The Beauty Academy of Kabul is Liz Mermin's documentary about hairdressers from America teaching young women in Afghanistan how to beautify themselves. Could female self-expression and vanity be an impetus for more pervasive cultural transformation? In a related development, Nike has designed a sporty hijab for use by Somali volleyball players. Whether it's an improvement over traditional variations is debatable.
posted by mert on Mar 20, 2006 - 11 comments

Andrea Armstrong wants to play basketball. She is also a muslim, and wishes to observe traditional muslim attire for a woman of the faith. Intolerance ensues. (A link from my local paper to an Orlando Sentinel story, in that this woman is from Oregon.)
posted by Danf on Sep 24, 2004 - 69 comments

Star presenter wears hijab and apparently gets "a flood of calls". But, in an odd turn for the BBC, the piece doesn't say what those calls think. Are they all praising the traditional - and controversial - head-dress, or are they up in arms. The story skirts the issue. Islam 101 explains a bit about it.
posted by bonaldi on Nov 26, 2003 - 13 comments

Muslim woman to challenge ban on veil in driver's license photo Another example of how the fundamental structure of American society is built upon Christian monothestic values. Should she be accomodated and if so what does that do to the relevance of picture IDs? Further, what if it's against someone's religion to even have their picture taken at all?
posted by fooljay on Jun 28, 2002 - 65 comments

A reporter dons the Islamic hijaab and writes about the reactions she receives. I'm ashamed to admit that I probably would have been one of the people who pretended she was invisible...
posted by raymondc on Oct 1, 2001 - 3 comments