Talk Islam

Latest Updates: Muslim women RSS

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  johnpi 3:47 pm on March 1, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: gender mixing (4), gender segregation (16), Muslim women, women in Islam (22)

  Website of anti-coed Saudi cleric shut down.

  The website of a top Saudi cleric who issued an edict calling for those who support co-educational environments to be put to death has been shut down on Sunday.

  Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak’s website was shut down following a barrage of criticism from religious scholars in Saudi Arabia and Egypt condemning his fatwa (religious ruling) as a call for violence.

  Many religious scholars in Saudi Arabia denounced Barrak’s ruling, saying it was similar to rulings once issued by religious fundamentalists, or Takfiris, accusing other Muslims of apostasy and condemning them to death.

  The important thing here is not that he said it, but the response that it got.

   

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  thabet 8:19 am on February 7, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 'veiling' (31), france (71), laicite (3), left-wing (11), Muslim women, politics (765), religion (365), secularism (38), trotskyism

  Far-left party reveals ‘veiled’ female candidate:

  A candidate for a radical French anti-capitalist party in the forthcoming regional elections wears a headscarf as a token of her Islamic faith, something that has raised eyebrows in this rigidly secular society.

  All the more so because the NPA (New Anti-capitalist Party), led by Trotskyist postman Olivier Besancenot, is a party that generates headlines for its extreme left wing position on issues including militant secularism.

   
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  johnpi 8:51 am on December 27, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Muslim women, patriarchy (8), women (81), women in Islam (22), women's rights (32)

  An article about a book published in 1898 by a Muslim scholar challenging interpretations of male supremacy over women.

  The ulema of Maulvi Mumtaz’s time ignored it, but its revolutionary thoughts are now warming the hearts of reformists in the community. “Quoting the Quran and Hadith, both Prophet Muhammad’s traditions, the maulvi convincingly explodes the myth of male supremacy and argues that the Quran is just to both sexes,” says Islamic reformist Asgar Ali Engineer who published Huququn Niswan (Rights of Women) a few months ago after he got a photocopy from a US library with an American scholar’s help.

  There are plans to publish the book in English, Hindi and Urdu.

   
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  johnpi 10:42 pm on December 26, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: iran (366), Iranian elections (90), Martyrs (9), Muslim women, Muslim women in the media (15), neda (22)

  UK newspaper The Times names Neda Soltan the Person of the Year.

   
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  johnpi 11:58 am on November 6, 2009 | 39 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: American Muslim leaders (10), American Muslims (71), associating with Muslims (2), campus Muslims (2), conservative Muslims (7), gay muslims (11), mosque control (3), mosque leadership (3), mosques (38), muslim american (20), muslim american extremism (25), Muslim converts (7), Muslim dissidents (2), Muslim families (3), Muslim family life (3), muslim fanatics (18), Muslim feminists (6), Muslim Identity (2), Muslim Leaders, Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (2), muslim liberals (7), Muslim Schools (8), Muslim unity (2), Muslim women, Muslim World (13), muslims condemn (3), Muslims in America (36), Muslims in Politics (5), peace activist Muslims (3), progressive muslims (6), western muslims (8)

  Interesting conversation I was having with another moderate Muslim.

  Her point: Mainstream/moderate American Muslims deserve the suspicion of our fellow Americans for having allowed this thing to grow among us that resulted in the violence at Fort Hood and other recent expressions of extremism, for shrinking back from mosque boards and private school committees when those of the puritanical strain among us take them over, for allowing ourselves to be put on the spot at mosque functions and social events instead of turning it around and not putting them on the spot.

  Agree or disagree?

   
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  johnpi 10:31 am on November 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Muslim women, Muttawa (8), saudi arabia (135), women in Islam (22)

  Saudi Arabia is serious about training a cadre of female firefighters.

  A new batch of Saudi female firefighters graduated from a civil protection course on Monday, bringing the total number of Saudi women trained in fire suppression to over 500.
  ….

