Muslim Women Gain Higher Profile in U.S.

Yet in their quest to break stereotypes, America’s Muslim women have advantages. They are better educated than counterparts in Western Europe, and also than the average American, according to a Gallup survey in March 2009. In contrast to their sisters in countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, they are just as likely as their menfolk to attend religious services, which equates to greater influence. And Gallup found that Muslim American women, often entrepreneurial, come closer than women of any other faith to earning what their menfolk do.

Read on: NYT

Universal Double Standards

Prostitution is illegal in Iraq. According to Mohammed, a typical prison sentence for women convicted is three to four months in jail, but their customers are rarely, if ever, arrested.

More at: War forces Iraqi mom into prostitution

May Allah (swt) forgive us for not fulfilling our responsibility of caring for Wedad, her family and the thousands of others in similar situations.

Modest Clothing & Muslim Men

Awesome news on the fashion front: there's a new designer label in the UK, that aims to bring together Islamic modesty and "street cred." The Guardian's news clip is below. Pay close attention at 3:50 where this awesome sister explains that her critics thus far have been (of course!) Muslim men claiming the clothes just aren't modest enough.

Ten Reasons (for Women, in Particular) to Follow the Elections in Iran

My guilty confession: I have, over the years, been so excited about finally having a leader in the Middle East who spoke out for Palestine AND stood up to the U.S. that I have not paid very much attention to anything else he's done. There has been enough passive news about the condition of women in Iran, that I should have flagged it for research and review. Unfortunately, I did not. But I do now intend to follow the elections, and their impact on Iranian women insha'Allah.

1. There are 4 main candidates for President: current President Mahmoud Ahmadenjad, who is widely viewed as an opponent of women's rights and a hard-liner against engagement with America; reform (but still conservative) candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi; reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi; and conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaie. All but Ahmadenijad have made deliberate appeals to female voters.

2. Unlike in other countries in the region, women in Iran are encouraged to be well-educated, have a high literacy rate and are very active participants in their political processes.

Iranian women are among the most highly educated and socially active in the Middle East. Women have a 77% literacy rate and account for 60% of university students, according to local census. Half of the eligible voters in Iran, which has a population of 72 million, are females.

But they still face discrimination in some ways.

Activists say women in Iran are subject to discrimination that makes them second-class citizens in divorce, inheritance, child custody, legal matters and other aspects of life.

They're also more subject to unemployment then men, in a country with an already-high unemployment rate.

More than 60 percent of Iran's university students are women but with unemployment in Iran running at 20 percent, employers can afford to be selective. Many prefer men, and women make up only 15 percent of the workforce.

So, many women are not exactly happy voters at the moment.

3. Current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad's election resulted in a harsh crackdown on women's rights in Iran, the results of which some women have felt strongly.

During president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's term in office, several women's rights activists have been jailed and the morality police, who try to ensure that women are dressed according to Islamic guidelines, have stepped up their patrols. "Ahmadinejad has tried to put women back in the house for the past four years," says Koulaie, the former parliamentarian. Many women have chafed under these restrictions. "We want the morality police patrols to stop," says Mahsa Motavalizadeh, a 19-year old university student who attended [Mir Hossein Mousavi's wife Zahra] Rahnavard's rally earlier this week.

Many women are disturbed by the post-Ahmadenijad restrictions on the freedoms they previously enjoyed.

4. In addition, Ahmadenijad's term in office has been marked by attacks on women's rights activists in particular.

But activists say dozens of campaigners have been detained since they launched a campaign in 2006 to try and collect one million signatures on a petition demanding greater women's rights. Most of them were released after a few days or weeks.

One imagines that prison time in Iran would be a pretty decent deterrent for women who were politically engaged, but these women stayed engaged.

5. In addition, most international observers feel that although even the reform candidates would be unlikely or unable to effect significant changes in Iran's foreign policy, Ahmadinejad's reelection would mean that President Obama's timeline for increasing pressure on Iran would be moved up.

However, some experts say an Ahmadinejad loss may buy Iran more time from the United States.

