• PETA has requested that school official replace Uga with a robot, but so far UGA hasn't responded. •  According to new research, men are more likely to be woken up by a fly or the wind than by a crying baby. Wailing infants doesn't even register on the top ten of sounds most likely to disturb their sleep. Not so for women, who may be evolutionarily programed to react to a child's cries, or so suggests the author of the study. •  After being caught with a prostitute, a Swedish man told authorities that he was driven to pay for sex because his wife was pregnant, and he hadn't had sex in five months. He also asked that all letters regarding the incident be sent to his work address, to keep the charges secret from his wife. •  Women in Syria are at the forefront of the country's religious revival, according to the BBC. Many women are turning to prayer groups lead by female preachers, who are often quite conservative. • A 13-year-old girl from Detroit met a 19-year-old man on Facebook, who she allegedly invited over to her house, where they had "sex". She then hid the man in her closet for two days, before her mother finally found him. •  According to a new study out of Australia, women spend more time doing pleasurable activities than men (15 minutes each day) and are more likely to spend time socializing. Researchers also report that men spend six minutes more everyday on activities they dislike, including commuting and work. •  Carlo Pacelli, the lawyer representing Congolese man Patrick Diya Lumumba—who Amanda Knox initially accused of murdering her roommate—called Knox a "diabolical she-devil" in court. He also made mention of her vibrators and rumors of bad hygiene, concluding that she "is unclean on the outside because she was dirty on the inside." Knox's stepfather, who was in court, said Pacelli's statement is a "sexist discourse that sets Italy back 100 years." • On the other side of her family, Amanda Knox's father and stepmother are being investigated for defamation. Last year, they told the Sunday Times that Knox was beaten and brutalized by members of the Italian police force. "It is odd that the timing is coming out now, five days before the end of the trial, and this is supposed to be something that happened over a year ago," said Knox's stepmother. • Mary Arnott of Toronto has been given an honorary diploma from St. Peter's Girls High School on Staten Island for her 100th birthday. She had been in the class of 1925, but dropped out when her mother died during her senior year. "I kept going to night school and more night school and finally got business training and became a secretary to a lawyer, but it wasn't the same," said Arnott. • One of the rites involved in Islam's annual hajj involves pilgrims jogging seven times between two spots in Mecca to reenact Abraham's consort Hagar running between two hills searching for water for her dying son. Shahidah Sharif, an American Muslim on this year's pilgrimage, says clerics should stop telling women to do the run slowly because they are "weaker" or running is immodest. "We are commemorating the act of a woman, someone who made a sacrifice not just for her child but to the building of an entire city," Sharif said. "And she was going through these extremes to provide for her child, without thinking about gender, and here it is now (they're) making it forbidden for women to run." •

The first article, from the new Economist, is actually a book review titled "Out from under." It covers Mania Lazregs' Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women.

The summary really says it all:

Marnia Lazreg, an Algerian-born professor of sociology at the City University of New York, feels passionately that Muslim women should not wear the veil, as both her mother and grandmother obediently did. She is particularly bothered by the trend of "reveiling" in the West and Islamic countries, whereby the daughters of women who went unveiled decide to cover up. But she also thinks that democratic governments should not impose dress codes by law. So she has written this collection of letters to Muslim women to try to coax them out from under the veil.

I toyed with rehashing things already written, with asking Fatemeh or Sobia to come and discuss why Muslim women may find themselves feeling the need to cover, either out of piety or political solidarity, why the fear of the headscarf is rooted in ideas of a frightening other, or how there are many Muslimahs who don't feel the need to cover (like Fatemeh) who still resent the imposition and policing of her beliefs by anyone.

But you know what? That gets enough air time and I'm sure there will be more segments on the news shortly. So let's talk a new film out of Egypt called Scheherazade: Tell Me a Story. From the Yahoo! article:

"Scheherazade: Tell Me a Story," screened at the Venice film festival outside the main competition, tells the story of Hebba, a successful talk-show host whose husband urges her to steer clear of politics in order to forward his own career.

As the deputy editor of a state-run newspaper in Cairo, Karim has been told by officials he is in line for the top job as long as his wife tones down the provocative content of her popular television slot.

But by inviting women to tell their personal, tragic stories, she unwittingly exposes fundamental flaws in Egyptian society where, the film argues, women are treated as sexual trophies and used and abused as men see fit.

When a man who tricks one of the women in order to extort money turns out to be a senior party figure, Hebba's comfortable life and seemingly perfect marriage begin to fall apart.