  Training women in firefighting is new to the kingdom.

  Wajeha Al-Huwaidar, a Saudi women’s rights activist, said the trend was a change from previous attempts to keep women out of the public eye.

  “It’s great,” she told The Media Line. “Don’t forget that women in this society are treated as irresponsible people. They always have to have a man to do things for them, so many thought this was only a show. Very few welcomed the idea.”

  Response inside Saudi Arabia continues to be mixed.

  Several people commented on their uniforms, with some complaining that they were not Islamic. One reader wrote that such courses should be obligatory in all universities and colleges, while another said that calling these graduates firefighters was “an insult to real male firemen.”

  The story does not say it, but there is no doubt the genesis of the program was the 2002 fire at a Mecca girls school where 14 died and 50 were injured when Muttawa forced the students back into the burning building because they were improperly covered. They also wouldn’t allow firefighters to physically assist the girls for fear of sexual enticement.

   
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  johnpi 8:15 am on November 3, 2009 | 22 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Chechnya (14), covering (31), Domestic violence and religion (5), hijab (75), honor killing (16), Honor Killings (13), islamism (44), Islamists (47), Muslim women, polygamy (8), russia (44), salafism (24), salafists (14), Sufis (10), sufism (24), traditionalism (7), women in Islam (22), Women's Rights in Islam (9)

  Chechen leader champions ‘tradition,’ makes Sufi Islamism the state religion to counter influence of Salafi Islamism.

  Kadyrov, 33, was once a separatist but switched sides, recasting himself as an Islamic leader who is also loyal to Moscow.

  At first, his injection of national pride along with lots of money from the central government in Moscow soothed war-weary Chechens.

  And at first, the process of Islamization was voluntary. Any female student who wore a headscarf initially earned a prize of $1,000. Now all females, regardless of their religious convictions, must cover their heads in schools and government offices.

  Kadyrov has banned the sale of European-style wedding dresses in the republic’s bridal salons. Polygamy is increasing. Members of the team around Kadyrov openly have several wives. Kadyrov has also supported honor killings.

  Lipkhan Bazaeva, who runs a nongovernmental organization promoting women’s rights, says Chechnya is going back to the Middle Ages.

  “Yes, we are a traditional, conservative society, with our own values, but the government has gone overboard, declaring unacceptable limits on women — that they should sit at home, they should obey their husbands,” she says. “As an individual, she has no rights even if her husband beats her, despite Russian laws to the contrary.”

   
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  johnpi 8:22 pm on October 29, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Extremism (167), Muslim women, Muslim-on-Muslim violence (76), Northwest Frontier Province (7), Pakistan (569), Terrorism (399), women in Islam (22), Women's Rights in Islam (9)

  Death toll in Peshawar market blast rises to 117.

  Juan Cole identifies those responsible:

  Muslim extremists in Darra Adam Khel appear to have planned and carried out the attack, done by remote-controlled car bomb. They had threatened the markets with retribution if they did not forbid women to shop there. Pakistani extremists often preach ‘char divari’ or the immuring of women– keeping them within the four walls of their homes and forbidding them to go out at all. This idea, typical of Taliban sorts of thinking, is not Islamic and is contradicted by what we know of early Muslim history, in which women played an active and public role.

  In any case, the extremists then bombed the area around these markets, since Kochi is a women’s market. At least 70 of the victims were women and children.

  Darra Adam Khel is an Afridi Pashtun village in the North-West Frontier Province between Peshawar and the Federally Administered Tribal Area of Kohat (which itself witnessed a big bombing last week).

   
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  johnpi 8:41 pm on October 27, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: banks (3), gender segregation (16), halal banking (4), Iraq (195), Islamic banking (4), islamic finance (10), Muslim finance (2), Muslim women, women (81)

  First women-only bank opens in Iraq holy city.

