- Crowded out of a masjid? Not allowed to enter in the first place because the mosque is full of ignorant men who think women shouldn’t be allowed in a place of worship that Allah (swt) granted them? Well then take it to the streets! Muslim women in India offer prayers outside because they can’t get into a mosque. In response, the mufti issues this fatwa, which describes women offering prayer at mosques as “un-Islamic.” Prayer at a mosque is un-Islamic? SERIOUSLY?! It gets better: the mufti seeks to educate men on Shari’a to bring “self-regulation among women through their husbands.” Excuse me while I vomit in outrage and disgust.
- Excerpts from Fatema Mernissi’s essay “The Satellite, the Prince, and Sheherazade,” about women’s role as communicators in this digital era.
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In Russia, a hotline opens for Muslim women.
- Ghent, Belgium, bans its city works from wearing headscarves as part of a ban on religious symbols. Riiiiiight.
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Rantings of a Sandmonkey covers a cafe owned by Hanan Turk that allegedly denies entrance to bihejabis and Christian girls. So much for Muslim-Christian unity. And once again, bihejabis get the shaft! Unneccesary, and not very diverting, musings gives her own take on why this only fans the flames of religious intolerance by fighting fire with fire.
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The Saudi judiciary will review the recent rape case that has drawn international controversy. The victim tells her side of the story here.
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Arab News’ Abeer Mishkas gives her take on the media surrounding the Saudi rape case.
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Muslim women in India pray for world peace.
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Saudi women and American educators meet to dispel myths about women in Saudi Arabia.
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Al-Ahram’s Reem Leila looks at nurses who wear niqab in Egypt.
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A Muslim Canadian man’s take on the niqab debate in Quebec. He speaks eloquently on the bigotry of “accommodation” and why he doesn’t want to be “accommodated.”
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Al-Ahram’s Nehad Selaiha covers the Women Directors Festival in Egypt.
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A look at an enterprising young lady in the hijab business! Mashallah!
- The New York Times looks at Muslim girls’ participation in Girl Scouts.
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Salaam Alaikum,Actually, the Hanan Turk restaurant is open to all and they don’t check id’s on the door. Pleae don’t believe the Sandmonkey, he is a far from reliable source and never misses a chance to insult Islam and Muslims for the delight of his neocon audience. Google his page for Mecca Laalaa for proof of this.From the comments of this post:http://forsoothsayer.blogspot.com/2007/11/building-barriers.html“Some information for the sake of this discussion, from someone who has actually been there:1- Non-veiled women are allowed in.2- They do not check IDs at the door, which leads me to believe they don’t filter out non-Muslims.3- The email forsooth posted does not officially represent the place, it was written by someone who simply supports it. So take everything it says with a grain of salt or 6.Carry on.”
Waleykum salam, Safiya!Thanks for the info! I read the post, and it looks pretty good. I must apologize to my readers; I did not mean to fan any flames! One thing I took offense to on Forsoothsayer’s post, however, was the sentence: “…muhajabat and munaqabat (known to the right-wing blogosphere as “hijabis” and “niqabis”)…”RIGHT-WING!!! I am insulted! To clarify for my readers, I do not use these terms because they are arabic, and I don’t speak arabic. I use “hejabi”, “bihejabi”, and “niqabi” because they are derivative of Farsi terms, which I prefer.
if you don’t like Arabic then why use the terms hijab and niqab at all. Presumably Farsi has equivalent terms. but if you use the words hijab and niqab because they are known, then they are known because Arabic is the language of Islam, and these words are associated with Islam. conjugating them wrong merely looks foolish. i suggest you do in fact take heed of the phone call made by the sandmonkey’s friend, who was told in no uncertain terms that she could not bring a Christian friend in. however, presumably this would only apply to overt christians (wearers of crosses, perhaps), since as my unveiled friend pointed out, no one IDed her at the door.
Forsoothsayer, thank you for your comments. You have given me some things to ponder over. Also, I wish to remind readers to READ OUR COMMENT MODERATION POLICY. We will NOT post comments that attack nationalities, religions, ethnicities, etc.
i just read your comment moderation policy before…it just came up now. i don’t see how it will be remotely possible for readers to comment on your posts without touching religion or politics, since in fact these topics together comprise “Muslim women in the media”. the only comment you appear to have left commentators is basically to clap you on the back in approval without any analysis whatsoever.
Iam not attacking natinalities or ethnicities. Iam just asking you to stop associating Iran with the Arab world
Amre, I never associated Egypt with Iran. I never associate Iran with the Arab world. In my weekly links, I take news about Muslim women from all over the world. So if you’re not attacking nationalities or ethnicites, what else am I supposed to think when you call Iranians barbarians (on another blog; I did not allow it here)? I’ve seen your blog; please leave your hate to yourself. I will not allow it here.Forsoothsayer: I understand your point. My dilemma here is to do my best to make ALL my readers feel comfortable and to not have the comments get bogged down in semantic discussions that miss the point of the posts. For example, if I allow comments which say that Shi’as are not Muslims, then how does that make my Shi’a readers feel and how does that make me look for allowing that kind of discussion? I would appreciate detailed feedback on how I can keep my blog somewhat neutral; would you please email me? I’d also like to talk more about your ideas behind using the words ‘muhajabat”.
In the article “I don’t want to be ‘accommodated,’” Ehab Lotayef argues argues that a name is much a sign of religious identity as a piece of clothing like the hijab or kippa. I have to firmly reject this idea. Being named “Ahmed” does not indicate that a man is Muslim: the name is not “Islamic”; it is Arabic. It’s true that there are non-Arabs with Arabic names. But there are also many Arabs with Arabic names, and not all Arabs are Muslim or even religious. An Arabic name indicates some tie to Arab culture, presently or in the past. One’s religious identity is something to be constantly maintained.I acknowledge that a headscarf may not actually mean a woman is Muslim, but it’s much more closely tied to religion than a name is. Names indicate language and culture, and we have to distinguish the difference between these and religion.
actually, melinda, Ahmed in particular is a Muslim name – as is Mohammed – and no Christian Arabs are called either of those things (or Omar, Ali, Zeinab etc).there are other Arabic names that aren’t religion specific.