Friday Links -- March 21, 2008

Women in Iraq face mean streets when they drive.
Abu Dhabi holds its first international fashion week, which include fashions from Rabia Z.
The man who shot and killed Alia Ansari has been sentenced to jail.
Muslim women in India get a new, more equitable marriage law.
Mahboba Ahdyar braves the Taliban and conservative cultural mores to represent Afghanistan in the Beijing Olympics. Barikallah!
Pedestrian examines the skewed political priorities of some Iranian women who migrate to the west.
The third annual Women’s Milad Shareef Conference aims to counter images of women as second-class citizens in Islam.
Elif Shafak makes the nomination for the British Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction for her book, The Bastard of Istanbul.
Lima Sahar won third place in Afghan Star, Afghanistan’s version of American Idol.
Under new guidelines issued in the U.K., Muslim doctors who wear niqab must be ready to remove their face veils to treat patients effectively.
Saudi Arabia opens a hotel that is only for women.
An Iranian woman who was sentenced to be stoned is released from her sentence and from jail. Barikallah!
Fahmida Mirza has been named the speaker for the Pakistan People’s Party.
Taslima Nasreen plans to leave India because of failing health.
Voice of America looks an industry that is growing to meet the demand for fashionable headscarves in Turkey.
Iranian tae kwan do champion Sara Khoshjamal gears up for the Beijing Olympics.
Dr. Mona Mina heads the newest challenge to the authority of Egyptian president Mubarak. Check out pictures from her demonstration and more Egyptian women who are working for change here.
A woman in Iraq kills six in a suicide bombing.
A woman is raped in the mausoleum containing Pakistan’s founder in Karachi.
Yifat Susskind from counterpunch writes a great article about Iraqi women’s resistance.
Farzaneh Milani writes about the dominant figure of a “captive Muslim woman” in Western discourses.

On Laleh Bakhtiar and sura 34 in her translation of the Qu’ran.

A brief blurb on the new movie Arranged, about a friendship that transcends faiths.
The Dallas News examines the conversion of Latinas to Islam.
MADRE looks at what the war on Iraq has really done for women. Hint: nothing good. Also, a great article on Iraqi women’s resistance.
Nathalie Nahas for altmuslim looks at the problems that women who wear hejab face in the workplace.
A deeper look at the invention of a Bluetooth device that allows women who wear niqabs or burqas to broadcast their image.

Friday Links — March 21, 2008