I’m a member of the Congressional Muslim Staffer’s Association (CMSA), an organization on Capitol Hill that seeks to unite Muslims working in Congress and quell myths about Islam through outreach. Last Friday, some members of CMSA met with a group of young Egyptian men and women as their two-week congressional internship came to a close. Their trip, sponsored by the American Embassy in Cairo, was part of a student-led project to build a replica of U.S. government. I asked some... Read more
On Syrian TV dramas and their portrayal of women. Two women are holding a workship for aspiring writers of Arabic children’s books in Sharjah, U.A.E. IslamOnline covers the recent submission to parliament of a headscarf ban in Danish courts. In an attempt to attract more women to use public transportation, Dubai will soon launch pink buses for women. Seriously. A new book discusses the space that women are making for themselves in Iran. WLUML reports that there is worrisome political... Read more
Last summer saw the launch of ALO Hayati, “America’s Top Middle Eastern Lifestyle Magazine.” Thanks to a gracious donor, I finally got my hands on a copy of the July 2008 issue. All lifestyle magazines have an aspirational feel to them, and this one was no different. Chock full of advertisements for Dubai hotels and Swiss watches, ALO wasn’t particularly different than any other lifestyle magazine. Considering the economic situation of magazines, it doesn’t seem like an incredibly auspicious time... Read more
It has been 30 years since the Islamic Revolution in Iran and Western media has a slew of various features looking at Iran. The subject of many of these features is Iranian women and, the common themes in these stories are that Iranian women have made some progress, but that more progress has to be made. There is the usual focus on hijab, with stories pointing out that hijab is mandatory. The AFP seemed particularly focused on hijab: “The Islamic... Read more
Last week’s Iraqi elections received lots of media coverage, but at MMW we were mostly fascinated by women candidates, especially since election rules require 30% of the candidates be female. The Huffington Post defines Iraq’s exercise in democracy as rebellious, while the Gulf News qualified it as an act of political maturity. I’ll take a closer look at CNN and The Guardian. There was mostly positive coverage at CNN. This article shows how Iraqi women contributed to their society, even... Read more
Who says young adult fiction about Muslim girls can only be contemporary or historical? Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu’s 2007 novel shows that Muslim teen lit can venture into the realm of the future. Young adult novel The Shadow Speaker explores science fiction and fantasy with a story that plays out in a futuristic, magical universe with worlds beyond Earth. It does so starring a Muslim protagonist, 14- to 15-year-old Ejii Ugabe. In Ejji’s world, it is 2070. And instead of a futuristic... Read more
Various news organizations have reported that a CIA officer stationed in Algeria, identified by CBS News as Andrew Warren, has been accused of drugging and raping two Algerian women. The women, according to CBS, came forward separately and “reported the incidents months after they occurred.” This from ABC News: The CIA’s station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their... Read more
Sex. Always an attention getter. So there’s no wonder why Jasad, or “Body,” a new quarterly Arabic magazine published in Lebanon, is making waves in the Arab world by promising to “deal with the forbidden,” the *gasp* human body. The magazine’s logo is ‘body’ spelled in Arabic and the first letter is a broken handcuff, alluding to the taboos the magazine breaks. An article in the Guardian reports: Officials of Hizbullah, the powerful Lebanese Shia movement, tried to close Jasad‘s stand... Read more
A Toronto judge has recently ruled that a complainant in a sexual assault trial – who happens to wear the niqab, a face-covering worn by a small percentage of Muslim women – will have to uncover her face in order to testify. According to this article, The judge, Ontario Court Justice Norris Weisman, determined he had the jurisdictional authority to make that ruling under the Canada Evidence Act, because it involves the manner in which the woman is to give... Read more
A bank in California denies a woman services because of her headscarf. More here. The Saudi Gazette profiles artist Zaina Zahid. The E.U. launches a program to boost gender equality in the Mediterranean. The Muslim parts, anyway. (rolling eyes) Several women ran in Iraq’s recent provincial elections. There are profiles from the Ledger-Enquirer, the New York Times, Xinhua News, There are also articles about overall female participation in the elections from The National, IWPR, AFP, CNN, Gulfnews, The Guardian, and... Read more
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