July 22, 2004

Growing numbers of Muslim women are bridling at men's club culture of many American mosques; small number are challenging lack of inclusion of women in worship and communal life; they have had mixed success; they have not coalesced into anything resembling mass movement, but loose but growing network of activists is linked by books, Web sites and Listservs; they represent new generation of Muslim women raised and educated in North America; they include immigrants and descendants of immigrants from Middle East, South Asia and elsewhere, as well as African-American and Anglo converts to the faith; mosques in US vary in their practices; some allow women to serve as board members, while others have constitutions prohibiting women from voting in board elections; overshadowing endeavors of women seeking more equality in mosque are 9/11 terrorist attacks; many Muslims who support womens' rights voice concern that it is counterproductive to air their divisions and dirty laundry when Islam is under scrutiny and Muslims' civil liberties are at risk; photo (M)

Alessandra Stanley reviews A&E television documentary Washington Wives, which follows Teresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Edwards as they campaign for their husbands during Democratic primaries; photo (M)

Unanimous final report of Sept 11 commission is expected to sharply criticize Congress for failing in its role as overall watchdog over nation's intelligence agencies; report will call for wholesale changes in way lawmakers oversee intelligence agencies and Homeland Security Dept; report offers dozens of sweeping recommendations aimed at preventing future attacks, citing intelligence and law-enforcement failures that preceded Sept 11 attacks; officials have already disclosed central recommendation, creation of post of so-called national intelligence director to coordinate work of 15 intelligence agencies, with budget authority over CIA and other intelligence agencies; report will call for intelligence director to operate in executive office of president and to have cabinet-level authority, but not to be in cabinet itself; report's proposal that House and Senate each establish permanent committees on domestic security is certain to touch off fierce turf wars among existing committees; recommendations could force House and Senate leaders either to follow through on ideas or risk being accused of ignoring findings in event of another attack; photo (M)

Stock market reacts cautiously to improved earnings reports from Ford Motor Co and General Motors Corp because companies are making money largely as banks lending money and their competitors like Toyota Motor Corp are far more profitable in industry's core business of manufacturing cars and trucks; GM reports second-quarter earnings totaled $1.3 billion, up 49 percent from period year earlier; Ford reports $1.17 billion in net income in second quarter; auto sales in Asia remains especially lucrative for GM, which has capitalized more successfully on surging Chinese market than Ford has; photo; map; chart (M)

Verizon Communications is introducing Internet-based phone service to companies across nation; service, which divides voice into packets of data and sends them over high-speed Internet lines, can be significantly cheaper than traditional phone calls because sellers of service do not typically have to pay access charges and other fees related to telephone transmission (M)