spread awareness of human rights abuses.
- Kyla Pasha writes about the Baluchi honor killings in Pakistan for GlobalComment.
- Improvisations reports that a Saudi women’s rights group is launching a campaign against early marriages and that a Saudi researcher is arguing that the Prophet’s wife Ayesha was actually nineteen when she was married, instead of nine.
- IslamOnline’s Amara Bamba looks at the French hejab ban on its four-year anniversary. Via TalkIslam.
- Cycads gives her thoughts on the movie Four Women — One Man.
- A look at two Iranian plays that protest polygamy. Via Azadeh Pourzand.
- The Iranian government denies allegations that it’s discriminatory to women. Ohhhhhhhkay. More here.
- This story is heart-breaking. May Allah protect these three sisters, both from their father and from a system that refuses to listen to them.
- Al Jazeera looks at a family in the middle of Ireland’s hejab ban debate. The Irish Times reports about the group lobbying for the right to wear headscarves in schools and Ali Selim gives a pretty…uh…interesting opinion on Muslim women vs. non-Muslim women.
- Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has been granted bail. More from Al Jazeera.
- MidEast Youth’s Jahanshah Rashidian outlines Iran’s gender segregation and its history.
- MuslimMatters shares an interview with Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s sister.
- A Muslim woman claims that she has been fired from UPS because she wouldn’t “hike up her long skirt.”
- More about Egyptian women speaking out about harassment.
- Palestinian soap opera Matabb airs during Ramadan, and promises to be a thriller.
- Self-immolation is on the rise among Afghan women.
- The ruling that Dutch military forces are not liable for their failure to keep Bosnians doesn’t sit well with Bosnian mothers.
- During Ramadan, Algerian mosques become places to find a husband or wife.
- Al Jazeera shows one Iraqi refugee’s difficult journey to the U.S.
- The Guardian examines whether Iraqi female suicide bombers are villains or victims and profiles Dr. Roshanak Wardak.
- Shahed Amanullah argues that The Jewel of Medina is nothing for Muslims to fear. MuslimMatter’s AnonyMouse disagrees. Andrea Useem throws in her two cents for Slate. altmuslim’s interviews the author.
- A Muslim woman is conducting a study that needs African American Muslim women to participate. Via DeenPort.
- Ijtema profiles female calligrapher Ayten Tiryaki.
- Two women go on a drunken tirade against two Muslim women in Leeds, Britain.
- A movie about the woman who died after receiving a major beating opened at the Toronto Film Festival.
- The Philadelphia Daily News reports on the Philadelphia Police Departments’ ban on religious symbols (including the headscarf) and one female Muslim officer’s appeal.
- Local Chinese authorities have banned Muslim men from growing beards and Muslim women from wearing headscarves.
- Morocco has sent female preachers to expatriate communities in the West.
- After finishing an important exam, several girls in a Tanzanian school fainted.
- GlobalVoices examines the way Saudi women use religion to empower themselves and gain standing within the community.
- Nigerian women face societal pressure to get married.
- A Muslim filmmaker needs your help for her next project. Via DeenPort.
- Koonj writes about the single Muslim female. Via Ijtema.
- Iraq’s Minister for Women’s Affairs urges the government to rehabilitate “would-be” female suicide bombers.
- Lebanon’s Fadlallah urges women to become involved in politics.
- Irfan Yusuf writes that violence against [Muslim] women won’t stop until men speak out.
- The Nation interview’s KABOBfests’ May Alhassen.
- Achelois outlines the history of covering one’s hair for prayer.
- Sana Saeed writes about how Google ruined her life.
- Organica and Subtopian Sunni Sister write personal reflections about 9/11.
- The Washington Post has a few videos about hijab.
Tweet
Tags: Muslim women, News
From Anonymous’s critique of The Jewel of Medina:
“May Allah paralyze the tongues and limbs of those who knowingly and maliciously slander our beloved RasulAllah (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam)”
Eeeek. Alright, I get that we are “supposed” to get offended BUT even the Prophet didn’t get offended when people slandered him with words and actions. He would instead pray for them. So where TF did this come from??
Anonymous makes some really mean assumptions about the intentions of the author. Something she is not capable of knowing. Especially since many other Muslims have actually defended the book and have had no problem with it. Not all non-Muslims are out to get us!
On the Jewel of Medina article.
What baffles me about the whole situation is the author practically self censored herself because she was concerned of what the reaction “might” have been. And some those comments on the article really off putting.
Articles on Chinese authorities banning headscarves and beards.
*facepalm*
Don’t really know what to say about the sheer absurdity of that one.
