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• A bank in California denies a woman services because of her headscarf. More here.

• The Saudi Gazette profiles artist Zaina Zahid.

• The E.U. launches a program to boost gender equality in the Mediterranean. The Muslim parts, anyway. (rolling eyes)

• Several women ran in Iraq’s recent provincial elections. There are profiles from the Ledger-Enquirer, the New York Times, Xinhua News, There are also articles about overall female participation in the elections from The National, IWPR, AFP, CNN, Gulfnews, The Guardian, and NPR.

• A woman is murdered, allegedly by her partner. May Allah give her peace and justice.

• The Jakarta Post relates State Minister for Women’s Empowerment Meutia Hatta’s message that women still face institutional discrimination in Indonesia.

• 490 new Iraqi policewomen graduated from Baghdad’s Police College at the end of January.

• The Japan Times reviews Caramel.

• The Kuwait Times profiles author Naila Baqer.

• Today’s Zaman reports that the European Parliament has decided to send a delegation to attend hearings related to the Turkish prosecution of Kurdish politician Leyla Zana.

• Women still get abortions despite the fact that they’re illegal in Indonesia.

• Female Arab investors will meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the current economic crisis.

• The Chittagong City Corporation has decided to demolish two girls’ schools and house them together in a new commercial complex.

• The Media Women Forum holds a meeting to discuss the needs of Yemeni women in the the future of media.

• The National speaks with Sarah Joseph, editor of emel magazine.

• A commission in gender finds strong support in Turkish parliament. Women dig it, too.

• A paper on the misclassification of honor killing.

• Women join forces to bring healthcare education and access to rural Turkish women.

• On Dubai’s TV program Millions Poet, Saudi poet Aydah Al Aarawi Al Jahani  is making history. More from Middle East Online.

• You can download the Cambridge study of Muslim women in Europe here.

• Bahraini artists, particularly female ones, face bias against their profession.

• The Jordan Times reports that a man who beat his wife to death has received a ten-year jail sentence. May Allah give her peace.

• A woman gives birth to octuplets. GlobalComment has a great discussion about the controversy surrounding this.

• A British woman writes about the hejab and her journey to removing it, while a Texan girl shares her journey to wearing the hejab.

• Yemeni schoolgirls ask for brighter school uniforms.

• The U.K.’s Communities Minister stressed the importance of increasing Muslim women’s participation in civic affairs.

• An Uzbek imam tells women not to wear hejab. Interesting.

• Hanne Blank’s book about virginity and its myths has been translated into Turkish.

• An interview with the U.A.E.’s first female judge, Kholoud al Dhaheri. more on her here.

• The sentence for a British woman who attacked a Somali refugee has had her sentence of five months  suspended. WTF?

• Do you know a professional British Muslim woman who kicks ass? Nominate her for the Muslim Women Power List. Via Rochdale Online. Anyone in the U.S. want to start one of these?

• Iran Islamic Republic Broadcasting has recently issued a new directive for production of movies and serials forbidding close-ups of any female actors with too much makeup.

• Women can run for political office but can’t win?

• Some wives in Indonesia are opting for divorce rather than stay in polygynous marriages. More from AKI. Speaking of divorce, the BBC claims that the divorce rate in the country is on the rise.

• Five Pakistani lawmakers walked out of an assembly session in protest against the alleged maltreatment of a woman in custody.

• The Gulf Daily News reports that an American lecturer has been charged in a case of insulting the Prophet. But she didn’t stop at the Prophet; she also insulted a female student who raised objections. Classy.

• Alia Hogben writes about women’s rights for The Whig.

• Illume writer Aaminah Hernández interviews artist Izzy Mo. And Izzy Mo interviews Aaminah.

• British police have opened doors for some Muslim women by adding the hejab to police uniforms for those who wish to wear them.

• The Dubai Shopping Festival (here’s to consumption!) presents Shabana Asif’s creations. Via Hijab Style.

• The Netherlands decides to take a tough approach to female genital cutting in an attempt to stop the practice.

• A relationship built on ignorance and lies is the best kind, according to the Dubai courts. I see where they’re going with this, but jeez.

• Nafees Syed writes about the Lisa Valentine case.

• Iran has arrested women’s rights campaigner Nafiseh Azad. Via ifeminists.

• Schools in Switzerland refuse to allow students to be exempt from mixed gender swimming classes.

• Progressive Muslima News shares her feelings about an IslamOnline scholar’s declaration on marital rape.

• Kuwait’s parliamentary Women Affairs Committee revised a number of draft bills concerning civil and social women’s rights.

• The Nation interviews Kavita Ramdas on how to help Afghan women and girls.

• On Palestinian feminists.

• The Yemen Observer interviews photographers Boushra Almutawakel and Asiah al-Sharabi.

• Married women in Tajikistan are being deprived of property rights if they don’t register their marriages with the state.

• Dr. Maha Al-Moneef says that domestic violence in Saudi Arabia is no longer a problem, but a social phenomenon.

• Three unidentified women have allegedly kidnapped and raped a man over a period of four days. May Allah give him justice.

• Women in the Yemeni Women’s Shadow Parliament receive training on advocacy and lobbying skills and means of communication with societies for lobbying women issues.

• The Benazir Income Support Programme was launched in Balochestan, Pakistan, aiming to assist women with financial hardships.

• Female riders in Bahrain are gearing up for the first-ever Women’s Endurance Horseride Championship.

• The Yemen Observer profiles author Lamia al-Eryani.

• The News examines women’s supposed passion for buying gold jewelry.

• Iranian women’s rights activist Alieh Eghdomdust begins her three-year jail sentence. May Allah protect her.

• The National looks at an Iranian artist’s fascination with Gandhi.

• Norway has allowed female Muslim police officers to incorporate a headscarf into their uniforms. More here and here. Islam in Europe examines the hejab uniform situation among other Scandinavian countries.
  

• Iraqi police have arrested a woman who has confessed to recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers and who helped orchestrate dozens of attacks. More from the BBC, The Muslim News, AFP, Times Online, and the Associated Press.

• Kashmir Watch reports that Syed Ali Shah Geelani expresses concern over girls being denied an education in parts of Pakistan.

• Yemen held its first national conference for businesswomen last week.

• The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Social Affairs really needs to reassess itself. May Allah give this woman justice.

• The UN says that it will launch a probe into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination soon.

• Qatar’s Springboard program trains women for “success in work and at home.”

• Sania Mirza has withdrawn from the Federation Cup.

• The National examines how Morocco’s recently updated family laws are giving women more equality.

• MuslimMatters has a great rundown of news stories about the Canadian woman who has been ordered to testify in a sexual assault trial without her niqab.

• Women in Qatar’s Standard Charter Consumer Banking unit underwent a comprehensive workshop focusing on industry concerns.

• Moroccan female medical specialists are protesting to demand new rules for assigning position locations.

• Menassat covers Jasad magazine.

• The Guardian connects the forced closing of Zanan to a wider oppression of women’s media in Iran.

• Newsweek has more on the Algerian rape case. Via TalkIslam.

• Maghrebia interviews Tunisian singer Sonia Moubarek.

• CBS News reports that Iranian women are slowly gaining more rights.

• Some horizontal hostility in the Daily Mail’s coverage of Rachida Dati’s firing.

• JournalLive profiles photographer Newsha Tavakolian.

• Masoumeh Ghale Jahi was executed January 29, 2009. May Allah give her peace.

• In Morocco, high school student Ounissa Ait Abdeslam was crowned Miss Kabylie.

• A 12-year-old girl working as a maid was so severely abused by her employer that his neighbors helped her escape. May Allah give her justice.

• The Jordanian government rejected a license for a women’s community radio station in the Jordan valley. Boo!

• A Pakistani girl’s diary is shared on the BBC.

• Women’s higher education in the Gulf has improved 90% in the last three years, according to the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and research.

• Time profiles Nujood’s trip to Paris.

• Compass Direct News reports that Sharia-based laws are slowly making their way into several Indonesian provinces.

• The National asks, “Isn’t it time for the Arab man to divorce his mother?”

• Shazia Rafi shares her opinion of how to quell the Taleban in Pakistan.

• Cycads discusses Malaysian mail-order brides.

• Dr Fatima Al Shamsi says that Gulf nations need to issue new legislation to encourage women to take up jobs and end discrimination against them.

• A suit alleging religious discrimination, filed against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, has been settled: two employees who were not allowed to wear a headscarf at work now have the right to do so.

• A case in India decided under the Muslim Women Protection Act has ordered a man to pay his wife her dowry and an additional sum.

• A series of short films by female Egyptian filmmakers examine women’s issues.

• In India, the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education has banned coeducation in schools across the state.

• Fremont, California, has hit the big screen in a documentary which looks at the increasing numbers of Muslims in the area. The documentary features footage from the Alia Ansari murder coverage and “Wear a Hijab Day”.

• A Marquette University student wears a hijab for a day.

• Shirin Ebadi gives her opinion on Islamic feminism.

• Egypt works to stop female genital cutting.

• A young girl is tortured by her step-mother. May Allah give her justice.

• A  woman discusses gender issues and dressing in the Kyrgyz workplace.

• Iraqi women’s rights groups are uniting to support a candidate to become the first female parliament speaker.

• Achelois gives an interesting history of the abaya.

• MR Zine interviews Maya Jribi, leader of the Democratic Party of Tunisia.

• Two women are murdered by their brothers. May Allah give them peace and justice.

• The Guardian profiles artist Shadi Ghadirian. Loooove her!

• The Ministry of Interior has rejected a request by the Shoura Council for easing rules governing Saudis who marry non-Saudi women.

• Egypt aims to enact a tougher sexual harassment law.

• As the trial of a boy accused of killing his sister comes to a close, it appears more likely that the murder was sparked by sibling rivalry rather than honor.

• The Emirates Cervicare Network launches 800-CERVIX, a toll-free number that educates callers about cervical cancer. AWESOME!

• Many Saudi widows and divorced women find it difficult to rent an apartment on their own.

• If you have some time to kill and are a Muslim woman, you might consider helping a sister out with her thesis project by filling out this survey.

• A Copenhagen school takes a pragmatic approach to domestic violence.

• Iraq’s minister of women’s affairs resigned in protest at the lack of resources to deal with disenfranchised and impoverished women in the country.

• According to a recent survey given by Integration Health and Empowerment of Women in the South Region Project, many women in rural Jordan feel they have no control over the timings of their pregnancies.

• The draft of Pakistan’s first ‘emigration policy’ mentions the possibility of substantially increasing the number of women going abroad for suitable jobs.

• You can sign a petition to end domestic violence in the Muslim world here.