MMW 2011 Year in Review: Head Coverings and Head-Shaking

December 30, 2011 By Krista

As 2011 draws to a close, we at MMW are looking back at our year of posts.  For those who missed posts earlier in the year, or for those who want to look back through some of the things we wrote about, we’ll be going through some of those through the rest of this week.  On Wednesday, we started off with an overview of some of the news stories that we talked about in 2011; yesterday, we looked at books, movies, and television; and today will look at some of the more ridiculous stories that came up, as well as the many post on our “favourite” topic, hijab.  Our regular Friday links will return next week.

Note: We had some problems with the links in yesterday’s post.  If you’re reading this on the MMW home page and the links aren’t working, please click on the title of the post, which will take you to this post’s page, and the links should work from there.

I’m sure everyone will be shocked that the topic of hijab was a recurring one in many of our posts this year.  Stories ranged from the hype over the Facebook page of someone who took off hijab; a memoir and film about trans women in Indonesia; and representations of veiling and stigmas related to breast cancer.  Women facing legal barriers to wearing hijab or niqab came up frequently, whether it was a Spanish student who wanted to wear niqab to school; a complainant in a Canadian sexual assault case, who is facing a court challenge in order to wear niqab while testifying; a Swiss basketball player fighting to wear hijab on the basketball court; and the Iranian women’s soccer team, which was kicked out of international tournaments for wearing hijab as part of the uniform.

Some of the veil stories were well-intentioned but still missed the mark, involving the use of women’s bodies and clothing for patriotic purposes; a NPR report on women taking off hijab; an article attempting to prove just how “normal” Muslim women really are; and a series of articles that attempted to go “beyond the veil” but never quite got there.  Others were more obviously offensive, either from an Islamophobic perspective (an anti-niqab campaign in France, and a magazine cover with a woman in niqab supposedly representing the new face of Arab democracy), or from a patronising religious perspective (telling us that hijab will save us from the dangers of a scary forest, or will make our brains bigger).  But then, there was also the downright awesome, in the form of a Youtube video with a young woman who tears apart the analogy comparing women to pearls.

And then there were the many stories this year (whether related to hijab or not) that just made us roll our eyes and hope our heads wouldn’t explode.  Muslim women (or women portrayed as Muslim) were the subjects of scandalous media stories throughout the year: actresses Veena Malik and Sila Sahin got some attention, as did a news report about the supposedly risqué activities of Muslim girls throughout Europe.  The woman who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape became the target of widespread victim-blaming.  We responded to the concerns and attempts to save Muslim women expressed by Bill Maher, Jonah Goldberg, Maureen Dowd, and Richard Dawkins, and demeaning ads intending to draw attention to women’s rights in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.  While a UK report on people becoming Muslim had some important points, the focus on stories about white women was tired and frustrating.

The Gay Girl in Damascus blog, which turned out to be a hoax, got a bunch of attention and drew reflection on the media reaction to the stories posted by “Amina Abdullah.”  Earlier this week, Sana also looked at another hoax, the infamous cucumber fatwa .  On Eid-ul-Fitr, we were disturbed to learn that sisters might not quite count as people.  Sara Yasin reacted to a Jezebel article freaking out about a baby named Jihad, and shared with us what she has learned about the dangers of driving while female.

And that’s a wrap for this year!  See you in 2012 insha’Allah!

Filed Under: Books/Magazines, Culture/Society, News, Politics, Sports Tagged With: ,

MMW 2011 Year in Review: Arts and Entertainment

December 29, 2011 By Krista

As 2011 draws to a close, we at MMW are looking back at our year of posts.  For those who missed posts earlier in the year, or for those who want to look back through some of the things we wrote about, we’ll be going through some of those through the rest of this week.  Yesterday, we started off with an overview of some of the news highlights that we talked about in 2011; today, we look at books, movies, and television; and tomorrow will look at some of the more ridiculous stories that came up, as well as the many post on our “favourite” topic, hijab.

Please note: For some reason, the links aren’t working when people click on them from the MMW homepage; however, if you click on the title of this post (or here) so that you are looking at this article specifically, the links are correct.  I’ll work on fixing this, but for now, please click through so that you’re looking at the post itself.  We apologise for the inconvenience!

In the world of literature, we were fans of Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, and the works of Adhaf Soueif and children’s author Rukhsana Khan.  Non-fiction books I Speak for Myself (which included pieces from MMW’s Fatemeh and Yusra),  Control and Sexuality and Fatima Mernissi’s The Forgotten Queens of Islam also got positive reviews.  Nicole was ambivalent in her review of Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, while our reviewers were generally unimpressed with Na’ima B. Robert’s Boy vs. Girl and From Somalia with Love, Rula Jebreal’s Miral, Craig Thompson’s Habibi, and Robin Wright’s Rock the Casbah.

