Iranian candidate Nina Siahkali Moradi 'too attractive for politics'

IRAN: AN ELECTORAL candidate in Iran has been denied a place on city council despite winning enough votes because she is deemed to be "too attractive".

 
The Independent reports that Nina Siahkali Moradi, 27, received 10,000 votes, placing her 14th out of 163 candidates for the city of Qazvin elections.
 

The council only elects the first 13 across the line but the person placed 14th is listed as "the first reserve."
 

However, when the elected mayor gave up his seat, Ms Moradi was disqualified.
 

"We don’t want a catwalk model on the council," a senior Qazvin official was quoted as saying in the Times.
 

Ms Moradi is a graduate student of architecture.
 

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said that the disqualification was apparently because of her "non-observance of Islamic codes", and that her campaign posters were the basis for complaints from senior conservative rivals.
 

"Almost 10,000 people voted for me and based on that I should be the first alternate member of the City Council," Ms Moradi told local media.
 

A challenge may be considered because it is illegal to disqualify someone who had initially been qualified to run for office, as Ms Moradi had been.
 

It could be a test for Iran's new President Hassan Rowhani, who has vowed to stand up for women.
 

"Women work but don’t enjoy equal rights. I will form a women’s affairs ministry to return their trampled rights to them," he said prior to his election.
 

Source: Daily Telegraph

Lady Gaga’s New Low: Why “Burqa Swag” Needs to STOP

by McKayla Reilly 

Lady Gaga has evidently plummeted to new lows with the leak of her new track Burqa. While her appropriation of the burqa pre-dates the leak, the song has proven to be yet another degrading, exotification of Muslim women enforcing the “saviour” attitude that is so popular in the West, which views Muslim women of all nationalities as outsiders who need to be liberated from their supposed perpetual prison.

As a Muslim living in North America, I couldn’t function in just a hijab, the most covert of the Muslim garbs. People threw rocks at me, asked me ignorant/offensive questions like why I chose to subject myself to an “inherently patriarchal religion,” called me a terrorist, and so many more incidences I can’t even keep track. Yet it’s totally cool to play dress-up with hair and face coverings as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with an actual Muslim? Newsflash: It’s not a costume for you to wear, it’s not another one of your attention-seeking meat/frog dresses, it’s a symbol of my religion NOT a fashion statement.

Feminspire

Changing face of Britain: 'Muhammad' is now second most popular boys’ name

UK: Three different spellings of the name are listed in the top 100 names for boys from the Office for National Statistics.

The first most common is Muhammad, which is in 19th place on the table.

Mohammed comes 26th and Mohammad is in 60th place.

But overall the name was given 7,139 times in 2012, just 29 behind Harry – which took the top spot.

Source: Express

Muslim leaders in France fear surge in attacks

UK: Muslim leaders in the French city of Lyon said on Monday they feared a surge in attacks on mosques in the style of one averted last week in which a soldier was arrested on suspicion of planning a shooting during an Islamic feast holiday.
 

Anti-Muslim incidents have risen steadily in recent years in France, home to Europe's largest Islamic minority, according to the Committee against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), which blames anti-Muslim rhetoric by far-right politicians.
 

A far-right activist said such violence had been provoked by government efforts to suppress "nationalist movements" that provided a legitimate outlet for discontent.
 

Kamel Kabtane, imam of the Grand Mosque of Lyon, called on local Muslims to gather for a show of solidarity at the suburban Minguettes Mosque, which police said the soldier arrested on Saturday planned to shoot at on the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.
 

The 23-year-old, from an air force base near Lyon, was placed under formal investigation on Monday, accused of "possessing category 4 ammunitions in relation to a terrorist undertaking".

Described by the interior ministry as holding extreme right-wing views, he was also accused of lobbing a Molotov cocktail at a mosque near Bordeaux last year.
 

"There is a clear will today to hurt the Muslim community," Kabtane said, adding that two minor acts had been carried out against mosques in southeastern France over the weekend.
 

"These are no longer isolated acts. It feels like there is a whole organisation being put in place," he said.

Source: Worldbulletin

Mo makes history!

UK: Farah becomes only second-ever athlete to win 5km and 10km double in Olympics and World Championships with majestic run in Moscow.

Mo Farah laid claim to being Britain’s greatest ever athlete last night when he became the first Briton to win both long distance titles at the Olympics and the World Championships.
 

Farah, who added the world 5,000m to the 10,000m title he won last Saturday, knelt down and kissed the ground after crossing the finish line in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
 

It is the fifth world or Olympic gold medal for the 30-year-old, after he won the 5,000m and 10,000m at last year’s Olympics and the 5,000m at the World Championships in Daegu in 2011.
 

MailOnline