If you look at the Muslim Girls website, it features the current month’s cover, as well as past covers. The covers all look like this: a happy, smiling young lady in modest dress.
The difference among the covers? Some of them feature a girl with a headscarf, and some don’t. Now, looking on the website at the features within the magazine, it appears that there is an equal distribution of women with and without headscarves, and an equal distribution of ethnicities in the models. Which makes me genuinely happy! And while the magazine still uses thinner models, I’m happy to take what I can get for now.
Despite having different publishers, today’s Muslim Girl subscribers might be tomorrow’s Azizah subscribers. But Azizah has a strict “no hejab = no cover photo” policy. It’s not stated on the website, but every back issue has the woman’s hair covered, even though they feature bihejabis in the magazine. Azizah’s website also doesn’t feature a single bihejabi in the
website’s pictures. The magazine has an excellent record of ethnic diversity, but Azizah seems to think the only real Muslim is one who covers her hair. This is exclusionary and patronizing to Muslim women who do not cover their hair for whatever reason, and Muslim Girl seems to be avoiding this skillfully.
Muslim Girl looks perfect on the surface: their features promote different types of modesty, ethnic diversity, and awareness of international events and local issues of interest to Muslims. At a glance, Muslim Girl seems to be touting a different, more inclusive agenda that Azizah. Let’s hope that when Muslim Girl grows up, she brings her inclusive politics with her.
Salam:I like your commentary. However, as a long-time subscriber to Azizah magazine, I can tell you that non-Hijabi women are also represented in it. I don’t feel it discriminates against non-Hijabis. However, you also need to consider that you will find virtually NO media outlet that shows Muslim women in Hijab in a positive light on a consistent basis. Given this, Azizah’s “bias” towards Hijabis on the cover page is understandable. More mainstream publications are trying to include Muslim women in their pages. However, their policy is often the opposite of Azizah’s: NO Hijabis or Muslim women who look more “Western” (i.e. no Hijab), especiallly on the cover. Consider Newsweek’s “special issue” on Muslims a few weeks ago. The only story on Hijab features a Muslim woman who has taken OFF her Hijab and shows photos of her “before and after transformation.”Given this reality, Azizah’s choice to feature Hijabis on its cover, in my view, makes sense.Finally, I would be very cautious of Muslim Girl magazine. While it’s nice to have a magazine geared at a never before targeted demographic, the fact that many of the higher ups at the magazine are not Muslim (including its publisher) and that there are more girls in tight, revealing clothes than those in Hijab makes me pause before I can applaud this project or even subscribe to it. Who is running this magazine and why? What message are they sending about Islam? Which “Islam” are they promoting? The one by “progressive Muslims” like Khaled Abou El Fadl, whose wife, Grace Song, writes a question and answer section about religious issues for (and in which she regularly consults “the eminent” scholar Khalid Abou El Fadl)? We need to stay tuned and be careful. There are people who want us to be “diluted” Muslims out there, and the word they use for it is “moderate.” I am not totally bashing this magazine, but I think it has a bigger agenda than to be the Muslim Seventeen.
Thanks for your comments, Chai Lover. I agree with you that the fact that the publishers aren’t Muslim (though I haven’t researched this; could you give me a link or let me know where you found this?) is an issue, but looking at the website, I don’t see any “more girls in tight, revealing clothes than those in Hijab.” The clothes profiled in the website, although not all of them use matching headscarves, are modest and definitely not tight, and it seems as if Muslim Girl is including ALL Muslim girls (those who wear hejab AND those who don’t). A lot of alienation happens in the teen years, and many Muslim girls will experience alienation from the non-Muslim community; what is worse (to me) is Muslim teens experiencing alienation from WITHIN the Muslim community itself (sometimes perhaps becuase they don’t wear hejab, or for other reasons). My issue with Azizah is that it doesn’t strive to represent ALL Muslimahs on its cover (i.e., not just Muslimahs who observe hejab). For me, inclusivity and unity is an important issue within the Muslim community.
Muslim Girl’s Publisher’s website is looking a little strange. No info about the mag what-so-ever. I smell some of the same issues as the first commentor. Take a look for yourself: http://www.execugomedia.com.