Salaam alaikum,
This will be a developing story for some time in the US Muslim community:
Tens of thousands of Iraqis may come to U.S. in ’09
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080912/us_nm/iraq_usa_refugees_dc;_ylt=AgyN4KpWKp5l7jOHT.I0uS.s0NUE
The article is reporting that the US govt. is expecting a *minimum* 17,000 Iraqis to come to the US in fiscal year 09. At that rate, in 3 years the Iraqis will have exceeded the number of Somalis that came to the US over a period of 13 years. That’s alot of desperate, impoverished, traumatized Sunni and Shia to arrive all at once in American cities. US Muslims should start planning for this, and begin taking action now to help them integrate. I am sponsoring a family and volunteering at an agency that is working to help these people. I encourage other Muslims to do the same.
I’ve expanded on these thoughts a bit at my blog
http://www.progressiveislam.info/showDiary.do?diaryId=505
I read somewhere America has only accepted around 1,200 Iraqi refugees since the war began in 2003. Really generous from the country who claimed Iraqis needed to helped and sought their ‘liberation’.
The Harun Yahya post in the Yemen Times newspaper is an interesting one; not because of what Yahya writes about Men, Women and the Qur’an – but because Yemen is so anti-female in its interpretations and application of those interpretations on their society.
The establishment in Yemen, which ever one thinks is on top- a debatable point, doesn’t allow for women to be married without the consent of a male (hers does not count) even in the courts! Divorce is so easy and leaves a woman so destitute you can see the rows of them begging in the street (though some are professional beggars too). And the school rolls can’t hide the fact that the majority of the women leave school before they are considered literate, with child marriages -probably due to mass media attention- being at an all time high.
This newspaper has most recently run the gamut- from printing articles on the crises of the Healthcare for women in Yemen to the most disturbing series of “conversations” on whether men should marry educated women or uneducated ones…what women in Yemen aren’t human???!!! Sadly no, only objects…
So to see them put Harun Yahya is the epitome, to me of ironic and tinged with hypocrisy, their laws and their culture propagate female discrimination; yet when Yemen Times posts articles there is never a qualifier or disclaimer…so Yemeni take or leave it…most leave it…and women continue without one iota of space to call their own…
About the burka ban in the Netherlands – I find that unsurprising. The country itself has proven to have a poor track record in the inter-race/religion department. What I find surprising (only on hindsight) is the ban on the niqab/burka in public Malaysian universities. This ban was imposed when a ‘rogue’ form of fundamentalist Islam was emerging in 1990′s, and it was a way of weeding out the deviant followers in institutions of higher learning. It’s funny when the ban in European countries gather much more attention than its Muslim counterparts regarding these things.
The Netherland example marks a disturbing trend of hostility towards Muslim immigrants in that part of Europe, and Europe as a whole actually. Islamophobia is on the rise (see EUMC report 2001, and European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights report 2007). What’s fascinating about both the Netherlands and France is the number of Muslims who were wearing the condemned clothing at the time it became an ‘issue’. In the Netherlands there were reported no more than 20 women in the entire population who were wearing the burqa in 2006, when the debate began. In France, it was reported there were no more than 1200 girls who wore the hijab. Yet the reaction in both cases was hysterical– like it was an tidal wave of burqas and hijabs these countries had to deal with. Interesting.
The burqa and to a degree, the hijab, in today’s discourse is a political message in both a Western and Muslim context. The burqa especially is associated with Islamic movements and so in the case of Malaysia and other Muslim governments, it’s not really surprising that it’s either frowned upon or even banned. Considering these movements are perceived as a threat to many governments in the Muslim world. Tunisia also has a ban on the hijab, and you’re right, it hasn’t really been criticised for it. Most people don’t even know about it. Criticism should be given where it’s due, no matter who it is. However, in the case of the West, there’s a more sinister racist undertone to the banning of the burqa and the hijab. Which is perhaps why it gets more attention. Oh, and that minor detail these countries are meant to be democratic international law abiding states.
All too true, Anti-Flag. Totally agree with you.
On a more personal note, my parents live in the Netherlands, in an all-white neighborhood. When we go to town to do our shopping i.e. Rotterdam/the Hague, it’s always discomforting to find mostly immigrant-looking faces doing the worst jobs on the streets and shopping at the basement bargain marketplaces. Even on the surface and the day to day of society there exists a clear cut class divide. It’s not the healthiest place to grow up immigrant!
