Friday Links — March 5, 2010

• Kuwaiti novelist Laila al-Othman believes that there is “too much sex” in new Saudi literature.

• HijabStyle has an interview with the woman behind Birmingham-based Masoomah clothing.

• The Arab Times gets around to reporting on Divorcee Radio.

• Islam Online profiles several brave Kenyan Muslim women who have worked for positive change in their communities.

• Arab News reports that four talented women have been chosen as part of a Saudi delegation to a U.S. entrepreneurship summit.

• The Greeley Tribune profiles comedian Tissa Hami’s career.

• elan covers the lingerie boycott in Saudi Arabia.

• More Arab women are taking up information technology programs in universities compared to their male peers.

• Common Ground News says that “Muslim women wage jihad against violence.” Get it? Muslim women? Jihad? (sigh)
  

• The Saudi Gazette highlights the fact that lots of Arab American women are starting up their own online cooking ventures.

• Coverage of the D.C. protest against mosque segregation in The Daily Beast, Salon, and TruthDig.

• Human Rights Watch called on Saudi Arabia to quash a sentence of 18 months in jail and 300 lashes issued against a woman for filing harassment complaints without being accompanied by a male guardian. Talk about punishing the victim.

• Alia Hogben puts polygamy in context for Common Ground News.

• Saudi women lawyers qualified to practice law in the Kingdom will be allowed to establish their own law firms, according to legal experts.

• Spero News reports on the international meeting on Muslim women in Switzerland.

• Two Afghan women and one Iranian women win this year’s International Women of Courage Award.

• elan also covers Ilham Moussaïd’s candidacy.

• MPR News covers the many stories of American Muslim women.

• Bikya Masr reports on the shocking answers that Egyptian men and women give when asked, “Is it acceptable to beat your wife?”

• Female unemployment is increasing in Turkey.

• Iraqi women are striving to take a greater role in elections. More from the Associated Press.

• The percentage of female smokers in Iran has jumped in the past few years.

• The Afghanistan war is all about saving brown women from brown men, argues Jacob Freeze at AlterNet.

• A women’s group in Bahrain plans to highlight achievements of ordinary working women in a specially designed project.

• The Montreal Gazette reports on an Egyptian Canadian woman who was expelled from class because she refused to uncover her face.

• Al Masry Al Youm has something to say about the issue of female judges.

• News Blaze interviewed Fatemeh Simin Motamed-Arya about the status of women in Iran.

• The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the Center for Reproductive Rights urged the Egypt government to take immediate measures to implement CEDAW recommendations in relation to the protection of the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women.

• The Lebanese American University’s Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World has created “Who is She in Lebanon,” a database launched at a ceremony ahead of International Women’s Day.

• Women News Network discusses the continuous struggle of women’s rights activists in Iran.

• More coverage of the American Muslim woman who was fired from a retail store for her hijab.

• Saudi Arabia thinks about women-only buses after reports say that Saudi women spend 35% or more of their income on personal drivers.

• Two British Muslim women who refused to undergo invasive body scans at the airport were not allowed to board their flight.

• Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi, a well-known Austrian journalist, writes about her experiences following a year of teaching German to headscarf-wearing women in Vienna.

• emel profiles Mariam Sobh, the woman behind Hijabtrendz.

As always, if we’ve missed some news about Muslim women, feel free to post links in the comments!