Head Scarf

Liberal Muslim or closet fundamentalist? Peaceful intellectual or militant in sheep's clothing? Tariq Ramadan has been called all these things -- and more -- by his friends and foes. Whatever the truth, the Swiss-born Oxford University professor ranks among the most influential thinkers in the Muslim world. The grandson of the man who founded the radical Muslim Brotherhood, Ramadan drew attention in the United States in 2004 when he was denied a visa to take up a post at the University of Notre Dame because he had given money to a Swiss-based charity that the U.S. later alleged had linked to the militant group Hamas.

A 29-year-old Muslim woman sued San Bernardino County and its sheriff Wednesday, alleging that deputies violated her rights by forcing her to remove the head scarf she wears because of her religious beliefs. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California filed the complaint on behalf of Jameelah Medina in U.S.

JetBlue Airways blamed a computer glitch for an 18-month-old girl being removed from a plane in Fort Lauderdale , Fla., because the carrier's employees thought she was on the no-fly list. The girl and her parents were removed after the flight bound for Newark, N.J., had boarded, media reports say. In a statement made Thursday, JetBlue said it was looking into the incident that happened Tuesday. It also said its employees "followed appropriate protocols" and included an apology to the family.

France has agonized for years about whether and how to discourage Islamic girls from wearing the hijab, or head scarf, in public schools -- something more and more students have taken to doing, claiming religious obligation, fashion or simply that it's a matter of individual rights. It is a practice that has grown more confrontational as European and American relations with the Islamic world have worsened.

After living several months with Muslims in rural Pakistan last year, I saw the birth of my inner mullah. And it hasn't gone away. By "mullah," I mean the leaders who want to tie Pakistan and the Muslim world to a strict reading of Islamic law. I mean the people who were restrained by police last weekend in Lahore as hundreds of women staged a historic run for women's rights, jogging in street clothes and even high heels through the city. Women in sports isn't un-Islamic, the runners said.

The boys sat in front of the train station, sipping orange soda, watching, as the girl, so pretty in her embroidered head scarf, long denim skirt and makeup just right, slipped out of a car driven by a young man who smiled and drove away. She walked toward the ticket booth, stopped and turned. The man's taillights were gone. The girl wasn't getting on a train, not this night; she headed down the street and disappeared beneath the trees, perhaps to a secret rendezvous with a lover, or maybe just to meet some friends.

Re "An Identity Reduced to a Burka," Opinion, Jan. 20: Of course, no woman should be forced to burn her burka or cast aside the hijab in order to advance. But Islam, more than any of the other great (read patriarchal) world religions, is obsessed with assuaging primitive male fears and spinning out medieval male fantasies. That doesn't leave much room to embody the highest human aspirations. The religion hasn't been permitted to evolve by the men who interpret it. They've decided that their women (and 14-year-old girls)

Imane Boudlal got a job two weeks after moving to California, a hostess position at a Disneyland Resort cafe. She didn't log many hours at first -- it was April, the slow season -- but as the summer of 2008 progressed, the 24-year-old worked more frequently as the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa's Storyteller's Cafe drew more tourists. It was also, Boudlal alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday, when her co-workers began taunting her, calling the Moroccan-born Muslim a "terrorist," a "camel" and someone who learned how to make bombs at her mosque.

The Egyptian army began to reassert control around Tahrir Square on Saturday, with the government emphasizing a return to normality while preparing for negotiations with a divided opposition struggling to devise a common strategy. According to the authoritative government owned newspaper Al Ahram, President Hosni Mubarak has resigned as leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. However, state television reported that Mubarak had accepted the resignations of the leaders of the party, leaving the president's future role uncertain.