So here's the story of a woman, who asks other women to speak their truth and becomes an accidental whistleblower. Hebba, the heroine of the story, isn't trying to do anything but explain what is going on in the lives of the people she puts on her show. Yet, in one of the best illustrations of how the personal is political, her quest for the truth leads her to run afoul of powerful interests, and cause strife between Hebba and her ambitious husband. Check out the trailer (and a translation would be appreciated, if anyone speaks Arabic):

Domestic violence, marginalization, abortion - this film is tackling the standard fare of women's issues head on. In addition to this feat, the filmmaker had even loftier goals:

In production notes for the movie, Nasrallah said that as well as addressing "the misogyny prevailing in Egyptian society," his aim was to put women back at the center of Egyptian cinema which marginalized them for more than 20 years.

In the film, women are show both veiled and unveiled, but still struggling under the crushing weight of society. And this is why I feel like epics written about the act of veiling fall short. Is it good to examine the motivations for why women veil? Sure, why wouldn't we? It's kind of like why we examine black women's hair choices. These are personal things that are also very politicized and our choices send a message, whether we agree with the transmission or not. But it is important to remember that just like the issue with black hair isn't about what's growing out of our heads, but racism and dominant beauty standards, questions about the lives of Muslim women shouldn't be ascribed solely to the headscarf when we're really talking about misogyny.

(Oh, and the pic illustrating this post? They are school girls in Belgium protesting a headscarf ban.)

Official Site [Muslimah Media Watch]
Out From Under [The Economist]
Muslim Lookout [Official Site]
Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story [Screen Daily]
Egyptian Film On Women's Role Draws Ire And Praise [Reuters]

Muslim groups have been protesting the law, calling it the "work of the devil. One of their main objections is that the law redefines marriage as a secular institution. Women's rights groups are "heartbroken" over the announcement. • A study suggests that girls as young as 10 and 11 already feel pressure from the notion of an "ideal body." They also found that, among the girls they studied, those who perceived themselves as thin were happier with their bodies than those who saw themselves as heavy. • An art exhibition opening this month in Beijing will feature a talking Mona Lisa, among other high-tech things. Using holographic technology, 3D technology, and voice recognition software, several classic artworks will engage visitors in conversation. The exhibition will also feature "The Last Supper," for those who want a word with Jesus. • The glass-topped coffin of Emitt Till has been donated to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, the museum announced yesterday. Till's coffin was recently rescued from the Burr Oak Cemetery outside Chicago, where it had been thrown into a storage shed and was found in very poor condition. • A woman from West Africa has been arrested for running a human trafficking ring that forced women to work in salons braiding hair in New Jersey. The girls, aged 10-19, were not paid for their labor, and were forbidden from making friends or learning English. • In attempts to avoid a repeat of the riots at London's Group of 20 conference in April, the British police force has decided to ask women to take the reigns this year. The logic is that policewomen see their job as "public service," while policemen view it as "controlling through authority." • According to a new survey, everyone is so broke that no one really wants to volunteer. These findings go against all the anecdotal evidence that unemployed volunteers, high on Obama-fever, were flooding the offices of nonprofit groups. • The number of Canadians suffering from hip fractures has declined in the past few years, and researchers believe that this might have been caused by the extra "padding" caused by weight gain. If this were a women's magazine, I would probably say something about how your bigger booty may help you bounce back, but it isn't, so I wont. • Researchers from the University of Iowa have found that women with strong thigh muscles are less likely to have symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. • Curious about what your pet sees on a day to day basis? Buy this "Pet's Eye View" camera to get a nice picture of your own ankles. • Following recent attacks on school girls in Pakistan, many girls have refused to wear their uniforms to school, and even more have stopped attending completely. A group of students from Stanford University have organized a program, called Tree of Knowledge, to address the issue. • 19 years ago, Jaycee Lee Dugard, then only 11 years old, was abducted from her home in California. Police have finally identified Dugard, but only after she walked into a police station and announced her identity. They are currently in the process of arranging a meeting with her family. • L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yarovslavksy has announced that the LA Sheriffs Department will completely fund the testing of every backlogged rape kit within the next two years. They have also pledged to expand staff to ensure that a backlog like this will never happen again. •

