Friday Links — April 16, 2010

Salam alaikum, readers!

Sorry for the silence all week! But don’t worry–we’ll be back to our regular schedule next week, and we didn’t forget about the Friday Links!

• A female suicide bomber killed herself after fatally shooting a police officer in Russia.

• The National reports that Oman’s government will grant free land to women to build their own houses.

• Bosnian colleges draw students avoiding Turkey’s headscarf ban.

• Electronic Intifada reviews the play Kull Shi Tamaam (Everything is Fine), which examines the role of Palestinian women under occupation.

• Zeba Iqbal speaks with Muslims in Michigan about the issue of Muslims and dating.

• Sheik Yusuf al Qardawi spoke in Johannesburg regarding the lack of spaces in mosques for women.

• The African Union and United Nations Development Fund for Women held a gender and election briefing for women in Sudan.

• Elham Al Qasimi has set off to conquer the North Pole. IslamiCity interviews her about the journey.

• The WIP reviews Rana Husseini’s book Murder in the Name of Honor.

• Hissa Hilal didn’t win Million’s Poet, but she stole the show.

• Should we use the term “honor killing?”

• Sheikha Fadya Al-Saad Al-Sabah’s 10th Scientific Competition encourages Kuwaiti girls to contribute to the scientific field.

• Iranian women push against the government’s newest type of censorship.

• Common Ground News Service explains why the Quebec niqab ban would cover more than a woman’s face.

• The Gulf Cooperation Council’s Secretary General says that the representation of Gulf women in leadership positions is still below the ambitions of member countries and does not match their performance in education and work.

• Hürriyet Daily News reports that the U.N. believes that Turkey is still falling short in meeting targets for women’s representation.

• Lebanese authorities have filed an appeal against a landmark court ruling from last year allowing a Lebanese woman to pass on her nationality to her children.

• The Christian Science Monitor reports that Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi’s recent declaration that nothing in Islam bans men and women from mixing in public places is creating an uproar in Saudi society.

• Imams in Turkey are pledging to join the fight against domestic violence.

• According to CNN, plastic surgery is on the rise in Iraq.

• In Bangladesh, judges have ruled that making an unwilling woman wear the hijab is a slur on her basic human rights.

• The Associated Press profiles Yassmine el Ksaihi, a young European Muslim women who is helping to usher a “new” Islam into the continent.

• Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood looks for some token sisters.

• A Muslim woman in Michigan says she was turned down for a job at McDonald’s because she wears a headscarf. More from The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press.

• This year’s Gulf Film Festival features a number of female Emirati film makers.

• Another woman in Quebec has been forced out of a classroom because of her niqab. More from The Gazette. Meanwhile, both the Anglican diocese and the Simone de Beauvoir institute condemn the veil ban.

• The Daily Star examines the challenges that women’s rights in Egypt face.

• CounterCurrents.org discusses the problems that military occupation causes for women in Kashmir.

• Al Jazeera reports on the FIFA ban that is costing Iranian women the right to compete in soccer tournaments.

• Melody Moezzi speaks about Islam, feminism, and jihad at Seattle University.

• The Women’s Media Center remembers Abeer al-Janabi.

• USA Today writes the worst article that I’ve read in a long time about headscarves and discrimination.

• The Daily Times highlights a documentary about political struggle of Pakistani women, titled Aik mumkin ke justoojoo main.

• The Washington, D.C. DMV will no longer be able to force women to show their hair for driver’s license photos.

• The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry elected its first chairwoman of an influential committee on Tuesday.

• True/Slant considers whether Simon Cowell’s Muslim Afghan fianceé will change how the world sees Islam.

• elan magazine profiles Ainee Fatima.

• A woman in the Netherlands is suing an amusement park after her scarf became entangled in a ride, sending her to the hospital.

• In the U.K., several Muslim women are poised to win parliamentary seats.

• Half of female Saudi nurses quit their jobs because of social stigma and lack of familial support.

If there’s any news about Muslim women that we’ve left out this week, feel free to post links in the comments!