Friday Links — December 5, 2008

• The Times Online reports on Britain’s only Muslim women’s cycling club.

• The Philadelphia Inquirer profiles Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a documentary about Muslim and Christian Liberian women joining together to stop Liberia’s civil war.

• Amid backlash, Malaysian authorities back down on the yoga ban. More analysis from The Star Online and Sun2Surf.

• On activism against violence against women in the Muslim community in South Africa.

• The Muslim News reports on a conference addressing women in Islamic resistance.

• Indian Muslims interviews Naish Hasan, who states that Muslim women need their own leadership.

• Al-Ahram Weekly states that more and more Egyptian women are enrolling in business education courses to help them enrich their skill sets and local communities.

• The Dubai Women’s Establishment held a forum in late November to encourage Emirati women to take up leadership roles.

• Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he wants more women in government.

• Dr. A. Rashid Yassin Ebrahim justifies polygyny in rural areas for the Yemen Times. Did I mention that Dr. Ebrahim is a horticulturist?

• Pakistan’s Daily Times reviews Women in Islam and the Middle East, edited by Ruth Roded.

• Fantasia’s World condemns Egyptian housewives for making Egypt poor. Ouch. Via Global Online Voices.

• Various Kurdish rights groups demonstrated against a law in Kurdish Parliament that allows polygyny. More on the law here.

• Daily Star Egypt profiles Khaltet Fawzeya, an Egyptian film about a serial divorcer.

• Middle East Online reviews the book The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie.

• Two sisters were buried alive as they slept when a landslide hit their home in Malaysia. May Allah give them peace.

• A non-governmental organization gives rural Egyptian women the tools to run for local political offices.

• Turkey’s Gulsum Tatar wins a gold medal for women’s boxing.

• Jordan gets its first all-female team of landmine clearers. More from AFP and IRIN.

• Lobna Khairy writes about sexual harassment in Egypt for the American Chronicle.

• Kenya’s Shakila Abdalla is the first woman from a Muslim majority area in the country to run for a seat in the Kenyan parliament.

• Syria Today profiles painter Sara Shamma.

• Lebanon’s The Daily Star reports more on the U.N. fund to eliminate violence against women.

• The Washington Post relates the increase of Iraqi women driving despite dangerous conditions.

• Current TV examines programs to help educate female genital cutting practitioners in Sierra Leone that aim to wean their economic dependence on the practice. Via Jezebel.

• Hundreds of Muslim women take to the streets in Nepal to demonstrate against the treatment they receive after divorce.

• On the International Fortnight on Crime Against Women in India.

• Najla Al Awadi writes about empowering women through economic development in the U.A.E.

• IslamOnline shares the activities of a support group for HIV-positive Muslim women in Ghana.

• The Daily Orange examines Muslim women and headscarves on campus.

• InsideDesi’s Seleena Lloyd doesn’t care much for Sarah Maple.

• Islam in Europe announces that a Turkish-Dutch woman has won Miss Netherlands, Amsterdam’s honor violence hotline has received 84 calls this year, and a Dutch fashion designer and experimental artist collaborate in an attempt to depoliticize the burqa.

• Al Arabiya reports on the U.N.’s denunciation of Iranian crackdowns on women’s rights activists.

• Nuseiba’s Farah B talks about culture and identity in the diaspora.

Last Week, Queen Rania of Jordan won YouTube’s Visionary Award for her YouTube campaign (which we covered last year). Here is a clip of her acceptance speech. Via Jezebel.

• The Nation writes reviews Pardis Mahdavi’s new book, Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution.

• The New York Times‘ Nicholas Kristoff writes about the terrorism of acid attacks.

• HijabTrendz interviews designer Kulsoom Kazmi.

• The Guardian details the horrifically unabashed rise in honor killings in Iraq.

• The Iranian government plans to set up bureaus designed to help people find marriage partners.

• Queen Rania is everywhere: she’s now spearheading a campaign against corporal punishment in Jordanian schools.

• The Australian National Imams Council condemned a recent study by the Islamic Women’s Welfare Council of Victoria that accused Muslim clerics of sanctioning domestic violence. More about the report here.

• A real case of babies having babies.

• Saudi businesswomen feel that providing hair stylists with contracts from the Ministry of Labour would give them more confidence in their jobs.

• The LA Times profiles Egyptian poet Iman Bakry’s thoughts on Egypt’s political future.

• The Guardian publishes Malalai Joya’s experience in the Afghan parliament the day she was thrown out.

• Nadira Artyk describes her negotiation through Muslim and Uzbek identities. Via Tabsir.

• MuslimMatters reports on the MANA conference’s initiative on marriage and the excesses of “hijab parties.”

• The Feminist School reports on recent news of website filtering and executions of two women.

• Iranian filmmaker Bahareh Hosseini’s “Afghan Girls Can Kick” explores positive themes surrounding Afghan girls’ involvement in soccer.

• Iran’s Atousa Pourkashiyan has been awarded the Grandmaster title at the 38th Chess Olympiad in Germany.

• WLUML links to a report that promotes women’s human rights through a strategic marriage contract in Morocco and the grilling of a Bangladeshi university for exonerating a professor accused of sexual harassment and the suspension of female students who complained about him.

• The Iranian women’s handball team beat Uzbekistan in the Asian Women’s Handball Championships held in Bangkok.

• Hijab Style profiles a new clothing company designed with Muslim women in mind.

• Zahra Bahman writes about how traditional conservativism in Afghanistan continues to play itself out on women. Via ifeminists.

• Hasan Mahmud writes about modern-day Sharia’s misinterpretation of women’s right to divorce. Via Progressive Muslima News.

• A Muslim lawyer wins a lawsuit against her dickhead employer.

• A Jordanian man is given seven years in prison for killing his sister.

• Halima Ali writes about hajj and culture shock.

• The AccoLade gets coverage in Middle East Online.

• A nurse speaks about teenagers, hymens, and virginity.

• Canadian troops’ efforts to improve women’s agency in Afghanistan and Afghans’ reactions.

• Islam in Europe and ProgressiveIslam look at the EU’s ruling that headscarf bans are not a human rights violation.

• Cycads discusses the governance of female sexuality by men in Malaysia.

• On colorful fashions on Malaysia’s catwalks.

• Ghada Abdel-Khader examines fashion and identity for Al-Ahram Weekly .

• Turkey jails Kurdish activist Leyla Zana.

• Global Voices Online has more about the murder of Heba and Nadine, which we covered yesterday.

• Middle East Online reports on the increase of Iraqi policewomen.

• Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, an author, professor, and champion of women’s rights in the Middle East, died this week. May Allah grant her and her family peace.

• Women’s eNews profiles Afghan journalist Farida Nekzad. Via ifeminists.

• Islamfemina highlights a Jewish-Muslim Women’s Circle in Atlanta, Georgia.