Hi, all. I am Tasnim, a new contributor. I have been a guest contributor a couple of times, and an avid reader since I first discovered MMW, so I am looking forward to writing as a member of the team.

As I live in Sweden, I hope to focus mainly on Islam and the representation of women in Scandinavia. There’s more about my background on the contributors page.

Editor’s Note:

Salam waleykum, readers!

I’m traveling this week, and haven’t had much access to internet (you’ve probably noticed if you’ve tried to submit a comment…), so I haven’t been able to put together a Friday Links this week.

But instead, I’ll leave you with a new face at MMW to get to know! Until next week, friends! – Fatemeh

Raised outside of New Orleans, I started learning French at an early age and used my language skills as my ticket out of town, first stopping in Quebec when I was 17 before moving on to France and Belgium. I came back to the U.S. and in between trips around the world found a way to get a BA in International Studies from the Croft Institute at the University of Mississippi. During one of my extended stays abroad, I met a Franco-Algerian in Paris who I eventually married and with whom I moved to Switzerland where I have spent the past five years, first in Zurich and now in Lausanne. 2010 is a year of big change for me!

I converted to Islam in 2000. I’m still the same girl I always was, your typical free-spirit American convert, and I won’t preach at you. We’re all just wayfarers, so I try to cut people as much slack as I would like in return. Few of us in our time are specialists in religion, yet increasingly we are called to represent Islam even when we have little knowledge. As such, I firmly believe three things about my religion: 1. You use it to check yourself; once you have that on lock, 2. you make other Muslims happy to be Muslim and happy to know you; and finally, 3. You make people who aren’t Muslim at worst think “gee, that kooky Muslim chick is kinda cool” and at best “wow, being Muslim is awesome.”

I have several years blogging under a pseudonym and guest/group blogging in French and English, most recently in 2009 at the Lausanne Bondy Blog. As a blogger, my interests span from makeup to European politics, from Islam to social media, from Switzerland to SEC college football. At Muslimah Media Watch, I hope to focus on media issues affecting Muslim women in Switzerland and Europe although I may raise some Algerian or technology issues relating to Muslim women where I feel my input is appropriate.

In real life, I work in the legal field. Where my professional and personal lives collide is that I also have a particular interest in IP and general legal issues in the digital age. I am part of the small Swiss tech/social media community and as such participate as a blogger in local and European events such as LeWeb 09. Blogs, and social media in general, offer people like me- strangers in a strange land- the opportunity to find a place to “fit in.” I am very excited to be blogging in English again at Muslimah Media Watch!

Salam waleykum, readers!

First of all, we’d like to send a big thank you to all of our faithful readers and everyone who voted for us in the Brass Crescent Awards! We won Best Female Blog and received an honorable mention for Best Group Blog! This is the first year we’ve actually won, and your support (in a blog award and every day) means a lot to us.

MMW is undergoing a number of small but significant changes, so we thought we’d keep you in the loop.

Unfortunately, we’ve decided to phase out our “Voice of Muslim Women” project. It’s a huge undertaking, and none of us really have the time for it at the moment. But we really appreciate everyone who has written in and requested to be a part of it–inshallah, we’ll be able to bring it back in the future.

We’re also going through an exciting redesign! You should see a new format in a few weeks, inshallah.

We’ve also updated our email addresses to keep you better in touch with us:

• for story tips or ideas, you can email us at tips@muslimahmediawatch.org
• for editorial concerns or to apply as a contributor, you can email us at editor@muslimahmediawatch.org
• to contact contributors specifically, you can email us at writers@muslimahmediawatch.org