• Orobator was sentenced to life in prison for smuggling heroin and returned to Britain to serve her sentence of life in prison in Britain a few weeks ago. She was originally facing a firing squad but was spared after she mysteriously became pregnant while in an all-women's prison. Her child is due next month. • Almost 4,000 women in England were forced to give birth outside of maternity wards last year. The number of women who gave birth in other hospital wards, hallways, waiting rooms, or in hospital parking lots increased by about 500 since 2007 and Conservatives are blaming hospital overcrowding and overextended midwives. • The Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations will sue Judge J. William Callahan, for forcing Raneen Albaghdady to remove her head scarf in June, saying "no hats in the courtroom." A lawyer for the council says, "This judge targeted a Muslim woman's religious attire, but he could just as easily have demanded the removal of a Sikh turban, a Jewish yarmulke or a Catholic nun's habit." Callahan's spokesman says he would have left her keep the scarf on if she had told him it had religious significance to her. • Sad irony? A 16-year-old blind and deaf dog belonging to Robin Starr, the CEO of the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, died after he was left in a hot car for four hours. Starr's husband put the "Louie" in the car as she was getting ready because she often took him to work, but he forgot to tell Starr. By the time she realized Louie was in the car it was too late and he died of kidney failure. • NCSU's Women's Center and other campus advocacy groups were not able to stop a showing of the film based on Tucker Max's book I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell or an appearance by Max taking place tonight on the campus. The groups say the film contains sexist and racist phrases and promotes rape culture. Though they couldn't shut down the event they'll be protesting, "everything about Tucker Max and what he stands for." • Canadian researchers say visiting grandparents may prevent toddlers from forming negative stereotypes about old people. "We've been able to show really early on that kids, when they're just starting to talk, have established beliefs about older people," said one researcher. "We're seeing what we could call ageism by about age three." • Florida's appeals court will review the state's ban on adoptions by homosexuals. In 2008 a Miami-Dade County judge ruled that a law banning Martin Gill and his partner from adopting two young boys is unconstitutional, but state attorneys say the judge was legislating from the bench and the decision should be make by lawmakers. • A Sydney, Australia couple is being sued by Roseville College for $20,000 in unpaid tuition, but the parents say they shouldn't have to pay because the school failed to stop bullying which led one of their four daughters hurting herself. The parents say teachers were aware that their daughter was being harassed in 7th and 8th grade but did nothing and the girl's adviser told her to "simply ignore the bullies." After more bullying, the girl cut herself several times with a razor. • Ronald Douglas McGowan of Southern California will stand trial for the rapes of four women, including one who prosecutors say bit off part of his tongue in self-defense during an attack in her apartment. He was arrested in the emergency room where he went for treatment. His tongue couldn't' be reattached. • Researchers have found that Runaway Intervention Program, a program in which nurses help sexually exploited runaway girls reconnect to family, school, and healthcare effectively reduces trauma. "Remarkably, by six and 12 months into the program, the girls had improved so much that in most areas they were indistinguishable from girls in school who had never been abused," said a researcher. • In a revised edition of her biography, Veronica Lario says she wants a divorce from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been involved in several sex scandals, because "I cannot condemn myself to be his wetnurse and I cannot stop him from making himself ridiculous before the world." •

The Journal reports that, although new opportunities are opening up every day for young Indian boys, many young women still have a difficult time rising above difficult economic circumstances. There are a few jobs available to them, including working at nonprofits and teaching, but sports has become the preferred avenue out for some. "In sports, boys and girls are equal. Everybody is the same," said 16-year-old Sughra Fatma.

Fatma studies boxing at the Khidderpore School of Physical Culture in southeast Kolkata. She is one out of 47 students fighting under instructor Sheikh Nasimuddin Ahmed, who treats his female boxers just as he does the boys. In a country where gender roles remain strictly defined, the boxing club offers a rare refuge where gender does not matter. Women who are typically told to cover up are asked to wear shorts, not to titillate the men, but to grant them greater range of motion for fighting.

The young women see boxing as a possible way to support themselves. Those who do consistently well in competition might be able to land a scholarship for college, or even a spot on a sports team with the Indian railway or police force, coveted positions that come with a job, a pension, and subsidized boxing trainers and facilities.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone supports such ambitions: Professional boxer Razia Shabnam says when she first started training, people would approach her on the street and try to get her to stop. Some parents discourage their girls from boxing because of its effect on future marriage. "The problem is people think that it's an injurious game, especially for girls," said Shabam. Who cares if a man breaks his nose? But if that happens to a woman, she "can't get married."

