EGYPT: Sexual harassment becoming a feast tradition?

Culling sheep for charity donations, spending time with families, going out for long walks in parks until early hours in the morning have all been signs of celebrating the Adha and Fitr holy feasts in Egypt, but another more troubling pastime has arisen in recent years: sexual harassment.

The Egyptian media reported that about 300 cases of sexual harassment against women occurred over the recent Adha holiday. The cases, which the Interior Ministry would not confirm or deny, varied from verbal taunts to assaults. Al Destour newspaper said the number of incidents was higher than what was reported during the Fitr feast in September.

Sexual harassment in Egyptian cities has become an disturbing phenomenon of late. It recently became associated with feast holidays, where thousands enjoy spending their free time outdoors. Younger generations face less-strict scrutiny from their parents, who tend to allow their daughters to go out without parental supervision during feasts. Police security is usually softer than it is throughout the rest of the year.

IRAN: Authorities confiscate lawyer Shirin Ebadi's Nobel Peace Prize

Less than a year after authorities stormed the offices of Iranian human-rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, taking  sensitive documents and her computer, unidentified authorities have now allegedly taken the Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma from Ebadi's bank safety deposit box, said officials in Norway, which administers the prize.

Outraged officials in Oslo say the incident is unprecedented and has sent shock waves through the Norwegian foreign ministry.

“This is the first time a Nobel Peace Prize has been confiscated by national authorities," Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a statement posted to his agency's website. "The medal and the diploma have been removed from Dr. Ebadi’s bank box, together with other personal items. Such an act leaves us feeling shock and disbelief.” 

DUBAI: Now, she can look pious in hijab and cool in her shades

Want to observe Islamic dress code while staying trendy in Dubai and Saudi Arabia’s scorching desert heat? 

Put on a pair of gold encrusted BQ shades --  the world’s first sunglasses especially tailored for piously dressed women in the Persian Gulf.

The brand's name BQ comes  from the word burqa --  a face-covering harness worn by women in the Persian Gulf region in nomadic times. BQ's debut collection features modern replicas of the traditional accessory in the form of large, dark aviator-style sunglasses.

Behind the line is London-based design firm Fitch branch in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It hopes BQ will become a hit among young fashionable women in the region by mixing trends with tradition.

MIDDLE EAST: Saudi beauty queen attacked for weight

Beauty contests are notoriously catty, and the Miss Arab World pageant in Cairo last week proved no exception.

Muwadda Nour of Saudi Arabia had barely lain hands on her faux-jewel encrusted crown when critics began sniping that at approximately 200 pounds, she "did not meet the required standards" of a beauty queen, according to the popular Arab entertainment site Wikeez.

Delphine Edde, the publisher of Wikeez, confirmed to The Times that the site spoke with organizers and contestants at the event.

Despite the controversy, Nour kept her crown, beating out 15 other young women between the ages of 18-24 from around the region. 

Jessy Zaher of Lebanon took second place.

The Miss Arab World pageant aims to be more inclusive by allowing veiled and non-veiled women to compete alongside without having to compromise their values for events like swimwear competitions. Instead, the contestants strut down the catwalk in their national costumes.

 For more pictures, visit Wikeez's slideshow of the event.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: Miss Arab World 2009-2010 was attacked for being too heavy. Credit: Reuters

IRAN: Campaign launched to annoint Neda Agha-Soltan Time magazine's Person of the Year 2009

The flickering images of Neda Agha-Soltan’s last moments in a Tehran street on June 20 before she died from gunshot wounds gripped the world, galvanized the nation and made the 26-year-old music student the face of Iran’s recent protest movement.

Five months after an unknown assailant took her life at a demonstration in the Iranian capital staged by pro-reform activists, supporters across the world have spearheaded a grassroots initiative in a move to immortalize her.

Through the use of various social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, they are pushing to make Agha-Soltan Time magazine’s Person of the Year 2009.

Each year, the U.S.-based magazine grants the title to one or several persons who "most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year."

Administrators of the more than 1,000-member strong Facebook group "Nominate Neda Agha-Soltan as the Time Woman of the Year" say she deserves the title because she has become “the symbol of the recent Iranian movement towards democracy and freedom" through her tragic death that shocked the world.

