This week, The New York Times published a story that Somalia’s al Shabaab group began publically whipping women for wearing bras, NPR published a piece on Dalia Mogahed, Kuwaiti courts give women the right to travel without their husband’s permission and continue to debate whether female MPs should have to wear the hijab, police in Arizona are looking for an Iraqi man accused of running over his daughter, and two more Sudanese women were sentenced to 20 lashes and fines for wearing trousers.
This week, The New York Times published a Reuter’s story detailing the public whipping of women wearing bras in Somalia by the hardline group al Shabaab. The group claims that bras constitute a deception and therefore violate Islam. They have also taken measures to ban movies, music, and soccer in the country.
NPR published a story on Dalia Mogahed, an advisor to President Obama on faith issues. The story reflects on how popular Mogahed has become within the Muslim community and concludes that it is in part because of her hijab.
On Wednesday Kuwait’s Constitutional Court revoked a 1962 law that banned women from traveling without their husband’s consent. The court also held that women do not need their husband’s permission in order to obtain a passport.
Later this month Kuwait’s Constitutional Court is also set to decide whether Kuwait’s MPs can be forced to wear hijab. Four women were elected to Kuwait’s Parliament last May, two do not wear the hijab.
Police in Arizona are looking for an Iraqi father who is suspected of running over his daughter because she was becoming too “Westernized”. His 20-year-old daughter is in critical condition. His daughter’s roommate was also injured in the incident.
In Sudan, two more women were sentenced to 20 lashes and fined for wearing trousers. The women were arrested at the same time as Luna Hussein, whose public trial was covered by media outlets around the world.
Rabea Chaudhry is Associate Editor of Altmuslimah