  In one of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest cities, a bank has opened a branch only for women, hoping to tap a potentially large market and meet pent-up demand from Muslim women for financial services that meet their needs.

  The manager of the Najaf branch of the private Babel bank is, however, a man. He must make an appointment before making a visit and enter the premises through a back door.

  “Through this bank they (women customers) can unveil and exercise complete freedom in dealing with the employees,” said Mazen Abdul-Razzaq, Babel’s deputy director.

  A study by The Boston Consulting Group, which included Iraq, found that women worldwide were particularly dissatisfied when it came to financial services.

  Iraqi women interviewed at the women-only bank in Najaf say they felt uncomfortable dealing with male bank clerks in regular banks and felt much more relaxed in the new branch.

   
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  johnpi 4:57 pm on October 17, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: domestic violence (35), Domestic violence and religion (5), Muslim women

  Muslim group, Maigret honored for helping abuse victims.

  The Muslim women’s group RAHAMA and Assistant U. S. Attorney Richard Maigret have been selected to receive The Buffalo News Founders and Susan Still awards, presented by the Family Justice Center of Erie County.
  ….

  Carrie Irish, president of the Family Justice Center’s board of directors, said RAHAMA, which is also an Arabic word for “mercy,” is being recognized for giving Muslim women “a place to turn for hope and guidance when they need it most.”

  RAHAMA, active since July 2006, spreads awareness about the problems of domestic violence and provides education on the rights of Muslim women. It works with social service and law enforcement agencies that deal with domestic violence to ensure that culturally appropriate support — emotionally and spiritually — is provided to Muslim domestic abuse victims.

   
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  johnpi 7:09 am on October 16, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: al Shabaab (39), al Shabab (43), clothing (17), Muslim women, Muslim-on-Muslim violence (76), somalia (78), violence against women (12)

  Somali hardliners whip women for wearing bras.

  Somalia’s hardline Islamist group al-Shabaab has publicly whipped women for wearing bras they say violate Islam by constituting a deception, north Mogadishu residents said on Friday.
  ….

  Residents said gunmen had been rounding up any woman seen with a firm bust and then had them publicly whipped by masked men. The women were then told to remove their bras and shake their breasts.

  “Al-Shabaab forced us to wear their type of veil and now they order us to shake our breasts,” a resident, Halima, told Reuters, adding that her daughters had been whipped on Thursday.

  “They first banned the former veil and introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women’s chests. They are now saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat.”

   
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  johnpi 11:18 am on October 15, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: iran (366), Muslim women, Quran (38), Shariah (43), women (81), women in Islam (22)

  God furious if women governors: Iran cleric.

  Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayghani said the appointment of women in such top jobs was against sharia (Islamic) law.

  “They come to Qom, the centre of Shiite Islam, and announce that they will appoint women as governors of some provinces. Do you want to fight with the Quran and the Prophet with such talks that go against sharia?” he asked.

  Is it any wonder that shariah gets a bad name wit interpretations like this…can somebody point me to what part of the Quran says women can’t be governors?

   
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  buzz 3:51 pm on October 7, 2009 | 43 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: hijabis (5), Muslim women, niqab (23), veil (40), women's rights (32)

  More fun with veils.

  Abu Noor covered this story 1st and I unintentionally repeated it.  I disagree with his openning op/ed so I will leave this up as an alternate take.

  CAIRO — A Islamist lawmaker called on Wednesday for the head of the most prestigious centre of religious learning in the Sunni Muslim world to resign after he told a schoolgirl to remove the veil covering her face.

  The demand to step down came as about two dozen students, wearing the face veil, known as a niqab, protested outside the state-run Cairo University, which has banned the veils from its residence hall.

  Mohammed Tantawi, head of Al-Azhar University, told a schoolgirl to remove her niqab when he spotted her during a tour of an Al-Azhar affiliated school, the independent Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper reported this week.

