Pop/folk musician Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam has won a libel lawsuit and was awarded "substantial" damages over articles that suggested he refused to talk with women not wearing a veil. The stories in question also claimed that Mr Islam would only speak with women, other than his wife through a third party. His lawyer told The High Court in London that "Mr Islam has never had difficulties working with women". London-based World Entertainment News Network (WENN) agency has already apologized for the reports. Its article, entitled "Yusuf Islam ignores bare-headed women", was distributed to subscribers including Contactmusic.com, read by more than two million people per month, which also published an apology on its website.
Mr Islam's laywer, Adam Tudor, told the court the allegations had caused the singer "considerable embarrassment and distress". He said that the defendants now accepted that the claims were "entirely false" and that hey had "created an utterly false impression of attitude to women" WENN and Contactmusic.com also agreed to pay the singer's legal costs. The the damages have been donated to his charity Small Kindness. Mr Stevens, 59, released a record in 2006, had previously recorded only a handful of religious albums since "Back to Earth'' in 1978, when he renounced his name, fame and fortune. He was born Stephen Demetre Georgiou to a Swedish mother and Greek Cypriot father in London and took the name Cat Stevens when he began his singing career, which included the world wide hits "Wild World'', "Morning Has Broken" "Father and Son" and many others. Previously, in 2005 Mr Islam won considerable libel damages from the British news papers, The Sun and Sunday Times after they falsely claimed he was a supporter of terrorism
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