- Sweden’s Cherine Awad, one of the Halal TV hosts, may be Sweden’s first lawyer who wears a headscarf.
- Denmark has sentenced a mother for the female genital cutting of her daughters. More from the BBC. Via TalkIslam.
- Some Qatari women are insisting that clauses assuring them a separate home from their in-laws be included in their marriage contracts.
- Rime Allaf speaks on Gaza.
- Women’s rights supporters gather in Bahrain to discuss aiding survivors of domestic violence.
- A court in Pakistan has ruled that murder in order to protect a woman’s honor (i.e., self defense) is “no crime.”
- Saudi women may be driving by the end of the year. Via ProgressiveIslam.
- Turkey’s Hurriyet looks at love, women, and the cinema.
- Designer Nzinga Knight speaks with Hijabtrendz.
- The Taleban in Pakistan’ Swat valley have murdered a dancer and warned others. Via ProgressiveIslam.
- The Emirates’ Tawteen program helps girls learn skills to succeed in the business world.
- Morocco’s Union of Women’s Action holds seminars to educate Moroccans about domestic violence as the government fashions a bill to tackle the violence harder.
- Special needs couples wed in a mass marriage ceremony in Dubai.
- A Welsh Muslim woman’s savvy business skills help her juggle five children and hair salon.
- On clothing styles and hejab in Turkey.
- Male traffic officers in Bahrain will not be able to force veiled women drivers to show their face.
- The Australian cleric who has recently come under fire for his views on marital rape comes out with more astounding opinions. Via ProgressiveIslam.
- Qatari women raised money for Gaza aid.
- A bus offering information and advice about cervical cancer will tour Dubai in coming weeks to educate women about the disease.
- Pakistan’s The News states that women “in every third household” face violence.
- Female unemployment is high in Syria. More from Middle East Online.
- Women in Afghanistan still cover their heads. Duh.
- Rachida Dati has been forced to resign from Sarkozy’s government.
- Contrary to popular belief, divorce rates are not on the rise in Turkey.
- Sherry Rehman speaks out on women’s political representation in Pakistan.
- Finnish immigrants without language skills face difficulties.
- Canada extends a welcome mat to Masoda Younasy, granddaughter of Afghanistan’s last king.
- Dekha Ibrahim Abdi shares her history and her role as peacemaker.
- Menassat profiles Salwa al Neimi’s new book, Proof of Honey.
- Dubai’s only women’s shelter has started a campaign against domestic violence, using a makeup case.
- A young mother is murdered in her apartment. May Allah give her peace and justice.
- Cambridge University has unveiled a pilot study examining the multiple struggles that European Muslim women face as they seek equality. More here, via ProgressiveIslam.
- More on Amna Fatani.
- In the wake of the attacks on Shirin Ebadi’s home and office, supporters showed up with roses to remind her that her work is appreciated. Via Global Voices Online.
- Three defence lawyers wore headscarves in a Danish court in protest over a parliamentary proposal to ban religious symbols in court.
- Women in Kerala fight against arbitrary divorces.
- A Kuwaiti justice insists that gender equality is pivotal to social development. A Pakistani minister is singing the same tune.
- On the rise of religious schools in Kyrgyzstan.
- A bright young girl is patronized by the wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
- The Times of India profiles Women Without Borders, an initiative to stop extremism.
- Rich ladies donate expensive bags to charity.
- Women are no longer served at some restaurants in Quetta, Pakistan.
- Cycads reviews Ombak Bukan Biru.
- The Yemen Times asks if women marginalized by political parties will form their own. That. Sounds. AWESOME.
- Albanian Muslims can now wear headscarves in their ID photos. More from IHT.
- Bahraini women are fighting an abused Family Law that allows husbands to extort money from divorced wives.
- Reem Acra designs the gown that the wife of the Vice President of the U.S. wore.
- Another article about how Muslim women are fashionable under their abayas. Via Hijabtrendz.
- The Dubai Women’s Establishment and the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research agree to share notes.
- Religious discrimination in the American workplace is being met increasingly with filing complaints.
- In an effort to curb divorce rates, the Abu Dhabi General Women’s Union will offer classes to help married couples.
- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with female Afghan lawyers this week.
- Sakena Yacoobi will speak at the University of Washington the first week of February.
- İzgi Güngör believes that women should play a larger role in water management.
- Women in Bahrain complain that roads are never named after women.
- In Burkina Faso, practitioners are performing female genital cutting on babies instead of girls to escape increased legal scrutiny.
- Danish website Journalisten profiles me and the site! Yippee skippee!
- On the inefficacy of raids in stopping sex trafficking.
- The Washington Post writes about how Pakistan’s girls aren’t getting the education they deserve because of the Taleban.
- A alleged mixed gender soccer game in Iran is getting lots of people in trouble. More here.
- Anisa Mohammed was named the Trinidad and Tobago Women’s Cricket Board of Control Player of the Year!
- FW: profiles Najla Al-Awadhi, an Emirati renaissance woman.
- An interesting installation in London’s Saatchi Gallery.
- Because Saudi Arabia will not allow women to drive or compete in driving races, the FIA will not sponsor their races.
- The Daily Times opines about the state of women in Pakistan.
- How the One Million Signatures Campaign may have changed one woman’s life already.
- The hejab goes green!
- Racism on a Canadian college campus concerns Muslim students.
- Menassat profiles Princess Hijab.
- IslamOnline examines the difficult road ahead for female Iraqi politicians.
- Muslim and Mormon women gather together for charity.
- On how media reports mess up the facts on human trafficking.
- no snow here gives information on how to help Palestinian women.
- Twenty percent of Bangladesh’s parliamentary seats are to be filled by women.
- A Yemeni politician affirms that women’s rights are supported by the parliament.
- There is a growing demand for fitness centers in Saudi Arabia, and one chain aims to please.
- Saudi wives wish their husbands just call to say “I love you.”
- An Emirati graduate who was offered a trip to Australia as part of an academic award turned it down to prove to her employers that she was committed to her new job.
- According to the president of Italy’s Association for Moroccoan Women, 600 girls are at risk for infibulation.
- Another Islamic swimsuit makes a splash in the market. Ha.
- The University of Toronto holds a forum to help dispel steroetypes about Muslim women.
- An interesting photo questioning hejab is making the rounds with Iranians.
- On the phenomenon of marriages of convenience for the LGBT Muslim community.
- Marian Zeila, chairperson of the Somali Media Women’s Association, says she’s not afraid of Al-Shabab.
- Thousands of women are running in Baghdad elections.
- The Guardian speaks with the author of a book that discusses how Iraqi women’s rights have been set back.
- Two Algerian women have accused a CIA officer of rape. More from The New York Times, Tariq Nelson, and The Washington Independent. Via DeenPort.
- A bill in Nigeria aims to prohibit same-sex marriage.
- A new publication discusses strategies to end discrimination against women.
- An interview with Cherien Dabis, the director of Amreeka.
- The Qatari cabinet approves a final draft of a bill for the elimination of all forms of discrimination agaisnt women.
- The Yemen Times profiles a women-only photography studio.
- Omid Memarian writes about how neo-c0lonial feminism hurts women’s rights in Iran.
- A woman flees to a shelter to escape her husband, only to find that the shelter she’s run to is incredibly strict.
- Women’s groups meet in Tunisia to call for the end of inheritance discrimination.
- A Canadian play about the life of an upper-class Iranian woman opens in Tehran.
- McMaster University writes about arranged marriages.
- Harassment in Afghanistan often keeps girls away from school.
- Gaza women tell give their accounts of the Israeli attacks.
- Iranian women and the revolution of empty promises.
Tweet
Tags: Muslim women, News
The Taliban makes my blood boil. May Allah destroy every single one of those pigs!!!! It’s pitiful what’s happening to Pakistan. What the hell happened?
“Racism on a U.S. college campus concerns Muslim students.”
Not US college – Queens is a Canadian university.
Whoops! Fixed. Thank you.
haha…though I guess if you think about it I shouldn’t have put that smiley face there. Not something to be proud of as a Canadian.
That’s more appropriate.