  He also said he intended to ban the niqab at Al-Azhar and made an unflattering remark about the girl’s appearance when she took off the veil, the newspaper said.

  “And you look like this; what would you do if you were a bit pretty,” he reportedly asked, adding “I know more about religion than your parents.”

  Al-Azhar spokesman Ahmed Tawfiq confirmed Tantawi had asked the girl to remove the niqab, but said he spoke to her in a kindly way.

  He said Tantawi, who insists the niqab is not an Islamic practice, wanted to ban the niqab from Al-Azhar classrooms on religious grounds.

  “The imam always bases his decision on religious grounds,” said Tawfiq.

  Hamdi Hassan, an MP with the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group, said “Tantawi cannot stay in his post; he hurt’s Al-Azhar every time he says something.

  “I believe the niqab is not an obligation, but it is a benefit,” he added. “Why ban it from Al-Azhar? It’s a religious institution, not a belly dancing academy.”

  Story continues…

   
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  johnpi 8:06 pm on September 22, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: burqa (9), Muslim women, Pakistan Taliban (124), Pakistani Taliban (126), Swat (37), swat valley (9), taliban (260), women in Islam (22), Women's Rights in Islam (9)

  Burqas disappear from a Pakistani city.

  In Mingora, the main city of Swat Valley:

  “When the Taliban fled, our burqas went with them,” said Shahin Begum, 40, an elementary school teacher, who returned to work on Aug. 1.

  Women were the main targets of the Taliban’s morals police, and once that rigid rule was imposed their lives froze. They were barred from going to traditional women’s shopping areas, and anyone who worked in a public place, including hospitals, was required to wear a burqa, a sacklike, head-to-toe garment with netting over the eyes.

  The burqa is traditional for many women in tribal, conservative western Pakistan. But here in the Swat Valley and its ethnically mixed hill towns north of the capital, Islamabad, women are relatively more open, and for many the outfit felt clumsy and confining.

  “I felt like I was out of air,” said Zaida Bibi, a maid in a green shawl with flowers.

  Now, she said, it still feels like a delicious act of revenge to walk into Cheena Market, a maze of glittering glass stalls full of cosmetics, dresses and shoes that was forbidden under the Taliban, where she was shopping Sunday.

  “It’s a free, light feeling,” she said as she chose gifts for Id al-Fitr, a major Muslim holiday, which was celebrated this week.

   
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  thabet 8:01 am on September 18, 2009 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bigots (4), geert wilders (24), hijab (75), islamophobia (228), Muslim women, netherlands (18), racists (43)

  Apparently, Geert Wilders wants to impose a tax or a fine on Muslim women for wearing a hijab.

  These sorts of measures show that anti-Muslim bigots are not only racist, but also misogynistic: the target for their hatred is almost always Muslim women.

   
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  johnpi 3:20 pm on September 9, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: America (36), American Muslims (71), muslim american (20), Muslim women, Muslims in America (36)

  Poll: Muslim Americans still struggling for acceptance.

  Eight years after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Muslim Americans – particularly Muslim-American women – continue to face battles in their struggle for acceptance and the right to wear religious garb in public settings. A new poll from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that Americans see Muslims as encountering more discrimination than any other religious group. But while Americans are more likely to be familiar with Islam or personally know a Muslim than they were at the time of the attacks, levels of tolerance are lower today than they were in the months immediately following Sept. 11.

  Reason not to withdraw and isolate yourself from the non-Muslim larger community.

  A majority of Americans under age 30 (52%) know a Muslim, but less than one-third (30%) of those over age 65 do. That’s significant because researchers have found that knowledge of Islam and Muslims tends to make an individual more inclined to express favorable views of the two. “People who know a Muslim tend to be less likely than others to see a connection between Islam and violence,” says Gregory Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum.

   
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  thabet 5:51 am on September 7, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: freedom of religion (61), mosques (38), Muslim women, uzbekistan (11)

  Registan has a blog post about women being banned from mosques in Bukhara.

