First Muslim Women MPs to be elected

It may not quite equal the historic significance of Barack Obama's election to the White House, but we're likely to see at least one Muslim woman entering Parliament for the first time at the 6th May elections.

About a quarter of the 16 Muslim women standing as candidates in the general election are in a strong position to win parliamentary seats for the first time, according to an analysis carried out by the Muslim News.

While it's always the candidate's policies rather than their name or their skin colour that count it's great to see Muslim women achieving political prominence and Parliament better reflecting the diversity of the population (although proportionally we should see at least 9 Muslim women MPs!)

And here's a thought - now that we're taking our rightful place on the benches of Parliament, how about opening up the mosques to women? Muslim women can run the country, and we can run the mosques, and we can probably do both a lot better than the men who are currently in power!