Friday Links — April 4, 2007

• On fashionable head scarves.

• The Conservative Party in the U.K. has elected a Muslim woman as a prospective Parliamentary candidate.

• Muslim women in West Bengal are treated as unequal citizens, says the State Minority Affairs Minister.

• An unusually insightful (for a college newspaper, anyway) article about hejab and religious patriarchy.

• The American Islamic Congress (AIC) held a forum on April 1 on stopping women trafficking in the Muslim world.

• In Germany, Islamic Women’s Center for Research and Encouragement helps Muslim women through counseling and Islamic theory. It’s the only Muslim theology center run by women in Germany. Barikallah!

• Zainah Anwar has stepped down from the executive director post of Sisters in Islam. May Allah bless her for the work she did.

• Slate magazine looks at headscarves in Turkey as political symbols.

• I don’t even know what to say about this. May Allah help this woman find peace.

• A Saudi woman is murdered because she was chatting on Facebook. May Allah give her peace.

• I forgot to post this a few weeks ago; thanks to Melinda & Duniya for reminding me! Ali Eteraz gives his take on the Harvard Gym Shebangabang.

• Arab News expresses frustration with lectures on divorce given by the Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs.

• Conservative clerics in Egypt are fighting proposed legislation that would criminalize female circumcision.

• A Kansas college newspaper looks at the difficulties facing Muslim women from other countries when they go the university in the U.S.

• One more reason Saudi women need to drive themselves around: dangerous taxi drivers.

• A woman is killed by a lion in Somaliland zoo.

• Why Muslim women need their own art exhibitions.

• A survivor of domestic violence tells her side of the story. Her husband has been convicted of assault, alhamdullilah.

• Saudi courts rule in favor of a 28-year-old woman, allowing her to marry whom she wants despite her father’s opposition. (sigh) I guess this is a positive thing; it’s just sad that this is the first time the courts have sided with a woman, allowing her the rights that Islam is supposed to guarantee her.

• Afghan women protest the Islamophobic Dutch film Fitna.

• Al Jazeera interviews Shirin Ebadi about the war on Iraq.

• A Muslim woman in Gaza and a Jewish woman in Israel discuss occupation, literature, and life.

• AKI reports that (illegal) polygamous marriages are on the rise in Italy.

• Malaysia wants to extend an existing ban on non-married Muslims cuddling or holding hands to non-Muslims. Oh, the insanity of it all.

• A man’s two wives both leave his ass at the same time!

• Muslims in China protest a headscarf ban and the death of a prominent businessman while in custody.

• A gallery in Malaysia opens an exhibit aimed “at honouring the struggle of Muslim women of power since the existence of Islam.”

• A review of the movie Confessions of a Gambler.

• Women in Saudi Arabia participate more in cyberspace because they participate less in social space due to cultural restrictions.

• Behjat Al Yousefi, associate director of the United Arab Emirates’ Women’s College for Communication Techonology, believes that women’s advancement comes with technological advancement.

• An Egyptian woman blogs about overwhelming societal pressure to get married, and why she refuses to let it get to her.

• A woman is murdered and her husband, who killed her, only receives six months in prison.

A few Fridays ago we reported that women’s activist Parvin Ardalan won the Olaf Palme prize for human rights work. The Iranian government would not allow her to leave the country to accept her award, so he
re is her recorded acceptance speech.