@ Broomstick:
Eeek…that’s a bit harsh. The Taliban are not as simplistic as many media outlets make them out to be. Although so many of them do absolutely appalling things, and things that are outright unIslamic (like killing innocent people) they are not all like that. And remember, many of them are uneducated which leaves a very dangerous vacuum for people with extreme and scary interpretations of Islam to swoop in and exploit them. The way the Taliban are is not just a result of their own idiocy, but also outside forces as well.
But yes, the story regarding the Taliban is horrific. I hope those individuals do get their just punishment for killing innocent people and I do hope that those who are trying to Talibanize Pakistan are not successful. May Allah help Pakistanis.
Congrats on the coverage Fatemeh!
Some of the links aren’t loading, Mostly the ones from The Daily News (such as the one on Pakistan’s legal ruling on honour crimes). I noticed this problem last week as well.
Thanks!
I don’t really know what to do about news links that expire. (sigh) Any suggestions?
I don’t understand the statement, “not all Taliban are like that” certainly the ones that make decisions are ideologically violent, and promote a certain culture of violence in their lower ranks. I do think though that many of them are like that for a number of unfortunate reasons.
Many of the Taliban’s current fighters come from that group of orphaned children who were for a very long time, living in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan, as a result of the Soviet invasion. There’s alot of anger in Pashtun circles over being used by foreign powers, from everyone to British colonial powers, America, Russia and even anger at Iran, India and Pakistan to fight a proxy cold war for western powers. Otherwise, the Pashtuns have historically been known as farmers, merchants/traders. That entire culture has literally been dissipated and replaced with something very horrific.
Fatemeh, perhaps you could just copy and paste the text somewhere and link to that? I do know that the DAWN newspaper (its Pakistan’s largest English one I think) often carries similar stories so maybe it’s possible that they are covered there too?
What I meant by that was that not all Taliban condone killing innocent people, or shutting down girls schools. There are fringe factions even within the Taliban. This is not to say that the violent ones are in the minority. Violence is definitely a common tool but what, where, why and when of the violence is also important to look at.
And what you said about many Pashtuns feeling used is an excellent point. Also, don’t forget, Punjabis have also not been so kind to the Pashtuns in Pakistan leading to animosities among Pakistanis themselves. Perhaps if Punjabis had been a little more accommodating the sense of alienation among many Pashtuns in Pakistan wouldn’t be as great. There are many ethnic clashes within Pakistan. In fact, many Pakistani Taliban now are not even Pashtuns. Others have joined the cause against Western invasion, occupation, and domination in the region (and a sense of neglect and alienation from the federal government).
And, the majority of Pashtuns themselves do not agree with the extreme “religiousness” of the Taliban. From my understanding they would rather a secular government that gave Pashtun equal rights and recognition in Pakistan.In a recent poll conducted in the region it was found that the majority of the people did not support the local religious party but rather the local secular one.
I don’t think the Taliban are a good thing for the region and their abilities and power must be limited, especially for the sake of women, but killing them or using violent tactics is not the answer either. At the end of the day the majority of them are not evil or bad people. Just terribly misguided.
Ugh! The situation is so complex. And being partly Pathan myself I would be remiss to not consider all the angles of this issue.
Thanks for the info, its probably very complicated but I respectfully disagree with regards to the Taliban, I haven’t seen anything in the media to show me a more humane picture of them (that being said, I don’t think there ever is a humane side of war to begin with). I also didn’t know much about Pashtun and Punjabi relations except for the fact that the first few leaders of Pakistan were Pashtun like Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan etc, but I’m not from Pakistan’s Punjab, my family is from East Punjab in India so that probably explains my ignorance on the whole issue to begin with.
Thanks for the info, its probably very complicated but I respectfully disagree with regards to the Taliban, I haven’t seen anything in the media to show me a more humane picture of them
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
People are innocent until proven guilty.
here’s an interesting read
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/2412
Just as an FYI, the first message is mine, the second – with that link – is not me – but someone else.
Very interesting article Dude, thanks!