In the world of film, MMW writers enjoyed documentaries The Interrupters, The Light in Her Eyes, Pearls on the Ocean Floor, and a series of films made by Afghan women.  We also appreciated the Egyptian films 678 and Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story; an online short film made by UK-based group Deaffinity; and the Canadian web documentary Me, the Muslim Next Door.  I had mixed feelings about the documentary Deaf Sisterhood, and Fatemeh and Azra were respectively disappointed with the films Sabah and Bhutto.  Eren spoke to filmmaker Nausheen Dadabhoy about her film The Ground Beneath Their Feet.

Television shows were also a hot topic, including  a Temps Présent episode about Islam in Europe, and Afghan shows Niqab and Afghan Star. The Women, War & Peace series of documentaries on PBS got a particularly positive review, as did Nadia Jebril’s series about Arabic language in Europe.  Diana was critical of Law and Order’s representation of a female “jihadist” character, but appreciated the diverse representation of Muslim women in HBO’s Love Crimes of Kabul and CNN’s Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door.   Samya wrote about images of Arab women on television, asked whether Arab women really need the soap opera Men Wanted, questioned Kuwait’s ban on the show High School Girls, and pointed out differences in representations of religious women in Syrian television and cinema.  With the emergence of TLC’s reality television show All-American Muslim, Azra gave us a preview of the show and her first impressions, and Lara responded to the debate about advertising being pulled.

In other forms of art and entertainment, Sara Yasin interviewed visual artist Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani and wrote about representations of gender in an exhibition of his art.  We wrote about Malian singer Khaira Arby, a female Muslim character in the X-Factor comic, the Al-Shamikha magazine, and Zehra Afzal’s comedy show (discussed by both Sana and Diana).  We looked at the politics of a t-shirt with the words “for hire,” and participation of Muslim women as fashion designers and models.  Tasnim analysed the positioning of Muslim women as subjects and objects within the fashion industry and in photography and visual culture.

And in miscellaneous other posts, Eren wrote about Muslim matchmaking sites (see part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4), and did a follow-up post about the people behind these sites.  We also talked about conferences that happened this year, such as the Arab Media Forum (where Samya remarked on the underrepresentation of women) and the WISE conference.  Reflecting on other activism-related contexts, Syma responded to a blog post on the experiences of hijab-wearing women in feminist activism, and she, Eren, and Nicole weighed in on the Goatmilk debates on Islam and feminism.

Stay tuned for our final 2011 wrap-up post tomorrow!

Filed Under: Art/Theater, Books/Magazines, Cinema, Comics/Cartoons, Culture/Society, Film, Merchandise/Commodities, Music/Radio, Video, Web Tagged With:

MMW 2011 Year in Review: News

December 28, 2011 By Krista

As 2011 draws to a close, we at MMW are looking back at our year of posts.  For those who missed posts earlier in the year, or for those who want to look back through some of the things we wrote about, we’ll be going through some of those through the rest of this week.  Today, we’re starting off with an overview of some of the news highlights that we talked about in 2011; tomorrow will look at books, movies, and television; and Friday will look at some of the more ridiculous stories that came up, as well as the many post on our “favourite” topic, hijab.

It’s no surprise that the Arab Spring got quite a bit of attention on MMW this year.  Tasnim followed many of the stories, from the early days of analysing the participation of women in Tunisia’s revolution and women’s voices in Egypt and Libya, coverage of Libya’s Eman al-Obeidi, and participation of women in Libya’s new government.  Sara Yasin looked critically at representations of Arab first ladies, and Sana took down Vogue Magazine’s coverage of Asma al-Assad.  We interviewed MMW’s own contributors Eman and Yusra about their respective personal experiences with the revolutions in Egypt and Libya.  As many countries have moved into phases of building new governments, Sana looked at reactions to the election of the Islamist party Ennahda in Tunisia, while Eman analysed the focus on women’s clothing in Egypt’s elections.

In other news, Eman looked at the politics of Western intervention in the case of Sakineh Ashtiani, and Safiyyah analysed the Muslim marriage bill in South Africa.  After Osama bin Laden’s death, Sara Yasin looked at media representations of his wife, while Lara was frustrated with how Jezebel talked about his daughter.  Alicia criticised a proposal in Kuwait for Muslim men to be able to take female sex slaves.  Sara Haji wrote about an article on same-sex marriages among Muslims in the UK, and Diana later covered a report on broader issues concerning queer Muslims in the US.  Women’s issues in Saudi Arabia came up several times, with Eman writing about women’s struggles for the right to vote and the coverage of Manal Al-Sharif, and Samya looking at the role of social media in the campaign to allow women to drive.  Eren wrote about neighbourhoods in Canada where South Asian families live while the husbands and fathers work in the Gulf.  Sara Haji questioned the representation of the woman who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape, while Fatemeh questioned the victim-blaming involved in media coverage of the story. Sara Yasin analysed the representation of Texas politician Farha Ahmed.  In following the ongoing coverage of the Shafia murder trial in Canada, Diana looked at how media sources and legal teams on all sides manipulated religious ideas to make their point, and Eren looked at the statements about domestic violence that were made by Muslim leaders.

Check back tomorrow and Friday for summaries of some of the other things we wrote about this year!

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,
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