- Saudi Arabia is planning to bring in a new law to allow female lawyers to argue cases in court for the first time. There are mixed reactions. More here.
- The USA Today profiles Iran’s first female Olympic skier, who says she is happy with her performance at the Winter Olympics. Islam Online and The Calgary Herald feature her, as well.
- Muslim women in Washington, D.C., lead a protest to remove gender partitions in the mosque on Embassy Row. More here.
- Jezebel highlights how a German ad that aims to eradicate female genital cutting misses the mark.
- Gulf News interviews the woman who helped ensure that the U.A.E. women’s national football team is now taking part in the West Asian Zone Championship.
- The Women’s Media Center examines Benazir Bhutto through the film Bhutto.
- Kenowna.com interviews author Sheema Khan about life as a Canadian Muslim.
- The Christian Science Monitor reports on Pakistan Fashion Week.
- In Malaysia, the Malaysian Chinese Association has expressed concern over the caning meted out on three Muslim women. The New Straits Times offers a similar concern, while AsiaOne says that citizens should be educated better on Shariah law. Either way, everyone’s paying attention for a long time to come.
- Shelina Zahra Janmohamed writes about the fact that, when it comes to women, we are still living in an age of Jahiliyyah.
- An exhibition filled with self-reflections of women from the U.A.E. made its debut at the UN Headquarters in New York.
- Various Arab-Bedouin women’s groups filed a petition with the Israeli High Court of Justice against the National Insurance Institute claiming it disregards the reality of Bedouin women’s lives in determining the eligibility of abandoned women for income support payments.
- The National discusses the difficulties and necessities surrounding discussions of sexual assault in the media and the judiciary.
- Police in Bangalore, India, will pursue deportation of two Iranian women booked for offenses, including assaulting a policeman, if they are found guilty.
- The first meeting of the Arab Women Commission for International Humanitarian Law opened this week in Tunisia.
- The Christian Science Monitor reports on Indonesia’s morality police.
- A Jordanian man who murdered his sister and was sentenced to death has been given a reduced sentence of ten years.
- The Lancet publishes a brief outline of a new study that shows that exposure to political violence begets domestic violence.
- Iranian authorities have canceled a traditional music concert in the western city of Tabriz because two members of the band are women.
- If you’re an American Muslim, participate in this study about Islamic divorce in the U.S.
- Hijab Style interviews the three Malaysian women behind a new clothing brand named Zyra.
- Gulf News reports on how the Dubai Shopping Festival has established itself as an incubator for Emirati women entrepreneurs bidding to support their families and, in the process, contribute to the national economy.
- The Atlantic highlights the continuation of Afghan Model.
- According to local lingerie shops, the lingerie boycott in Saudi Arabia had no effect on their business.
- The body of Faiza Ashraf has been found in Solli, Sweden. May Allah give her peace and justice.
- The National profiles Oman’s only licensed female biker.
- Ayesha Nasir writes for Slate about the troubling fact that she–and many other Muslim women–do not read their marriage contracts.
- A prominent Saudi cleric has issued an edict calling for opponents of the kingdom’s strict segregation of men and women to be put to death if they refuse to abandon their ideas. Everyone is understandably wondering what the hell he’s thinking.
- The Telegraph reports that a council-run swimming pool has caused controversy after closing the pool to the public while it hosts Muslim women-only sessions.
- The Arab Times higlights how Kuwaiti women are increasing in number in the country’s police force.
- The Los Angeles Times profiles the Pakistani dupatta.
- In Oregon, beginning in the 2011-12 school year, teachers would be permitted to cover their heads or wear other dress that expresses a “sincerely held” religious belief.
- Controversy rages on about raising the marriage age minimum in Saudi Arabia.
- The Brisbane Times profiles two Muslim Australian authors who talk about what it’s like to grow up a Muslim woman in Australia.
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Thanks for following the sisters’ action in DC to desegregate the Islamic Center– The action is ongoing. As Martin Luther King was inspired by Gandhi, we are inspired by Rosa Parks.
On Saturday when we were going in, I began to walk toward the sisters’ entrance, a small door off to the side, as is habitual. But Fatima called me over to walk with her through the big front door, which was being used only by men.
Fatima and the other sisters and I first parked ourselves in the central back of the main prayer space (the women’s penalty box is away in the back right corner), and we prayed nawafil. Then when the iqamah was called, we moved forward and prayed behind the men with one empty row in between. Several times men tried to tell us to leave there and go behind the barriers. We completely ignored them. One even tried to interrupt us like that after we had started the prayer in jama‘ah, which is a bad thing to do. After the prayer, we prayed more nawafil up toward the front there, when mosque women came to tell us to get behind the barriers. Fatima explained to them that we didn’t have to, and we weren’t going to. Then they said they’d called the cops.
We moved back to the area where we’d first sat, and sat down. We saw that a big tour group had come in during the prayer. Several of the women in the group came and prayed with us. Some of the men in that group prayed in back of us, while the rest stood aside and waited. The cops, who obviously didn’t want to have to confront us like this, came over to us and told us if we did not leave we would be arrested for trespassing. The mosque people had accused us of causing a “disturbance.”
Fatima and I explained that we were only there to pray, and all we did was pray, very peacefully, and it was actually the mosque staff causing a disturbance, not us. Fatima asked to speak with the mosque director, Abdullah Khouj. His flunkies pretended like he didn’t exist, and claimed his secretary was the head of the mosque. Fatima said she needed to talk to the competent authority, and the cops said the low-level mosque personnel there were the competent authority. Fatima asked the cops, “So you are able to judge who has the real authority?” The cops didn’t have an answer for that.
Then they repeated that they would arrest us if we didn’t leave and kept saying things like “Please, ladies, don’t make us arrest you.” Finally Fatima got up and walked out, and so did the rest of us. We walked out into the courtyard and there Fatima talked with many Muslims, many of whom supported what she was doing. Two brothers from the Progressive Muslim Meetup were there to support us, including Imam Daayiee. Also, two men among the tour visitors shouted at the mosque, one for us and one against us, if I understood right. Everybody was milling about and talking at once. Fatima kept reminding him: “There is no us and them. We are all one ummah.”
We felt that our protest was a victory, because we had prayed outside the cramped little box, out in the same open space with the jama‘ah. It was crazy that they called the cops on us for praying where we have the right to pray in shari‘ah. It got even crazier than that: The mosque caretaker on duty yelled at us that we hadn’t truly prayed, our salat was not valid, just because we prayed unsegregated. It boggles…
If you’re in the Washington DC area, why not join us? Contact sister Fatima for details @ STAND IN on Facebook.