Friday Links — May 1, 2009

• The eight-year-old Saudi girl who was previously denied a divorce has finally been granted one.

• Doctors are worried about the levels of anorexia nervosa among teenage girls in the Emirates.

• Dr. Fahmida Mirza, Pakistan’s first female speaker of the national assembly, asks for help for Pakistan.

• Women’s employment in Turkey is rising despite the economy.

• The Iraqi Minister of Human Rights says her department is working to improve the situation of women in Iraq.

• CITYarts will honor Shaikha Manal in recognition for her patronage to the arts.

• The Kurdish Globe describes the place of mothers in Kurdish society.

• Increasingly popular sports clubs and gyms for women in Saudi Arabia face closures. More from Arab News and the BBC.

• An Emirati couple who severely abused their nine-year-old daughter have been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

• A look at the journey behind Football Under Cover.

• Saudi Arabia is considering allowing women to vote in municipal elections; they would still be barred from running for office.

• Reuters highlights Afghan Shi’a women’s views on the law that has sparked international attention. President Karzai has vowed to change said law.

• The Winnipeg Free Press says that the decline of Muslim society is connected with the decline of women’s rights.

• Billboards featuring women appear again in Peshawar, Pakistan.

• The “N7nu” project in Saudi Arabia discusses the right of women to drive.

• On the religious/secular divide and its impact on Turkish women’s rights.

• The LA Times discusses domestic violence in the Muslim community through the Aasiya lens.

• Ayesha Siddiqui is the first Pakistani Muslim female student to be the New York City College of Technology valedictorian this year.

• A tragic narrative of the women in an Afghan literary group.

• Kinky business makes big money in Pakistan. Link is safe for work.

• Five years after the 2004 family code reform in Morocco, writers weigh in on the reforms’ effects.

• In Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, a woman will open the first bakery solely owned and operated by women.

• Radio Free Europe discusses Roxana Saberi’s future. A filmmaker hears others’ memories of her before her arrest.

• The New York Times reviews Dragon Fighter, the story of one Uighur Muslim woman’s fight for peace with China.

• Bitch magazine wonders whether a recent priest, who has announced that she is both Christian and Muslim (and been defrocked for it), is receiving the same treatment that her white male counterparts are.

• Jamerican Muslimah gives her thoughts on Dalia Mogahed’s appointment to the Obama administration’s faith council.

• Iranian women form a council to present the demands of women within Iran through the pivotal period and space of the presidential election.

• On rape, honor killing, and the prison system in Iraq. More from a UN report.

• Nuseiba takes Mona El Tahawy to task for a recent article about Afghan women.

• AltMuslim examines the war on girls’ schooling in Pakistan.

• After thieves rob a jewelry store using hijabs as a disguise, Muslim women are banned from wearing headscarves in the store. The twist: the store owners are Muslims.

• Faith ponders on spousal support in the African American Muslim community.

• Politicans in Denmark unite against forced marriages and imams who conduct them.

• Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat writes about women’s rights as human rights in the UN Chronicle.

• And speaking of the UN, Nuseiba outlines why CEDAW doesn’t work.

• Joseph Shahadi conducts a fantastic interview with playwright Sabina England: parts one and two.

• The National gives opposing views on the recent Egyptian campaign to de-niqab government workers.

• Female candidates have swept the election, winning all seats in Indonesia’s Borneo province of West Kalimantan.

• Ayman Udas, a rising Pakistani singer, has been murdered. May Allah give her peace and justice.
  

• A court halved the sentence of a man convicted of killing his wife.

• Three women have committed suicide in Kurdistan. May Allah give them peace.

• AltMuslimah asks whether sexual taboos contribute to sex trafficking.

• The Daily Beast airs a perfectly eye-rolling article about temporary marriage.

• The Celebrating Muslim Motherhood Carnival is now up! Take a look.

• Iranian journalist and women’s rights worker Narges Mohammadi has won the international Alexander Langer award for 2009.

• Another article about Muslim women being “Islamically” fashionable.

• Muslim women in the northern Italian province of Bergamo now have private access to a local swimming pool. Via Islam in Europe.

UPDATED: Amnesty International reports that Delara Darabi has been executed. My Allah give her peace and justice.