In The News

What Motivates the Suicide Bombers?

Riaz Hassan September 3, 2009
The heart-wrenching and horrible daily accounts of suicide bombings rarely reveal the underlying cause of the bombers’ motivations. But a comprehensive database at Australia’s Flinders University that has compiled information on these types of attacks from as early as 1981 can shed light on such motivations. And the conclusions are startling, Professor Riaz Hassan, author of a forthcoming book on...

The Political Costs of Caning Kartika

Farish A. Noor September 1, 2009
When the decision was made to cane Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno – a Malay-Muslim woman – for drinking beer in public, Malaysia’s religious authorities did not foresee the ramifications globally or domestically. The former model’s punishment for an act considered common in many parts of the world could tarnish Malaysia’s image as a moderate Muslim state. On the other hand, the government does not...

Globalization's Ugly Side: Sex Slavery

John Boudreau June 11, 2009
In the grim side to globalization, scores of young girls from Vietnam are being transported across national borders to serve as sex slaves in countries like China and Cambodia. The traffickers prey on the daughters of poor, often illiterate families who are oblivious to the danger or consequences of human trafficking. These girls, often lured by false promises of profitable employment, are only a...

Quiet Revolution: Can Globalization Help Women Out of Traditional Roles?

Barbara Supp February 11, 2009
Television, internet and travelers send new ideas around the globe and that includes changing roles for women in business and government. As more females become the “face of power,” this also changes business and government traditions, explains Barbara Supp in an article for Spiegel Online. Globalization and the new ideas it delivers often runs”up against archaic social ideas that cement...

Turkish Soap Star Sparks Divorces in Arab World

October 2, 2008
A male lead in a Turkish television show, “Noor,” has demonstrated that husbands can be good looking, charming and attentive to the ambitions of their wives. Muslim clerics criticize the show, but female viewers in Palestine, Saudia Arabia and other Muslim nations are fascinated by an idealized relationship, albeit an arranged marriage, with both man and woman striving for equality and...

A Book Too Hot Off The Presses

Michelle Boorstein August 25, 2008
After the 9/11 attacks, a newspaper reporter in Montana became intrigued with the history of Islam and set out to write a book about Mohammed and his wives. During the course of her research, she became convinced that the Prophet “supported more rights for women than do many of his modern followers,” writes Michelle Boorstein for the Washington Post. The book, “The Jewel of Medina, is a...

Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage in Yemen

Robert F. Worth July 2, 2008
Poverty, combined with families producing more children than they can afford, can end childhood for girls as young as eight years of age. “Pulled out of school and forced to have children before their bodies are ready, many rural Yemeni women end up illiterate and with serious health problems,” writes Robert F. Worth for the New York Times. “Their babies are often stunted, too.” Some Islamic...