If Ahmadinejad wins, there will be no transition and you will see the administration not wanting to waste more time on the negotiations and sanctions," said Carnegie's Sadjadpour,

If he loses, however, the Obama Administration will likely give a new President time to get his arms around the policy.

6.Ahmadenijad's reported top contender is Mir Hossein Mousavi, who broke with tradition and is actively campaigning with his wife, Zahra Rahnavard. Rahnavard is, herself, a force to be reckoned with and a strong supporter of women's rights.

She was active in the struggle to oust the Shah in the late 1970s and is the author of a popular book on Islam and women's rights. She went on to earn a master's degree in art and a doctorate in political science and was appointed as the chancellor of Tehran's Al Zahra University in the late '90s. During the same period, she served as a political advisor to Khatami.

Iranian press has dubbed her Iran's Michelle Obama.

7.Mousavi and Rahnavard have promised to roll back some of the crackdowns against women of the Ahmadinejad years.

She talks about providing women with more rights before family courts, better education opportunities and more jobs. That is not only appealing to the female half of the estimated 46 million eligible voters — many of their fathers, brothers and husbands also think this the right way forward.

Rahnavard is considered one of the reasons that Mousavi appears to have so much support, especially from women.

8.Mehdi Karroubi, a more liberal candidate than Mousavi, has proposed a variety of reforms, including the elimination of the law requiring women to cover their hair, and talked of appointing women to significant cabinet positions.

Presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist cleric, has said he is against forcing women to wear the Islamic veil. He recently debated with his team the number of cabinet posts women should fill. Mr. Karroubi's top advisers lobbied for the foreign ministry, speculating that when relations with the U.S. normalize, the new foreign minister could shake hands with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Although no one quite expects him to top Mousavi or Ahmadinejad in the polls, his inclusion in the race is significant because Iranian law allows the top clerics to pick the candidates.

9.Even conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaie has reached out and appealed to women voters and spoken of reforms to benefit women.

Conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaie, who formerly headed Iran's Revolutionary Guards, has an advisory team of accomplished women and said he plans to reform the law so it ensures more equality for women. Mr. Rezaie has said he will place Iranian women in top posts in politics, education and management both in and outside the country.

That means, potentially, female ambassadors, too.

10.Most observers feel that, like in nearly every election in the States, women will play the deciding role in who becomes (or remains) the President of Iran.

Source (plus great, related links): Jezebel

Lovely Wedding News Out Of Egypt

I don't have one wedding story, I have two:

CAIRO: Exasperated by the pressures of a society obsessed with marriage and the production of children, a young Egyptian woman has come to the rescue of her country's stigmatized spinsters. In the hope of changing the prejudices suffered by the unmarried and to shed light on the difficulties of being a woman in a patriarchal society, Yomna Mokhtar set up "Spinsters for Change" about six months ago.

The group came to life on the Internet's social networking website Facebook, which has become a platform for a plethora of social protests in Egypt, and the 27-year-old's group now has more than 550 members. "Society takes a very negative view of unmarried people. It puts great pressure on them and marginalizes them" if they don't marry, Mokhtar, her face framed by an Islamic headscarf, told AFP.

In the conservative country where religion is omnipresent, getting married is an obligation for Christians and Muslims alike. Islamic associations regularly organize mass weddings for those who lack the considerable funds needed for their own lavish ceremony, with the aim of avoiding so-called "deviant" behavior - extramarital relations or homosexuality. Even though they may hold down regular jobs or are studying, unmarried women in Egypt are seen as incomplete, said Mokhtar, stressing the "psychological suffering" endured by some of her single friends.

Source: Kuwait Times

AND, the best news related to the Bush shoe throwing fiasco:

An Egyptian man said Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad Sunday,

The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. "This is something that would honour me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero," she told Reuters by telephone.

Her father, Saad Gumaa, said he had called Dergham, Zaidi's brother, to tell him of the offer. "I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him, and I am prepared to provide her with everything needed for marriage," he added.

Source: Yahoo! News

Hajj Can Empower Women...

...that is if the restrooms don't kill us first.