Of course, the reality is that most of the athletes are unable to make money from fighting. The competition is fierce, and so far, no one from Ahmed's club has made it to national level. Fighters like Mary Kom (shown at left), a title-holding boxer from Manipur, India, are few and far between. But Simmi Parveen, a 12-year-old member of the boxing club, still dreams of being the next Mary Kom. "This is an addiction for me. I will achieve something," she said. "When I'm somebody I wouldn't have to go and look for a partner. Suitors will come themselves to talk to my brother and father for my hand. That's why I want to stand on my own feet and do something."

A Fighting Chance [Wall Street Journal]

Here's what the email actually says:

Joys of Muslim Women
by Nonie Darwish ( http://en..wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonie_Darwish )

In the Muslim faith a Muslim man can marry a child as young as 1 year old and have sexual intimacy with this child. Consummating the marriage by 9.
The dowry is given to the family in exchange for the woman (who becomes his slave) and for the purchase of the private parts of the woman, to use her as a toy.
Even though a woman is abused she can not obtain a divorce.
To prove rape, the woman must have (4) male witnesses.
Often after a woman has been raped, she is returned to her family and the family must return the dowry. The family has the right to execute her (an honor killing) to restore the honor of the family. Husbands can beat their wives 'at will' and he does not have to say why he has beaten her.
The husband is permitted to have (4 wives) and a temporary wife for an hour (prostitute) at his discretion.
The Shariah Muslim law controls the private as well as the public life of the woman.
In the West World ( America ) Muslim men are starting to demand Shariah Law so the wife can not obtain a divorce and he can have full and complete control of her. It is amazing and alarming how many of our sisters and daughters attending American Universities are now marrying Muslim men and submitting themselves and their children unsuspectingly to the Shariah law.
By passing this on, enlightened American women may avoid becoming a slave under Shariah Law.

Learn More.... Read: Cruel and Usual Punishment just released in most bookstores.
Ripping the West in Two...
Author and lecturer Nonie Darwish says the goal of radical Islamists is to impose Shariah law on the world, ripping Western law and liberty in two.

She recently authored the book, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.

Darwish was born in Cairo and spent her childhood in Egypt and Gaza before emigrating to America in 1978, When she was eight years old, her father died while leading covert attacks on Israel He was a high- ranking Egyptian military officer stationed with his family in Gaza.

When he died, he was considered a "shahid," a martyr for jihad. His posthumous status earned Nonie and her family an elevated position in Muslim society.

But Darwish developed a skeptical eye at an early age. She questioned her own Muslim culture and upbringing. She converted to Christianity after hearing a Christian preacher on television.

In her latest book, Darwish warns about creeping sharia law - what it is, what it means, and how it is manifested in Islamic countries.

For the West, she says radical Islamists are working to impose sharia on the world. If that happens, Western civilization will be destroyed.

In twenty years there will be enough Muslim voters in the U.S. to elect the President! I think everyone in the U.S. should be required to read this, but with the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on!

Thirty-two-year-old Marwa al-Sherbini, a pharmacist of Egyptian descent working in Germany, had gone to court to testify against a man who called her a terrorist and tried to take off her headscarf. According to Time, the accused "ran across the courtroom and stabbed her 18 times." Complicating the case even further is the fact that a German guard shot Sherbini's husband, mistaking him for the attacker. The shocking attack has turned a harsh spotlight on anti-Islam sentiment in Europe, which some believe is also behind Sarkozy's suggestion of a burqa ban in France.

Of Sherbini's murder, a columnist for Daily News Egypt wrote,

Had the Muslim been the aggressor as the guards initially thought, the story would have made headlines ... It would have perfectly fitted into the promoted image of Muslims being aggressive, barbaric and uncivilized.

Others, however, believe that Islamists are making opportunistic use of the Sherbini case. Journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy says,

The Islamists in Egypt have already [begun] using this as a card to mobilize for the veil - not for the right of women to wear whatever they want, but in defense of the veil. [...] The government is also trying to hijack the campaign and trying to present itself as patriotic in defense of Egyptians abroad. What do they do for the Egyptians who are in the Gulf and who actually face similar treatment, if not worse?

While debate rages over whether Sherbini's murder was an isolated incident or part of a pattern of European racism, Muslim women in France face their own set of prejudices. Student Ikram Es-Salhi says, "If you wear the veil, you get insulted and attacked all the time, you get called a terrorist." Members of the French parliament have denounced the burqa and niqab as "degrading," called them "walking prisons," and said that wearing them may be "a submissive act." Sarkozy's urban policies secretary, Fadela Amara is in favor of banning the garments despite her Muslim faith. She says, "I am for the banning of this coffin which kills basic freedoms. This debate has to clear the way to a law which protects women."

