Friday Links — May 21, 2010

• This is what happens when you paint niqabs and the women who wear them as evil.

• Cultural issues keep Arab-American women away from health care.

• Iran has sentenced in absentia award-winning women’s rights activist Shadi Sadr.

• A Saudi woman gives a morality officer a taste of his own medicine. More here.

• Miss USA link dump! Freep, AltMuslimah, elan, The Daily Beast, Comment is free, The American Muslim, The National, The Huffington Post, Newsweek.

• The Dallas Post profiles one successful Afghan entrepreneur.

• Sydney opens its first hijab boutique.

• TwoCircles.net profiles Kulsum Sayani’s pioneering work in adult literacy and social work.

• Al Masry Al Youm highlights Egypt’s third Arab-Hispanic women film festival.

• Kuwaiti activists and their supporters called for the appointment of women to the country’s judiciary, from which they are still barred despite winning political rights.

• emel reviews a Hijaab, a play about–what else?–hijab.

• Pakistan’s Daily Times asks, “Who are the real Muslim women?”

• One of the outcomes of Gulf “marriage tourism” in Egypt. May Allah keep this woman and her daughter.

• The National examines Emirati problems around prosecuting rape and punishing the survivors. More here. Similarly, Bikya Masr interviews a woman who could not get police assistance after she was harassed.

• A Lebanese court on Tuesday rejected a widow’s request for permission to pass citizenship on to her children.

• The National looks at the Gulf’s Funny Girls.

• Coalition launches Day of Action against Quebec’s proposed Bill 94.

• The New York Times interviews Shirin Neshat.

• emel discusses what impact Hissa Hilal has had on the Gulf.

• Kiana Firouz is a filmmaker who faces legal and physical repercussions if she is deported to Iran.

• Asra Nomani writes about a women’s protest at a mosque in Virginia.

• The Hindustan Times looks at the difficulty that Muslim women in certain areas still face when entering sports.

• The Star discusses “gender mainstreaming” in Malaysia.

• The Saudi Gazette examines perceptions of Saudi nurses.

• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown rails against the burqa. Surprise.

• Bahraini and Jordanian women have banded together to renovate run-down schools in Jerusalem.

If we missed any news about Muslim women this week, feel free to post links in the comments!