By Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer /Secular Perspective But banning face veil can result, in many cases, in double oppression for women. If she is being coerced into wearing face veil she faces oppression from her family and if she is penalized or jailed for wearing veil she faces state oppression too, for no fault of hers. Thus she, as if, goes from one jail to another jail. Thus state rather than liberating her ends up oppressing her even more.

Categories: Hijab  Islam  Gender  European Muslims  Culture  

Added: August 11, 2010

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By BBC News The students, both 22 and from Slough, Berkshire, boarded a Metroline bus from Russell Square to Paddington, London. But they said when they presented their tickets on Tuesday, the driver told them they were a "threat" to passengers and ordered them off the bus.

Categories: British Muslims  Burqa  Gender  Discrimination  Hijab  Human Rights  

Added: July 23, 2010

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By ALBERT AJI / Associated Press Writer Syria has banned the face-covering Islamic veil from the country's universities to prevent what it sees as a threat to its secular identity.

Categories: Syria  The Niqab  Islam  Education  Faith  Gender  

Added: July 21, 2010

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By Nigar Ataulla / Countercurrents.org The Dar ul-Uloom Deoband, India's largest madrasa, is back in the news again-this time for a fatwa it has just issued that lays down that Muslim girls above the age of 13 should not ride cycles on the grounds that it would be difficult for them to do so while wearing their veils. Besides, so claims the fatwa, cycling has an adverse effect on girls' physiques.

Categories: Fatwa  Gender  Muslim Women  Muslims in India  

Added: July 20, 2010

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By Mohammed Wajihuddin /Times of India They may not equal the audacity of the bra-burning feminists of several decades ago, but they've hit hard at the patriarchal and misogynist elements in Muslim society. And their guiding sources are the Quran and Hadith

Categories: Islam  Feminism  Gender  Muslims in India  Fatwa  

Added: July 18, 2010

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By Yvonne Ridley /Information Clearing House Tony Blair certainly does not want to see any more flotillas sailing for Gaza. It's not because he lies awake at night thinking about the deaths of those innocent humanitarian activists. No, Blair is afraid ‑ very afraid ‑ that people power will expose him for what he is

Categories: Peace Activist  Palestine  Gender  Peace  Protests  

Added: July 06, 2010

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By Philip Lim /AFP Aimed at "cosmopolitan Muslim women" in Asia, a new magazine is focusing on readers' lifestyles rather than religion

Categories: Gender  Lifestyle  Media  Malaysia  Indonesia  Modernity  

Added: June 28, 2010

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By Sarah Harris / TIMESONLINE Thousands of young British women living in the UK decide to convert to Islam - here are some of their stories

Categories: British Muslims  New Muslims  Gender  Lifestyle  Islam  Faith  

Added: May 31, 2010

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By Asghar Ali Engineer / Institute of Islamic Studies, Mumbai In fact what our ulama call shar'i hudud were fixed by men who considered women as secondary to men and unequal in status due to cultural attitude towards women in the medieval era. The whole fiqh has to be thoroughly revised in keeping with the true spirit of Qur'an.

Categories: Fatwa  Islam  al-Qur'an  The Ulema  Gender  

Added: May 25, 2010

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By Farzana Versey /Countercurrents.org What is worse - the Dar-ul Uloom Deoband's decree that a woman's earnings are illegal because according to the Sharia her working among males is wrong or the Allahabad high court ruling that a non-Muslim bride must convert to Islam to marry a Muslim? In both instances Islam is used to denigrate the position of women.

Categories: Islam  Gender  The Ulema  Discrimination  Muslim Women  

Added: May 13, 2010

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