Friday Links — January 15, 2009

• After the Afghan parliament rejected several of his cabinet member appointments, Hamid Karzai submits new nominees, three of which are women. But don’t get excited yet: the rejected nominees include a woman, so it’s unclear whether parliament doesn’t want any women, or just one in particular.

• One of Turkey’s most prominent human rights lawyers reveals a secret about her family that may help begin to heal the Turkish-Armenian divide.

• Nadia Hassan speaks out about her invasive airport search last week in Chicago.

• Atlanta gets its first Muslim sorority.

• Malaysia announces that it has begun an allocation for Muslim women who are undergoing divorce and have not been paid maintenance. More here.

• Kuwait is getting their own ladies-only taxi service! Meanwhile, a women’s group in Egypt is against the same idea.

• Grazia gets it, sort of: why fining women for wearing niqabs is just as bad as outright banning them.

• Common Ground News examines the role of female religious guides (murshidat or mourchidat).

• The BBC follows a female driving instructor–who wears a niqab.  More here.

• The Independent examines the “face behind the veil.” *eyeroll*

• USA Today looks at France’s attempt to ban the niqab. So does Islam Online.

• Speaking of burqa bans, here’s another reason it’s stupid to ban them in Denmark: only three women in Denmark wear the burqa.

• AltMuslimah examines the Hui Muslim practice of female spiritual leaders (nu ahong).

• A first-of-its-kind survey by the Malay Muslim Women’s Organization has revealed what could be a worrying trend of early remarriages among Malay divorcees.

• A student organizes a charity run that will benefit the Jordan River Project, a charity that helps Jordanian women and children.

• Newsweek interviews the widow of the Jordanian man who blew himself up in Afghanistan, and looks at the role of women in Al Qaeda.

• People in the Indonesian government believe that banning “gossip programs” will decrease the divorce rate. Riiiiight.

• The Feminist School gives us a list of all of the female activists arrested in Iran before and during Ashura, and many of them have been denied visitors.

• Sex education changes attitudes in Muslim communities in Sweden. Via Islam in Europe.

• The rate of divorce in Oman has fallen as a result of men marrying second wives without divorcing their first to “keep families together.”

• How Iranian women may benefit from the country’s current political crisis.

• The Saudi Gazette reports that a conference at the University of Manchester recently covered female Arab writers in the diaspora.

• Two Shariah officers in Indonesia have been arrested on charges of raping a female detainee. May Allah give her justice and peace. More here.

• Iranian television presenter Shahin Mahinfar is refusing to give in to government pressure to deny claims that her son was killed by security forces.

• Pakistani-Canadian Tahmena Bokhari was crowned Miss Pakistan 2010 this week in Toronto. More here.

• A domestic worker was thrown out of her employer’s third-story home. By her employer. May Allah give this woman justice.

• Global Voices Online hosts female bloggers in Yemen as part of a project to increase blogging worldwide.

• Hürriyet Daily News discusses the language of women in the Kurdish movement.

• Bachelors, students and working women are facing residential problems due to the acute shortage of accommodation facilities in the Pakistani twin cities of federal capital Islamabad and the adjacent Rawalpindi.

• The horrifically regular story of sex trafficking in the Emirates.

• Thirty members of Iran’s “Mourning Mothers” have been arrested, after they were attacked during an earlier gathering.

• Muslim women in Singapore participate in the Empowered Muslim Women Run 2010. Via Hijabtrendz.

• A local official of Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League accused a Muslim cleaning woman of being a security threat. Via Islam in Europe.

• A lack of adequate childcare centers is costing Emirati women and their country. More here.

• Iraqi widows speak out against female suicide bombers.

• An Emirati man spreads the message about spending more time with one’s wives and children.

• TwoCircles profiles the Muslim women of Malabar.

• On maternal mortality in rural Indonesia.

As always, if we’ve missed any news stories about Muslim women, please feel free to post them in the comments!

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Friday Links