   
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  thabet 2:16 am on September 5, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Muslim women, people (4), social (46), united kingdom (732)

  A Conservative councillor in Cullingworth (a village near Bradford) writes about his interaction with a doctor in his local surgery:

  I went to Cullingworth Surgery this morning to see the doctor. Don’t do this too often as it usually leads to a massive rant about the uselessness of the appointments system and the idiocy of NHS bureaucracy. Today was different.

  Leaving aside making us poorly folk wait outside in the pouring rain for ten minutes, everything went smoothly – went in asked for appointment and got one for 8.30am with Dr Khan. And here starts the real story of the visit.

  Dr Khan is new – to me at least – and I was quite taken aback on entering the consulting room to find that the Doctor was not only Muslim but quite obviously a Muslim woman.

   
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  thabet 10:32 pm on September 2, 2009 | 12 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: activism (4), Feminism (26), human rights (381), international law (143), Muslim women, NGOs (4), politics (765)

  A bunch of white men debate how best to save the eternally oppressed Muslim woman…

   
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  thabet 3:58 am on August 16, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), foreign policy (237), human rights (381), marriage (62), Muslim women, sexual relations (12), social (46)

  This is why we’re fighting in Afghanistan:

  Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands’ sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review.

  The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work.

   
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  thabet 12:34 am on August 9, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: islamophobia (228), Muslim women, racism (201), scotland (20), united kingdom (732)

  Muslim women in Scotland avoid reporting racist crimes.

   
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  thabet 4:56 am on August 8, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: islamophobia (228), Muslim women, police (27), racism (201), religious profiling (13), united kingdom (732)

  Safiya, Justin Gest and Neil Robertson offer a defence of South Yorkshire Police’s recent attempt to ‘understand’ Muslims.

   
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  thabet 7:54 am on August 4, 2009 | 5 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: media (407), Muslim women, police (27), right-wing (96), the daily wail (5), united kingdom (732)

  Everything about this is a disgrace: the police; the reporting; the comments.

  (Via Muslimah Media Watch.)

   
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  johnpi 6:55 pm on August 2, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Faux Feminist Watch (8), iran (366), Iranian elections (90), Muslim women, Muslim women in the media (15), neda (22), protest movements (9), protests (25), Westoxification (6), women (81)

  Remember this clarion call for (especially Western) silence and indifference in the name of privacy and respect toward the martyr Neda, and against those who would appropriate her as a “sign,” a symbol?

  Here’s Neda’s mother in a BBC interview thanking the world for its attention:

  I don’t want people to forget her. People – Iranians – have all been very supportive. They come to me and congratulate me for having had such a brave daughter.

  And now I want you to do something for me. I want you, on my behalf, to thank everyone around the world, Iranians and non Iranians, people from every country and culture, people who in their own way, their own tradition, have mourned my child… everyone who lit a candle for her – every musician, who wrote songs for her, who wrote poems about her… you know, Neda loved the arts and music. I want to thank all of them.

  I want to thank politicians and leaders, from every country, at all levels, who remembered my child.

  Her death has been so painful – words can never describe my true feelings. But knowing that the world cried for her… that has comforted me.

  I am proud of her. The world sees her as a symbol, and that makes me happy.

  Muslims ‘not of the West’ need as much protection from Western Muslims who will colonize them as they do from any other oppressor.

  Who among us will rush in and do the patroniz…err…protecting?

   
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  thabet 5:57 am on August 2, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: culture (72), employment (10), Multiculturalism (44), Muslim women, race (80), South Asian stereotypes (3), united kingdom (732)

  Some numbers on Asian Muslim women and employment in the UK.

  (Via Andrew Brown.)

   
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  thabet 4:40 am on August 2, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: burqa (9), citizenship (11), france (71), freedom of religion (61), Identity (75), liberalism (43), Muslim women, niqab (23), politics (765), race (80), religion (365), secularism (38), veil (40)

  A mere 367 Muslim women may bring down the Fifth Republic.