But some question whether the debate over the burqa ban is really about protecting women. Es-Salhi says, "The real reason for this is Islamophobia." Perhaps bearing out her view are the words of French Member of Parliament Jean-Francois Cope, who says, "Make no mistake, the burqa is a political debate, not a religious one. Extremists are once again testing the Republic." Despite strong emotions on both sides, some take a moderate line on the burqa issue. One of the wisest voices in the debate is that of Suraya Pakzad, executive director of Voice of Women, who says,

I am against the burqa being imposed by force. But what Mr Sarkozy is saying is another type of enforcement on women. No one should be able to compel someone to dress in a certain way.

Tragic Symbol: Egypt's Headscarf Martyr [Time]
French Row Over Burqa Ban Unveils Contradictions [Reuters]

[Jakarta, Indonesia; May 26. Image via Getty]

Models display creations by Indonesian designer Rudy Chandra during the two-day Islamic Fashion Festival in Jakarta on May 26, 2009. The fashion festival showcases accomplished and budding designers from Malaysia and Indonesia to an international audience. The Islamic fashion targets Muslim men and women who wish to maintain their Muslim identity with contemporary creations that can embody all that is required in Islam yet still remain fashionable and stylish. AFP PHOTO/ADEK BERRY (Photo credit should read ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images)

"The woman tried to escape when she saw a police car and in the process hit another car, which was slightly damaged," said a police spokesman. The woman, whose name and nationality were not released, was turned over to the Saudi Prosecution and Investigation Commission for investigation. [CNN]

On Saturday in Saudi Arabia, Nora bint Abdullah al-Fayez, a US-educated former teacher, was made deputy education minister in charge of a new department for female students, reports the Guardian. The appointment was part of a cabinet reshuffle by King Abdullah that did away with several ultra-conservative minsters and clerics and paved the way for more moderate reforms.

While Al-Fayez's appointment as vice minister for women's education marks the highest rank a woman has achieved in Saudi Arabia, there are questions about how much power she will actually have, since other Saudi women have been appointed to lower councils, but then never heard from. Al-Fayez says she's confident that her appointment is not just symbolic, telling CNN, "I think by being the second person after the minister, I think I have enough power to work in the improvement of girls' education."

But, women's rights advocate Wajeha al-Huwaider tells CNN that while the appointment of Al-Fayez is a step in the right direction, she is still subject to oppressive Saudi laws.

"Even this minister now ... she is not really in control of her life," al-Huwaider noted. "It is not up to her, it's up to her male guardian."

She said the "guardianship system" is the first thing that should be removed by the new Saudi government.

"This is the main thing that is controlling our life," al-Huwaider said. "We want to be able to drive our cars, you know, to feel like we are just like the rest of the world."

This weekend, several hundred Muslim women attended a conference in Kuala Lumpur to discuss such conditions and to come up with ways to demand equal rights for women, reports the New York Times. Advocates came from 47 countries for the project, called Musawah, which is the Arabic word for equality.

The women argue that the repression of women does not come from the Koran, but from the human interpretation of it, which has evolved over the centuries into Islamic law. "Secular feminism has fulfilled its historical role, but it has nothing more to give us," said Ziba Mir-Hosseini, an Iranian anthropologist. "The challenge we face now is theological." She referred to controversial Muslim intellectuals who say that the laws derived from the Koran should be interpreted in a historical context and can change over time.

Mir-Hosseini said that President Bush's policies wound up hurting the campaign for women's rights in Islamic countries:

Ms. Mir-Hosseini argues that Muslim societies are trapped in a battle between two visions of Islam: one legalistic and absolutist that emphasizes the past; the other pluralistic and more inclined toward democracy. She said that in Iran reformers were gaining ground, but that President Bush's antagonism toward the country ended up strengthening hard-liners there.

"It's really a struggle between two world views," she said, adding that time was on the side of the women.

Though some scholars argue that the women's efforts to reinterpret years of Islamic scholarship are unrealistic since to do so would require entirely replacing the system of Islamic law, the activists point out that change is already taking place at the grass roots level in many Islamic countries. Isobel Coleman, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says women's movements are making progress, as girls' education levels increase and the Western world is a click away on satellite television. "It's a slow shift," she said. "It's just beginning to come together as a movement."