Yeah, I agree with you all, it’s sure not the healthiest place to grow up as an immigrant, but it still surpasses where ever the hell we emigrated from. Maybe I should speak for myself, or maybe I shouldn’t because I don’t know if y’all (Anti-flag, cycads) are average…(fill in whatever nationality) “males” in your native countries, whereas I am a WOMAN. And as a visible Muslim woman I either face xenophobia in these host nations, or I experience greater* prejudice and sexism as female in my native country. (Greater* sexism in comparisson to a developed country in terms of closer* equality for women in health, education, economics, politics and power)
So where do I go, for a fair chance? For me, one alternative is more of an unsatisfactory option than the other (and this depends on who you are).
You know what they say, if the cancer doesn’t kill you, then the chemotheraphy does!
And as a visible minority EVERYWHERE, let me remind you (if your males) without hesitation that my days of hostility are greater and worse than yours. So if there were a prize for the role of the victim, you can keep it. I don’t want it! I want the role of the leading lady, and that’s why I read the Muslimah Media Watch. Because, I’m done crying, I rather inform myself and somehow along the way EMPOWER myself when I’m faced between a rock and a hard place.
Cyclads: I lost my post to you. Stupid internet connection! Tell me about their experiences regarding racism there. Should be interesting to compare it with what i’ve read on the Netherlands.
The marginalisation of Muslim immigrants and immigrants in general actually is increasing not only in the Netherlands but broader Europe. Countries are adopting a more stricter and intolerant approach to immigrants. Assimilation is the only option for them. This unwelcoming attitude results in disgruntled immigrants feeling they can’t integrate into society and so stick to themselves and eventually create own communities in this ghettoisation . These communities are characterised by their unemployment, violence, lack of political representaton, many very poor… which is what we’re seeing in the banlieues of France. These socio-economic divisions are increasing in many parts of Europe. The funny thing is, the state blames them for such failings when it has been the state’s responsibility in the first place!
Laila, I agree. A hijabi is leading the ideological war some may call it, especially in identity politics in Europe and broader West. That’s great you refused to be a victim, and by doing so you subvert the Western secular and feminist discourse of the Muslim woman. However, i’m not a male! Although I don’t wear the hijab, i’ve struggled to fit into a community in New Zealand, where I was raised because it was so deeply homogeneous in appearance and thinking for such a long time. There were barely any Muslims around me for a long time. For instance, I wasn’t allowed to wear the standard school uniforms because they were too revealing, and having to explain why I had to make adjustments, at every institution I was in, until I got to university, isn’t exactly a pleasant experience. Then at university, being politically vocal has made me the subject of contention and hostility since. Just like you chose to wear the hijab and make yourself known, I have done the same, but in a different way.
Anti-flag, I feel you 110%, I had a rough time struggling in the Muslim community, I still do. I know what you mean by the greater marginalisation happening in Europe, I experienced that the Muslims in North America (just Canada, and USA, I don’t know about Mexico) are doing so much better than in Europe. I think a while ago there was a survey with the results that Muslims in North American have greater economic power than Muslims in Europe, and that North American Muslims have greater access to education, and that North American Muslims are more scattered across the country,
well it went something along those lines. I know, it’s extremely hard in Europe, especially in their acknowledgement of minorities and abuse. For sure, Canada and USA had to acknowledge the important role that minorites played in history much much earlier and still are, such as African Americans, Latinos, Natives/Aborignals, and Inuits (especially in Canada) and French Canadians. All these groups have deep, deep roots and struggles which paved the way and made it a little bit easier for Muslims in North America being a minority against the average white male. Something I can’t say for Europe.
P.S. I like your blog “Nuseiba”… what kick-ass name.
Addressing laila’s post.
That was something I’ve always found interesting, I’ve also heard that Muslims seem to have an easier time integrating in North America than they do in Europe. I wonder why that’s the case?
Yeah, statistics show that Muslims in in North America are doing better than in Europe. Perhaps that’s because a lot of the Muslim immigrants in Europe were from poorer backgrounds who went to Europe as labourers. That has made it difficult for them to climb the social and economic ladder. As for the treatment of Muslims, I think it’s fair to say, since ’911′, Islamophobia is rampant in both Europe and North America, as it is in Australia and New Zealand. However, there is a far more intimate historical relationship between Europe and the Muslim world than there is with North America. Many critics argue as a result of this history, an inherent racism towards Islam and the Muslim world exists in Europe, which is why Islamophobic ideas are more receptive, and perhaps Muslim socio-economic status is a reflection of this.
Glad you like the blog.
@sakurapassion:
I believe a part of the reason is because the US and Canada are countries of immigrants. There is no hard core, ingrained, American or Canadian culture. As far as Canada is concerned we’re a multicultural country. We have an official policy which appreciates and respects the diversity of cultures in our country. That is a part of Canadian culture (along with hockey and beer
)
Therefore, for immigrants in general it is a little easier since even the White Canadians were immigrants at some point.