Check out how Hajj can have a beneficial impact on the movement to secure education and rights for women, at Muslamics.

Ya' Allah Protect Us From Muslim Men Like This One

How do they sleep at night? 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by southwestern tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands, telling stunned members of Parliament this week to spare him their outrage.

"These are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them," Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, said Saturday. "Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid."

The women, three of whom were teenagers, were first shot and then thrown into a ditch. They were still breathing as their bodies were covered with rocks and mud, according media reports and human rights activists, who said their only "crime" was that they wished to marry men of their own choosing.

Full Story: MSNBC

Desi Aunty Story

At a party on Saturday night, enjoying my last night in Southern California, I encountered a fabulous aunty. My conversation with her was so OUTRAGEOUS, that I can't help but to want to share:

Aunty: "Zahra beta, when are we going to hear your good news?"

Knowing full well what she was attempting to hint at I said "well aunty, I'm insha'Allah graduating from law school this coming May."

Aunty: "beta, thats not good enough news for us."

Oppressed Muslim Men

I almost fell off my futon laughing! (Hijab tip: Aicha Sebaa)



Update (02/21): Folks, calm down I'm pretty sure he's joking. If not that, then he's making a "single & lookin'" announcement for himself. Think about it, first he tells you he knows all of his Islamic duties and then he casually adds in that he's single. Either way, I'm pretty sure he isn't serious.

Random Fabulous Moment of the Week

Monday afternoon I'm studying at my favorite place (Panera Bread) and the man in the booth next to me, leans over and says:

"Excuse me, I just want to say you're really brave for wearing a head scarf."

I'm not sure I would classify myself as brave and of all places San Francisco is a relatively easy city to wear a hijab in. That doesn't however change the niceness of the comment.

Alhamdulillah for open minded people.

Return of Benazir Bhutto

The Kleptocrat in an Hermes Headscarf

Counter Punch
October 22, 2007
By JEMIMA KHAN

She's back. Hurrah! She's a woman. She's brave. She's a moderate. She speaks good English. She's Oxford-educated, no less. And she's not bad looking either.

I admit I'm biased. I don't like Benazir Bhutto. She called me names during her election campaign in 1996 and it left a bitter taste. Petty personal grievances aside, I still find jubilant reports of her return to Pakistan depressing. Let's be clear about this before she's turned into a martyr.

This is no Aung San Suu Kyi, despite her repeated insistence that she's "fighting for democracy", or even more incredibly, "fighting for Pakistan's poor".

This is the woman who was twice dismissed on corruption charges. She went into self-imposed exile while investigations continued into millions she had allegedly stashed away into Swiss bank accounts ($1.5 billion by the reckoning of Musharraf's own "National Accountability Bureau").

She has only been able to return because Musharraf, that megalomaniac, knows that his future depends on the grassroots diehard supporters inherited from her father's party, the PPP.

As a result, Musharraf, who in his first months in power declared it his express intention to wipe out corruption, has dropped all charges against her and granted her immunity from prosecution. Forever.

Notably, he did not do the same for his other political rival, Nawaz Sharif, who was recently deported after attempting his own spectacular return to Pakistan.

But the difference is that Benazir is a pro at playing to the West. And that's what counts. She talks about women and extremism and the West applauds. And then conspires.

The Americans and the British are acutely aware that their strategy in the region is failing and that Musharraf's hold on power is ever more tenuous. They have pressed hard for Benazir and the General to cut a deal that would allow them to share power for the next five years in a "liberal forces government".

It's all totally bogus. Benazir may speak the language of liberalism and look good on Larry King's sofa, but both her terms in office were marked by incompetence, extra-judicial killings and brazen looting of the treasury, with the help of her husband--famously known in Pakistan as Mr 10 Per Cent.

In a country that tops the international corruption league, she was its most self-enriching leader.

Benazir has always cynically used her gender to manipulate: I loved her answer to David Frost when he asked her how many millions she had in her Swiss bank accounts. "David, I think that's a very sexist question."

A non sequitur (does loot have a gender?) but one that brought the uncomfortable line of questioning to a swift end.