[Image via Musawah.org]

Saudi Arabia Appoints First Female Minister [Guardian]
Saudi Activist: Female Minister 'First Step' But More Needed [CNN]
In Quest For Equal Rights, Muslim Women's Meeting Turns To Islam's Tenets [New York Times]

Read more info about the incident and harassment that Muslim women face in America at the ACLU blog.

[via ACLU Blog Of Rights]

Lisa Valentine, who is also known by her Muslim name, Miedah, was arrested at the Douglasville Municipal Court, where she was accompanying her nephew to settle a traffic violation. When she arrived at the courtroom she was stopped at the metal detector and told she would have to remove her headscarf to enter the courtroom:

Valentine’s husband, Omar Hall, said she was accompanying her nephew to address a traffic citation Tuesday when she was stopped at the metal detector and told she would not be allowed to enter the courtroom with a head scarf.

Hall said Valentine, an insurance underwriter, told the bailiff that she had been in courtrooms before with a scarf on; that removing it would be a religious violation. She became frustrated, then turned to leave and uttered an expletive, Hall said.

Valentine was arrested and sentenced to 10 days in jail, although she was released later that evening. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "the reason for her release wasn't immediately clear." (We have an idea: Something about "absurd arrest"?)

Judge Keith Rollins, the man who sentenced her to jail, also threw out a Muslim woman for wearing a hijab in his courtroom last week. Rollins's reasoning is that there is ban on headgear in the courtroom and that he should be allowed to maintain "decorum" in his courtroom.

(Obviously, this is an easy argument to make, but would he have thrown out people from his courtroom who came to the courthouse with headcoverings for different religious reasons? Would he have thrown out cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy wearing hats or scarves to cover their heads?)

A poll on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website asks readers if Muslim women should be allowed to wear hijabs in courtrooms and the results so far are extremely close with 47% in favor of Muslim women not wearing hijabs in courtrooms. (At "press time", i.e., the time this post was finished, there were a little over 3,000 respondents.) Wonder how the poll numbers will react as the day proceeds?

Muslim's Scarf Leads To Arrest At Courthouse [AJC]

While these sites present Muslim women with readily available modest yet chic clothing options from high street retailers, without exception they address the hijab: styles like the "Spanish", "simple braid" and the "Flower Wrap" are discussed and demonstrated; forums discuss the best wraps for athletics or for wear under a a baseball cap. Writes one commenter on hijabstyle, "For me, spanish hijab is more convenient when I need to look 'westernised' :) Like in the airport security, or dealing with non-muslim people whose judging can affect my life (like oral exams and so on)... And I'm 50-50 mix, my mom is not a muslim, so her family and she likes it better that way :)."

These outlets, one presumes, are liberating not merely for the modern Muslim women living in Western societies, but also for those, like Iranian women, who are constrained by law to "modesty" and want to express their creativity through dress. Of course, this playful attitude towards the hijab has aroused some ambivalence. Speaking of the new "trend" in hijab chic, Muslimah Media Watch blogger Faith writes, "For one thing, isn't the one of the objectives of hijab to take the focus off of outer appearances? One of the most common arguments given by hijab apologists is that the hijab prevents women from only being judged by how they look. It allows women to be judged for who they truly are. If headscarves are suddenly made into the latest fashion trend, doesn't it suddenly lose that purpose? Hasn't it become the latest commodity that women must have? As Muslims, should we support that?" Further, she objects to the head scarf as a tangible harbinger of "modesty." "Is the wearing of the khimar (which is the actual headscarf) the sole indicator of modesty? What about women who do not wear the hijab, both Muslim and non-Muslim? Are they immodest? Isn't modesty also related to our attitude? What about hijabis or other "modestly" dressed women who have horrible attitudes and look down upon anyone who doesn't agree with their line of thinking on how women should dress or act? Arrogance isn't modesty at all."

While this is obviously a highly personal and thorny issue, a friend, Sumerah, told me that she appreciates any trend, however superficial, that serves to 'normalize' the Muslim image in contemporary American society. "We're portrayed as so sinister now," she wrote, "that anything that shows us to be normal people is a positive, however sad that might sound." Oh, and the 'look for Fall?' "Those complex folds are seriously labor-intensive," she wrote. "Who has the energy?"

The hijab goes high fashion [Guardian]
IslamOnline's Modesty Chic [Muslimah Media Watch]