In February, two Muslim women attended a live-taping of Fox’s The Real talk show, which sounds like fun … until someone told the pair to stay out of sight because of their headscarves.

Because everybody's got a thing about them that makes them special enough to be targeted by advertisers, hair care companies have figured out that selling shampoo to Muslim women is where they're going to make a lot of money.

There sure have been a lot of newly minted Islam experts popping up in the past week — and in the places you'd least expect them. Fox News, the woman at the New York Times whose classical Greek references have devolved from incisive to dodderingly inscrutable, and several typically myopic conservative news outlets…

In the post 9/11 world, where everyone loves to fall back on a clash of the civilizations explanation for Why We Don't Get Along with "The Muslim World," one group of people tend to get a lot of attention in the midst of the cultural debate: veiled women. They have become the focal point of countless debates on…

In Cairo, there's a new TV channel called Maria, that is run exclusively by niqab-clad women. A first, according to CNN. The female volunteers of Maria share two studios with the staff of Al-Omma, Maria's mother channel — which is independent but very religious and "anti-Christianization."

Cultural and religious beliefs make it tough for many high school girls to attend the sort of prom depicted in the climactic scene in teen movies. It's hard to date when you're not allowed to date, difficult to wear a revealing dress and get your hair done and dance around when your religious beliefs bar revealing…

Fifteen people were arrested in a "melee" that occurred at a Rye, New York amusement park after a group of Muslim women were denied entrance to some rides because of safety regulations banning any kind of headgear.

New Delhi, , August 5: An Indian Muslim prays after breaking the Ramadan fast at the Jama Masjid. Muslims around the world are marking the holy fasting month of Ramadan, where the devout fast from dawn until dusk. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

This morning, two women were detained at a protest of France's veil ban outside Notre Dame Cathedral. France's ban on women covering their faces — effectively preventing women from wearing the niqab or a burqa — goes into effect today. Violators of the ban must pay a fine of 150 Euros.

Musa Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Libyan government, "expressed frustration" that he keeps being asked about Iman Obeidi, the woman who burst into a Tripoli hotel Saturday shouting about being gang-raped by Qaddafi thugs. But maybe that's because he's already expended so much energy lying about what happened to her.

Iman Obaidi, who burst into a hotel dining room filled with foreign journalists Saturday, is probably not the only woman victimized by government thugs, it is a depressingly safe assumption to make. Although the journalists were unable to independently verify her story — they are essentially under lock and key of…

"Mubarak is gone. Misogyny might be a tougher foe," concludes Jenna Krajeski in a New Yorker account of yesterday's march of women in Tahrir Square, which did not go as planned.

Qaddafi's public rambling today has told us nothing about what will happen in Libya, nor whether the bloody reprisals against protesters will end. But as the dust settles on Tunisia and Egypt's unusually peaceful revolutions, women inside and outside of those countries are asking what's next for them.

Princess Hijab is a street artist in Paris who uses dripping black paint to cover models in subway ads, giving them niqabs. Veils.

Two self-described web-activists called Niqabitch are making a splash in the French (and European) media landscape. To protest France's burqa ban, they're mixing things up a bit and throwing together a niqab with a miniskirt.

The vote was 246 to 1, banning any veils that cover the face. A person wearing a veil can be fined 150€ ($190). Force a woman to wear a niqab or burqa and spend a year in prison.

An AP writer has a provocative thesis: the availability of porn in Iraq mirrors the level of freedom and security there. Is he right? And what would that look like?

Today the French parliament will vote on whether to ban women from wearing full veils in all public places — even in the street. Once passed through the lower house, the ban will be examined by France's constitutional watchdog.

It is estimated that around 100 British women are emotionally involved with men on death row. Many of these relationships began after sentencing. According to the author of Women Who Love Men Who Kill, these relationships share some common traits: