Columns

This week, thousands of women across the U.S. showed more skin to challenge a cleric’s claim that earthquakes can be caused by women who dress immodestly, a Seattle man is sentenced to 17 months for threatening a Muslim woman and her baby with a knife, Muslim and non-Muslim students clash at Minnesotan public schools, and Yemen’s most influential cleric opposes proposed law to ban child marriages.

Showing solidarity to women rising up, on March 8th, 2010 thousands of men and women came together on bridges across 20 countries to stand in solidarity against war. Women for Women International organized the events to empower women facing the atrocities of war in the Congo and neighboring Rwanda. Participants from other countries included: Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom.

This week, Iranian cleric declares that provocatively dressed women can cause quakes, Yemen is set to vote on a bill that bans child marriage at the end of this month, Turkey’s gay rights activists demand an apology from minister, and Saudi cleric is fired after expressing his dismay toward strict gender segregation.

It’s day 3 at the largest gathering of social entrepreneurs in the world, the Skoll World Forum. This is the seventh year of the conference, which takes place at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School. The delegates have been regaled with powerful stories of social change, and there’s been a special focus on social entrepreneurship as it effects women.

A Yemeni child bride dies of internal bleeding three days after getting wed, A young woman holds the position of mosque administrator at a large Netherlands mosque, an Indian Muslim university is questioned after a homosexual professor is found dead in his apartment, and an LA Times correspondent explores the increased prevalence of the niqab over the past two to three decades in Yemen.

This week, Canadian police announce that they will fine arrested women in niqab, Belgium moves closer to becoming the first European country to outlaw the niqab, Bomber Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova is profiled and Malaysian authorities decide not to cane a women charged with drinking beer.

This week, anti-Muslim backlash affects women in Russia, Muslim-Hindu violence erupts in India, Quebec bans the burqa, France’s burqa ban may be limited, and a Detroit High School student writes to dispel stereotypes about Muslim women.

This week, Yemini Clerics oppose a ban on child brides, a TV show contestant slams hard line religious clerics, Canadians move closer to banning the niqab, European Muslim women are bridging cultural divides through fashion, Sisters in Islam is blasted for being “un-Islamic”, and the plight of women in Pakistan is highlighted.