Wow, I just finished reading that article. I had NO idea about any of this at all, and yes you are right Dude about being innocent until proven guilty, I apologize if I have offended anyone for my earlier sentiments. But given what I’ve just read, I still don’t really know what to make of what is happening in the Swat valley and if there is more context to what is going on over there. We hear things like “dancing girls are killed” or “girls schools are closed” and that is pretty much all we heard about when the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Is there more information about the medical college the Taliban opened up to train female doctors in Afghanistan?
If you know a good book on the Taliban (All I have is Ahmed Rashid’s sources, which focuses more on the Taliban as geopolitical players) please do provide it.
The part on sodomy is very interesting and really turns everything I’ve heard about the Taliban upside down. There’s a really interesting probe going on in the Canadian forces right now, here’s a link to the article (I cannot find it in the Toronto Stars archives, but a blog carried it here), http://statismwatch.ca/2008/11/22/military-to-probe-response-to-sex-charges/
It will be interesting to see who these locals are (I’m assuming they’re not part of the Taliban, or affiliated with them since they’re helping NATO forces).
Google translation of the link to coverage of this site
Fatemeh Fakhraie is editor of the feminist and critical media blog Muslimah Media Watch. At Fagstivalen she went in bacon on the fordomsfuldhed that characterizes Western journalists’ coverage of Muslim women.
But it may well be different, she believes.
According Fatemeh Fakhraie should the Western media, among other things, as a matter of priority begin to hear the Muslim women, which they refer. So let them have their say.
The problem is that Western society is afraid of Islam and Muslims, she believes. And therefore characterizes stereotypes about Muslim women, the media in the West.
There must in turn not so much to believe her, to avoid racist statements and instead give Muslim women a fairer treatment. Hear her tender in spots.
They were right about the feminist part
<iWow, I just finished reading that article. I had NO idea about any of this at all, and yes you are right Dude about being innocent until proven guilty, I apologize if I have offended anyone for my earlier sentiments.
Just in case anyone still is confused, I’ll re-iterate: I’m the “dude” who made the remark about innocent until guilty. I’m not the “dude” who posted that article – it was another commenter. I haven’t even read that article, nor do I endorse it.
Ugh. HTML tags failed. I wish WordPress would let me preview my comments first. The first paragraph is supposed to be in italics (quoted from s.c.).
this was my first week visiting mmw and I love the list, the website, and all.
@ Tickle: thanks for the translation!
@ the real Dude: thanks for the clarification. The only way I can really tell who’s who is through IP addresses, so I can back you up on not being the “dude” who posted the link.
@ upset american muslim man: Salam and welcome to MMW! And thanks for the kind words. We hope you’ll hang around!
@Fatemeh:
Thanks – the older site at Blogspot allowed for commenters to use OpenID. WordPress.com doesn’t have such a mechanism?
No, but Blogger doesn’t track IP addresses, which is what I like about WP. I can tell who’s who no matter how many fakey emails ya’ll put in.
Hm….I wonder if the second Dude then could be mindful of this and not use that name for posting here. The original Dude has been posting for a while and is a regular commentor. It would be nice if the second Dude, out of respect for the first, could perhaps even just add a number or something on after their name just so that others could know.
sorry I didn’t realize there was another dude here, the first dude seems upset, i apologize.
@Fatemeh:
Not at all. People on dialup often will have different IP’s whenever they connect. Even people on DSL or cable modem who haven’t paid for static IP’s may end up having frequent different IP’s.
Also, people can browse the web through various anonymizing services (e.g. tor), which, if they do their job correctly, should have a different IP every time they come to the site.
The benefit of OpenID is that OpenID’s are tied to users. A person certainly can have many open ID’s, but a given OpenID is tied to only one person – provided (s)he hasn’t given the password to someone else. So were someone to post using the same OpenID account, it’s very likely the same person – it’s a greater guarantee than IP addresses for someone who’s not trying to hide his/her identity.
@Sobia:
I wouldn’t be too picky. I don’t know if (s)he was trying to impersonate me, but likely (s)he used it for the same reason I originally did – it’s a common anonymous nickname. So I’d expect others will also use it in the future – perhaps I should change mine, but somehow I lack the incentive.
@ Dude and Dude #2:
Looks like the confusion has been settled
.