MIDDLE EAST: Women's status up in Saudi Arabia, down in Syria, says study

The subject of women's rights in the Middle East is contentious. Sensational media coverage of honor killings and child brides equates religious conservatism with gender inequality, incensing Western feminists on the one hand and provoking regional backlashes on the other.

The reality is far more nuanced, according to the the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report released in late October by the World Economic Forum, which ranks countries based on women's economic participation, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.

In Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar -- socially conservative Persian Gulf countries that all rely on some form of Sharia Islamic law -- more women than men enroll in higher education, although they have yet to be fully incorporated into the workforce. 

Syria, on the other hand, which is ruled by a nominally secular regime, has slid in the rankings for the last three years. 

Iran scores low in the fields of economic, educational and health equality, but performs relatively well on political empowerment. 

Saudi Arabia and Egypt still hover near the bottom of the list, but have improved steadily since 2006. 

Yemen remained the lowest-ranked country in the world for the fourth year in a row.

TUNISIA: Online activists rally to free fellow blogger Fatma Riahi [Updated]

Lina Ben Mhenni was one of the last people to see Fatma Riahi the day she was arrested. The two women bloggers had been in touch online and by phone, but it wasn't until Ben Mhenni saw that Riahi's Facebook profile and blog had been shut down that they made urgent plans to meet for coffee on last Sunday. Riahi, a high school drama teacher in the small seaside city of Monastir, had been ordered to report to the Criminal Brigade in the capital, Tunis, where Ben Mhenni lives.

"From one cup of coffee, we spent the whole day together," Ben Mhenni wrote of Riahi in a series of e-mails to the Times. "In fact, I discovered an exceptional person -- funny, full of life, [an] artist [...] We talked about music, we laughed watching Tunisian television, we talked about blogs and bloggers."

They also talked about the Criminal Brigade, the investigative security force Riahi would have to answer to, and Ben Mhenni's boyfriend, Muhammad Soudani, who was arrested on Oct. 22 after giving an interview to a foreign radio station and has not been seen since.

[Updated, Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11:55 p.m. PST: Fatma Riahi was released Saturday morning, according to a statement posted on the Facebook page and blog devoted to her release. 

The statement said Riahi was in good health but was still in danger of being re-arrested.]

SAUDI ARABIA: King pardons female journalist sentenced to 60 lashes

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has pardoned a female reporter who was sentenced to flogging for her involvement in a risqué talk show in which a Saudi man bragged about his sexual exploits on air.

Twenty-two-year-old Rozanna Yami was sentenced by a court Saturday to 60 lashes for helping to produce the controversial July episode of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.’s Bold Red Line talk show in which guest Mazen Abdul-Jawad boasted publicly about his sex life in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

On Monday, King Abdullah intervened in the case and granted Yami a royal pardon. The reporter expressed relief over the king’s overruling of her sentence and thanked him. 

"The king has vindicated me. I am satisfied with the king's order, and I accept the decisions of the sovereign," she told Reuters news agency. 

EGYPT: Niqab ban adds to Azhar cleric’s woes

The decision to prohibit the face veil, or niqab, among female students attending Al Azhar’s universities and schools is proving yet another reason for many Egyptians to call for the firing of Al Azhar’s grand sheik, Mohamed Sayed Tantawi.

The Supreme Council of Al Azhar banned the niqab last week, days after Tantawi ordered one student to remove her veil, telling her that Islam never obliged women to cover their faces. Al Azhar is the preeminent educational and religious institution in Sunni Islam.

Despite later justifying that he only did so in order to hear the girl while she was speaking with him, the incident angered religious and secular figures alike. Many went so far as to suggest that officially banning the niqab was Tantawi demonstrating his religious authority to the media.

IRAN: Mannequin, veil thyself

Iranian police have warned shop owners against displaying unveiled mannequins or ones with sexy curves in their shop windows, according to the official IRNA news agency.

"Using unusual mannequins exposing body curves and with heads without hijabs are prohibited to be used in the shops," police said.

Authorities have also advised shop owners against showing mannequins wearing neckties and bow ties, which are considered Western and un-Islamic, and have banned male clerks from selling women's underwear, news reports say. Meanwhile, the police have called on the union of dress shop owners to challenge shops not to violate "safeguarding religious values and the Islamic revolution."