- Women abandoned by their husbands in Bahrain staged two sit-ins to highlight the legal challenges they face in dissolving their marriages.
- Al-Ahram looks at a recent fatwa that allows those with mental handicaps to marry.
- Achelois highlights the beyond-horrific treatment that some domestic maids receive in Saudi Arabia. May Allah grant them justice. Arab News gives details on the latest case.
- Bahman Motamedian’s film Khastegi, which aired at the Venice Film Festival this week, focuses on transsexuals and the difficulties of their lives in Ahmedinejad’s Iran.
- Irshad Manji gives her two cents on the Jewel of Medina book controversy. Meanwhile, in Britain, the book will be published as planned.
- The Baluchi government in Pakistan twists the facts about the honor killings of five women. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Senate has condemned the murders and calls for action against the culprits; more here and from The New York Times. The bodies of two women have been exhumed and officials are searching for the other three. Another Pakistani activst says that there is no cultural justification for the murders.
- Naomi Wolf’s opinion on Muslim modesty. While some sisters are down with it, Cycads isn’t.
- Improvisations relates her thoughts on an honor killing in Gaza. Al Arabiya gives the story.
- A study of Afghan child mortality rates links children’s deaths to war, uneducated mothers, and mothers’ lack of power in healthcare for their children.
- Two women in Dubai have been arrested for “lesbian acts” on a public beach.
- Indonesia works to protect its nationals who work in foreign countries.
- Women in Rwanda are leading the country into economic and political reconstruction.
- Global Voices looks at the voices of Saudi women who are tired of being portrayed as helpless and backward.
- A BBC slideshow higlights Ramadan and the different customs associated with it.
- The Nigerian man who has 82 wives will divorce all but four of them.
- Owl discusses what the hijab means to her. Via Global Voices.
- Writeous Sister Speaks has begun a Ramadan journal. Via DeenPort.
- The All India Democratic Women’s Association convened a national assembly of Muslim women to demand justice and equality.
- As a result of the outcry that followed the denial of a woman who wear niqab to enter an Italian museum, Italian museums have introduced a “veil room” where women who wear face veils can identify themselves.
- A Norwegian convert sends mixed messages if women should cover to “avoid rape.”
- An Egyptian tycoon has been charged with the murder of singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai. More from the BBC, Al-Ahram, and Asharq Al Awsat.
- On Afghanistan’s popular Dream and Achieve reality show, which encourages small Afghan business owners, two women make it into the top five, and one wins second place.
- Iran’s parliament has decided not to vote on a family bill that would allow a husband to marry a second wife without the approval of his first wife. More at the LA Times and the BBC.
- Yemen’s National Women’s Committee has called for an end to child marriage by proposing a minimum marriage age of 18 for girls. Via Islamify.
- A woman claims that she was forced out of her job because she refused to bare her arms to the elbow. Via Islam in Europe. More here.
- Indian Muslims profiles Mahjabeen Sarwar, who runs an NGO that creates awareness in poorer areas of government aid programs.
- I don’t know how I missed these, but here are two really great articles from Noorjehan Barmania on Comment is free.
- Threats against Shirin Ebadi have increased.
- The Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami has announced that September 4 is World Hijab Day.
- Sweden’s ombudsman for ethnic discrimination is suing a firm over the firing of a Muslim woman for not dressing appropriately on the job.
- In Lucknow, India, women are praying with men in mosque for the first time.
- The American Muslim interviews Amina Wadud.
- Women in Kerala, India, are still more likely to marry young than finish their educations.
- Muslim girls in Manipur, India, form a group to combat society’s resistance to higher education for girls and demand government reservation for Muslim women.
- The Human Rights Commission announced the opening of a women’s branch in Saudi Arabia.
- Rachida Dati, France’s justice minister, has confirmed that she is pregnant. Via Islam in Europe.
- Why honor killings aren’t always honor killings.
- Iran has jailed four women’s rights activists.
- More coverage of the Muslim women’s law firm in Chicago.
- Pamela Taylor writes that women’s leadership is the way to challenge patriarchy.
- Khaled Diab covers the sexual harassment buzz in Egypt.
- A review of the Thai movie The Convert, which follows a woman who converts to Islam to marry her husband and chronicles her ups and downs with Islam for the first two years of her marriage.
- The Urban Muslim Women profiles Sis Zabrina, an inspirational storyteller.
- Pickled Politics’ two cents on hijab and anti-feminism.
- Riazat Butt takes on Islamic marriage contracts in Britain, think tanks, and Muslim-Sikh tensions. Some more stuff of the marriage contracts from Ziauddin Sardar.
- Female Saudi teachers petition the king for job opportunity and wage equality.
- Saudi Arabia will build a new campus for the first women’s university in Riyadh.
- In Nigeria, HIV-positive men and women are being paired up for marriage in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease. What. the. %&@#?!
- Nesrine Malik looks at the U.K. tv show Undercover Mosque and Wahhabi ideology.
- I’m late on this, but Saudi Jeans profiles Aramco’s Iron Lady, Nabilah al-Tunisi.
- A Muslim lawyer who was suspended from work after she was accused of “incited racial violence, associated herself with bin Laden, and making anti-American statements” has been reinstated to her job and given a settlement. Via TalkIslam.