   
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  johnpi 6:16 pm on August 1, 2009 | 31 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Canadian Muslims, discrimination (27), ISNA (15), Muslim women, patriarchy (8), Quran (38), Quran translations (4), sexism (18), Sublime Quran, Tarek Fatah (3), women (81)

  ISNA has banned the first-ever translation of the Quran by a woman from its bookstore, according to Tarek Fatah. Fatah seems to be pretty fast and loose with the word “Islamist,” which prompts suspicion for me as ISNA has been the target of extremist smears for awhile.

  Until 2007, only men had translated the Koran and interpreted it. That’s because the very idea of a woman translating the holy book offends Islamists. Consider, for example, the reaction to the first-ever translation by a woman — Laleh Bakhtiar’s The Sublime Quran — two years ago.

  Mohammad Ashraf of the Canadian branch of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) — the same gentleman who this week told the CBC that there was no provision for honour killings in Islam — told The Toronto Star that he would not permit The Sublime Quran to be sold in the ISNA bookstore. “Our bookstore would not allow this kind of translation,” he said. “I will consider banning it … This woman-friendly translation will be out of line and will not fly too far.”

  What had Laleh Bakhtiar done to deserve the punishment of having her translation of the Koran banned from ISNA’s Islamic bookstores? Her fault, in the eyes of Islamists, is that she believes the Koran does not condone spousal abuse, as claimed by Islamists.

  I checked the Toronto Star article, and Ashraf did indeed say what he is quoted as saying. Ashraf also said his objection was not that she was a female scholar, but that “she was not trained at an academic institution accredited in the Muslim world.” This is a catch-22 though as Bakhtiar would likely never have been admitted into programs that would allow her to be recognized as a scholar in the first place, so I conclude that Fatah’s criticism above is justified. I would still not use the word “Islamist” to describe the organization in America – but perhaps the Canadian branch is a little more “out there.”

   
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  johnpi 9:29 pm on July 17, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Muslim women, Muslim women in the media (15), Syria (25)

  Commentary that goes with a slide show of images of Syria’s first lady, Asma Al Assad at The Huffington Post.

  A couple weeks ago headlines were made when Syrian First Lady, Asma Al Assad invited the Obamas to Damascus. HuffPost readers ended up commenting more on Asma’s beauty and less on what an Obama/Assad meeting would mean for the Middle East. And we couldn’t help but notice the Syrian beauty either. In a region where the women love to cake on their make-up, it is very refreshing to see the wife of President Bashar al-Assad with very little on.

   
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  johnpi 5:55 am on July 17, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Egypt (94), gender segregation for Muslims only, Muslim women, swimming

  In Egypt, Western women can swim in Western-style bathing suits, but Muslim women are disallowed from swimming in the same areas with the burkini.

  “It is very ironic that in Norway and Sweden I have no problem swimming with the Islamic bathing suit’” said Caroline Boston.

  “When she was about to enter the pool area, the security told her that there is a swimming pool for veiled women in the hotel. When we went to this other pool, she refused to swim there,” Morshedi told Al Arabiya.

  “The pool was surrounded with brown glass and looked like an animals’ cage,” Caroline said. “This is against humanity and that is why I refused to swim in it.”

  Caroline has vowed to never go back to Egypt after what happened.

   
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  abunoor 4:52 pm on July 13, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: American Muslims (71), Muslim women, muslimmatters (2), Positively Muslim in the West (2), Wellesley College

  Muslim Matters debuts what is intended to be a new monthly series, “Positively Muslim in the West” which will highlight “outstanding and inspiring Muslims residing in the West.” Sister Mona Minkara, graduate of Wellesley College and 2009 Commencement speaker is recognized for July. You can read and watch Ms. Minkara’s inspiring speech and learn about her story over at MM.