Friday Links

England’s first women-only mosque will open in Bradford, a 19th-century industrial boomtown and one of the most heavily Muslim-populated cities in the U.K., the Muslim Women’s Council announced.

House of Fraser is now selling sports hijabs that are designed for women to wear while doing exercise, including swimming. According to the Daily Mail, It follows a move by John Lewis last year to sell hijab school uniforms.

Congo-Brazzaville, a Central African nation, has banned women from wearing a full-face veil in public, saying it wanted to prevent terrorist acts.

In her article “Hijab Couture Goes Haute“, Zara Stone writes: “We know the hijab as a religious or cultural clothing choice, but it’s also a serious fashion statement. And it’s increasingly big business.”

“Hijab Selfie” is a counter-movement to a call by presenter Sherif Choubachy for women who wear the Islamic head covering to remove it in Tahrir Square, and it has mobilized men and women.

Jake Threadgould writes for the Huffington Post on how women take to social media in their protest against compulsory Hijab in Iran.

“The portrayal of Muslim women that we glimpse in the media is grim and somber. The public perception of them is one of stubborn stereotypes: supposedly powerless and oppressed,” writes Moin Qazi, in his article Women in Islam: Exploring New Paradigms.

In Our Right To Rest: Islamic Paths to Women’s Empowerment, Halley Dillan writes on how, in regards to prayers and menstruation, Islam does not deny women their rights, but it rather tunes into what their bodies really need.

Cover Story, an upcoming Al Jazeera World documentary, goes behind-the-scenes at Ala, a glossy women’s monthly magazine aimed at Muslim women who think that fashion and Islam are compatible.