Of all Pakistan's elected leaders she conspicuously did the least to help the cause of women. She never, for example, repealed the Hudood Ordinances, Pakistan's controversial laws that made no distinction between rape and adultery.

She preferred instead to kowtow to the mullahs in order to cling to power, forming an expedient alliance with Pakistan's Religious Coalition Party and leaving Pakistan's women as powerless as she found them.

The problem is that the West never seems to learn; playing favourites in a complicated nation's politics always backfires. Imposing Benazir on Pakistan is the opposite of democratic and doubtless will cause more chaos in an already unstable country.

Make no mistake, Benazir may look the part, but she's as ruthless and conniving as they come--a kleptocrat in a Hermes headscarf.

Jemima Khan is an ambassador to Unicef.

(Hijab tip: Huda Shaka)

Love, Marriage and Islam . . .

. . . from the perspective of an American Muslim muhajiba:

Born in Kenya of Indian heritage, I came to the United States at age 6, settling with my family in upstate New York. Growing up Muslim in suburban America, I missed out on the typical “Dawson’s Creek” method of courtship: the flirting, the fighting, the making up and making out.
. . .
So my friends and I had high expectations when it came to marriage, which was supposed to quickly follow graduation from college. That’s when our parents, many of whom had entered into arranged marriages, told us it was time to find the one man we would be waking up with for the rest of our lives, God willing. They just didn’t tell us how.
. . .
Yet now, at 29, despite all of my “meetings,” I remain unmarried. And in the last five years I’ve exhausted the patience of my matchmaking aunties and friends who have offered up their husbands’ childhood playmates.

I began to panic when I realized people were no longer even asking me how my husband hunt was going. I was too old to be hanging out at the mosque weekend school, where scarf-wearing teenage girls in tight jeans check out the boys from a distance (while pretending not to look). Yet I was not at the point where I’d consider importing a spouse from the subcontinent.

Full story: Close Enough to Touch Was Too Far Apart

(Hijab tip: Dina Badawy)

An Islamic Perspective on Women's Voices

From Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi's response to a question regarding a woman's voice, in Islam:

The promotion of such negativity against women has led many 'scholars' and 'Imams' to make the unsubstantiated ruling about female speech. They claim that women should lower their voice to whispers or even silence except when she speaks to her husband, her guardian or other females. The female act of communication has become to some a source of temptation and allurement to the male.

The Qur'an, however, specifically mentions that those seeking information from the Prophet's wives were to address them from behind a screen (Al-Ahzab 33: 53). Since questions require answers, the Mothers of the Believers offered fatwas to those who asked and narrated hadiths to whomever wished to transmit them.

Furthermore, women were accustomed to posing questions to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while men were present. Neither were they embarrassed to have their voices heard nor did the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prevent them from forwarding their inquires. Even in the case of `Umar when he was challenged by a woman during his khutbah (Friday sermon) on the pulpit, he did not deny her. Rather, he admitted that she was right and he was wrong and said: 'Everybody is more knowledgeable than `Umar.'

Another Qur'anic example of a woman speaking publicly is that the daughters of the Shu`ayb mentioned in the Qur'an in surat Al-Qasas, verse 23. Furthermore, the Qur'an narrates the conversation between Sulayman and the Queen of Sheba as well as between her and her subjects.

All of these examples support the fatwa that women are allowed to voice their opinion publicly, for whatever has been prescribed to those before us is prescribed to us, unless it’s unanimously rejected by Islamic law.

Read on at: Islam Online

To Veil or Not?

A Saudi friend of mine once said that “the only thing more cliché than talking about the veil is apologizing for talking about the veil.” She’s right; the subject’s boring, long-exhausted. Yet, for Muslim women, it’s one subject that won’t go away. Here’s an insider tip for my male Muslim friends, even the so-called progressive ones who say they don’t care whether women veil or not: the difference between you and me is that you’ve never had to make this decision. And as much as we love you — plural — for claiming that you don’t care what conclusion we come to, the fact is you will never have to be in this position. And that, right there, makes your experience of Islam different from ours.

Read on at: Hijab Man