- The Times Online reports on Britain’s only Muslim women’s cycling club.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer profiles Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a documentary about Muslim and Christian Liberian women joining together to stop Liberia’s civil war.
- Amid backlash, Malaysian authorities back down on the yoga ban. More analysis from The Star Online and Sun2Surf.
- On activism against violence against women in the Muslim community in South Africa.
- The Muslim News reports on a conference addressing women in Islamic resistance.
- Indian Muslims interviews Naish Hasan, who states that Muslim women need their own leadership.
- Al-Ahram Weekly states that more and more Egyptian women are enrolling in business education courses to help them enrich their skill sets and local communities.
- The Dubai Women’s Establishment held a forum in late November to encourage Emirati women to take up leadership roles.
- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he wants more women in government.
- Dr. A. Rashid Yassin Ebrahim justifies polygyny in rural areas for the Yemen Times. Did I mention that Dr. Ebrahim is a horticulturist?
- Pakistan’s Daily Times reviews Women in Islam and the Middle East, edited by Ruth Roded.
- Fantasia’s World condemns Egyptian housewives for making Egypt poor. Ouch. Via Global Online Voices.
- Various Kurdish rights groups demonstrated against a law in Kurdish Parliament that allows polygyny. More on the law here.
- Daily Star Egypt profiles Khaltet Fawzeya, an Egyptian film about a serial divorcer.
- Middle East Online reviews the book The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie.
- Two sisters were buried alive as they slept when a landslide hit their home in Malaysia. May Allah give them peace.
- A non-governmental organization gives rural Egyptian women the tools to run for local political offices.
- Turkey’s Gulsum Tatar wins a gold medal for women’s boxing.
- Jordan gets its first all-female team of landmine clearers. More from AFP and IRIN.
- Lobna Khairy writes about sexual harassment in Egypt for the American Chronicle.
- Kenya’s Shakila Abdalla is the first woman from a Muslim majority area in the country to run for a seat in the Kenyan parliament.
- Syria Today profiles painter Sara Shamma.
- Lebanon’s The Daily Star reports more on the U.N. fund to eliminate violence against women.
- The Washington Post relates the increase of Iraqi women driving despite dangerous conditions.
- Current TV examines programs to help educate female genital cutting practitioners in Sierra Leone that aim to wean their economic dependence on the practice. Via Jezebel.
- Hundreds of Muslim women take to the streets in Nepal to demonstrate against the treatment they receive after divorce.
- Najla Al Awadi writes about empowering women through economic development in the U.A.E.
- IslamOnline shares the activities of a support group for HIV-positive Muslim women in Ghana.
- The Daily Orange examines Muslim women and headscarves on campus.
- InsideDesi’s Seleena Lloyd doesn’t care much for Sarah Maple.
- Islam in Europe announces that a Turkish-Dutch woman has won Miss Netherlands, Amsterdam’s honor violence hotline has received 84 calls this year, and a Dutch fashion designer and experimental artist collaborate in an attempt to depoliticize the burqa.
- Al Arabiya reports on the U.N.’s denunciation of Iranian crackdowns on women’s rights activists.
- Nuseiba’s Farah B talks about culture and identity in the diaspora.
Last Week, Queen Rania of Jordan won YouTube’s Visionary Award for her YouTube campaign (which we covered last year). Here is a clip of her acceptance speech. Via Jezebel.
- The Nation writes reviews Pardis Mahdavi’s new book, Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution.
- The New York Times‘ Nicholas Kristoff writes about the terrorism of acid attacks.
- HijabTrendz interviews designer Kulsoom Kazmi.
- The Guardian details the horrifically unabashed rise in honor killings in Iraq.
- The Iranian government plans to set up bureaus designed to help people find marriage partners.
- Queen Rania is everywhere: she’s now spearheading a campaign against corporal punishment in Jordanian schools.
- The Australian National Imams Council condemned a recent study by the Islamic Women’s Welfare Council of Victoria that accused Muslim clerics of sanctioning domestic violence. More about the report here.
- A real case of babies having babies.
- Saudi businesswomen feel that providing hair stylists with contracts from the Ministry of Labour would give them more confidence in their jobs.
- The LA Times profiles Egyptian poet Iman Bakry’s thoughts on Egypt’s political future.
- The Guardian publishes Malalai Joya’s experience in the Afghan parliament the day she was thrown out.
- Nadira Artyk describes her negotiation through Muslim and Uzbek identities. Via Tabsir.
- MuslimMatters reports on the MANA conference’s initiative on marriage and the excesses of “hijab parties.”
- The Feminist School reports on recent news of website filtering and executions of two women.
- Iranian filmmaker Bahareh Hosseini’s “Afghan Girls Can Kick” explores positive themes surrounding Afghan girls’ involvement in soccer.
- Iran’s Atousa Pourkashiyan has been awarded the Grandmaster title at the 38th Chess Olympiad in Germany.
- WLUML links to a report that promotes women’s human rights through a strategic marriage contract in Morocco and the grilling of a Bangladeshi university for exonerating a professor accused of sexual harassment and the suspension of female students who complained about him.
- The Iranian women’s handball team beat Uzbekistan in the Asian Women’s Handball Championships held in Bangkok.
- Hijab Style profiles a new clothing company designed with Muslim women in mind.
- Zahra Bahman writes about how traditional conservativism in Afghanistan continues to play itself out on women. Via ifeminists.
- Hasan Mahmud writes about modern-day Sharia’s misinterpretation of women’s right to divorce. Via Progressive Muslima News.
- A Muslim lawyer wins a lawsuit against her dickhead employer.
- A Jordanian man is given seven years in prison for killing his sister.
- Halima Ali writes about hajj and culture shock.
- The AccoLade gets coverage in Middle East Online.
- A nurse speaks about teenagers, hymens, and virginity.
- Canadian troops’ efforts to improve women’s agency in Afghanistan and Afghans’ reactions.
- Islam in Europe and ProgressiveIslam look at the EU’s ruling that headscarf bans are not a human rights violation.
- Cycads discusses the governance of female sexuality by men in Malaysia.
- Ghada Abdel-Khader examines fashion and identity for Al-Ahram Weekly .
- Turkey jails Kurdish activist Leyla Zana.
- Global Voices Online has more about the murder of Heba and Nadine, which we covered yesterday.
- Middle East Online reports on the increase of Iraqi policewomen.
- Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, an author, professor, and champion of women’s rights in the Middle East, died this week. May Allah grant her and her family peace.
- Women’s eNews profiles Afghan journalist Farida Nekzad. Via ifeminists.
- Islamfemina highlights a Jewish-Muslim Women’s Circle in Atlanta, Georgia.
