Friday Links — July 16, 2010

• You’ve probably heard that France banned the niqab. Some people like it and some don’t. More here and here and here and here and here.

• Bangladesh bans local elders from meting out punishments according to religious law, which will make it difficult for them to order the flogging of rape victims.

• The USA Today examines a skateboarding school for girls in Afghanistan.

• Q & A with artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat.

• Some religious leader in Kuwait sticks his nose into a Muslim-Jewish couple’s business.

• A group of young Saudi men have launched a campaign to convince Saudi men of the unappreciated virtues of polygamy. Great.

• On the murder of Zakia Zaki, the founder of Radio Sada-e-Sulh in Afghanistan. May Allah give her peace and justice.

• Morocco and the United Nations Development Fund for Women signed a memorandum of understanding to implement the third phase of the Gender Responsive Budgeting. Related: Women in several Maghreb countries are welcoming the U.N.’s creation of a new body known as the Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

• The New York Times asserts that many working Egyptian women have burdens without privileges.

• A Canadian woman accused of stabbing her 19-year-old daughter multiple times with a kitchen knife has been found fit to stand trial.

• Saudi Women simultaneously navigate British classrooms and culture.

• The National profiles Farida Mohammed Ali, a female maqam singer.

• A Lebanese woman talks about the late Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah gave her independence.

• Israel bans Gaza woman from studying human rights in West Bank.

• Architect Zaha Hadid named UNESCO Artist for Peace.

• On how women in the Gulf are gaining power through social and economic crossroads.

• The New York Times reports that Malaysia’s newly-appointed female judges still have an unclear role.

• The Guardian talks to Safia Jama, who runs the Somali Integration Team for women in Tower Hamlets.

• Sisters in Islam’s study on polygyny shows that 44% of first wives in polygynous marriages are forced to find another source of income after her husband married another woman.

• The Los Angeles Times reports that when Syria recently banned niqabs in schools, few activists paid attention.

• The Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation opened a thrift and consignment store to further serve victims of domestic violence.

• Elan profiles Farhana Kahera, the Executive Director of Muslim Advocates and the National Association for Muslim Lawyers.

• Golnaz Esfandiari writes about Fariba Davoodi Mohajer and her headscarf.

• The Canadian Council of Muslim Women opposes the addition of “honor killings” to the Criminal Code on the grounds “murder is murder” and a special category could stigmatize new immigrants and some ethnic or religious groups.

• A woman in North Carolina believes that she was fired from her job at the hospital because of her hijab.

• Faith-based organizations in Nigeria are being asked to “rehabilitate” sex workers.

• The Huffington Post writes about two women in Iran that are under threat of execution.

• On the rise of Islamic feminism in India.

• Talking with the director of Salam Rugby, a movie about Iranian women who play rugby.

If there are any news stories about Muslim women that we’ve missed, please feel free to post them in the comments!