Tunisia was hailed at the Beijing+15 International Association Forum as a pioneer in women’s issues. The conference, which ran February 27-28, highlighted some of the initiatives undertaken by the Tunisian government in what participants said show the country’s efforts to buttress women’s rights. It rings true on Monday as the world celebrates International Women’s Day, [...]
A growing number of Muslims are making their home in Gatineau, and many say they feel comfortable in this part of Quebec. “You can feel yourself at home,” said Soumaïa Allal, an Aylmer resident who is originally from Morocco and wears a hijab, or Muslim headscarf. “You can be as anyone who is walking down [...]
Yasmine al-Mehairy did not even really want to be there. She had been invited to a friend’s birthday party at an upmarket nightclub called 35, in the Four Seasons hotel. She was parked illegally but only planned to hand over a bouquet and spend ten minutes inside. But when the bouncer pointed at her headscarf as the reason she could not enter, Ms al-Mehairy decided to fight…
Quebec’s movement to expel the niqab from much of civic life struck some Canadians as pure intolerance – a hunt more common to the pitchfork-wielding redneck anxious to preserve his cultural domination. But in Quebec, opposition to allowing the niqab in government services expands far beyond the ranks of the usual bigots. In fact, the [...]
Los Angeles, California – International Women’s Day on 8 March provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the work women are doing to combat gender inequality. Violence and inequality affect women around the world, including women in Muslims societies who, like their non-Muslim counterparts, are engaged on a day-to-day basis to improve their environments for [...]
Most Malaysians accept the caning of women under the country’s Shariah courts, Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director general Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz said on Wednesday.“Jakim held a seminar to discuss caning long before it became an issue among Malaysians. The outcome was encouraging because the participants understood the whys and hows of it,” [...]
Determined to fight for equality in prayer, a group of Muslim women risked arrest as they entered the room of the Islamic Centre of Washington, which is usually reserved for men on Sunday, Mar 7. “Wooden barriers have to be taken down and women have to be allowed to join, to pray behind the men [...]
CAIRO — Female students at Cairo University are defying religious and state efforts to ban the controversial niqab from schools and colleges, saying that wearing the controversial face veil is a religious obligation that also protects against sexual harassment. “I wear the niqab essentially to avoid harassment on the street and on public transport,” said [...]
What is it with middle-class Englishwomen and the headscarf? Why do so many ladies from the most sexually-liberated and educated society in history just crave the feel of fabric against their hair? I was struck by this thought when watching Jihad Jenny Tonge being interviewed by Lauren Booth on Iran’s Press TV – the Liberal [...]
ROME – A family law ”in harmony with the founding principles and the spirit of Islam”, for which any ‘Ijitihad’ (interpretation of the Koran) was ”more than welcome”. And it the end it proved how ”Muslim identity and universal human rights can coexist”. It is the Moudawana which in 2004 replaced Morocco’s old and patriarchal [...]
