Okay, so our readers have spoken! Our original Friday link format is back! We’ll do our best to keep it this way!
- An interview with Anjum Zamrooda Habib, a prominent Kashmiri resistance fighter.
- The Washington Post profiles an Egyptian woman who’s gaining fame by teaching Egyptians how to prepare food they can actually afford.
- A Muslim schoolgirl in Mangalore, India, is fighting for the right to wear hijab at school.
- In Iran, hijab is used as a political pawn (again).
- The “new” Iraq isn’t very safe for women or minority groups.
- Looking at Bouthaina Kamel, Egypt’s first female presidential nominee.
- In Morocco, the Arab Spring isn’t doing much for winning.
- Pakistan’s Dawnlooks at the feminization of faith.
- Nazish Noorani was killed while walking with her husband and child in New Jersey. May God give them peace and justice.
- A police station in Tennessee will no longer require the removal of religious headgear on men or women arrested.
Feel free to leave links in the comments to news about Muslim women from this week that we’ve missed !
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Tags: Muslim women, News
Thanks so much! I missed my Friday roundup…
I’m still kind of new to this blog so I’ve never seen this format before but I really like it!
I saw this line from the article about the student in India who wants to wear hijab to college:
“Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.”
Is that really true, or is that a political/religious assumption from the people who run that site? Either that, or maybe it mean differently than I think it may mean. I only ask the bloggers here because I’m not a Muslim. I always thought it was more of a personal choice than anything, as far as things go in practice rather than theory.
@ Linda Binda: There are certainly people who see hijab that way, and others who don’t. I think it will always mean something different from what you think it means, because each person who wears it is different, and might have slightly different motivations for wearing it. There are a lot of people who might see hijab as “an obligatory code of dress” AND as “a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.” Others might see it as one or the other, or as neither. And then the decision to wear it (or not) based on the understandings of religious obligations or symbols (or whatever else) is still often a personal choice. Anyway, all of this to say that hijab is complex, and there’s no one meaning.
@ Liz and Yasmin: Thanks for the feedback – it’s great to hear that people are reading and enjoying these lists of Friday links!
@Krista. Thank you for your response. All of what you said is what I suspected all along — it is all different. That’s the fascinating thing about religion: although its dictates are meant to be universal, everyone has their own approach to it, regardless.
An an ex-Christian atheist, I can attest to how good or problematic it is for everyone to have their interpretation of things. Diversity is usually a good thing. 
Unified thought is also important in some areas, too, of course…
I didn’t mind the Friday links change so much as some others had, since I always had a problem with trying to look through all of them (there were always so many!) in one sitting. I would like to see how it would go if you guys mixed it up on a sporadic basis: like, most weeks may have these old-format links; some weeks, there would be a greater focus on certain pieces of news like what happened with that story about Pakistanis and birth control.
All in all, I liked the new format while missing the old one.
I think mixing them up might be good.
I prefer this format too! I always look forward to the Friday list of links
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
The “schoolgirl” in Mangalore is actually a college student.
I’m upset to hear that Ghalia of Egypt’s new cooking show is still earning only $200 a month. You can make her famous but you can’t give her a living wage? Do they assume that because she was a maid she doesn’t expect much?
YAY for all this discussion!
@Yusuf: thanks for the correction!
@Linda: All the links we put in here are about Muslim women. No intended agendas or assumptions.
Actually, I think the article on the student in Mangalore is referring to an AS/A2 student, which is generally considered college in India and Pakistan. So she is actually a “schoolgirl.”
Thanks for going back to the old format! I always look forward to MMW’s Friday posts… great to see more links again