Muslimah Media Watch 
This was originally published on ISNA and Payvand. It has been edited for clarity. The first award for female Iranian poets will be awarded in the week of December 21-27 (first week of the Iranian month of Dey). According to the news agency ISNA, in the news conference held on November 23rd, seven works have been selected out of 17 for the final competition: According to Alborz Time (Be vaghte Alborz), by Mehrnoosh Ghorbanali, Ahange Digar Publications Autumn will reach… Read more
Friday Links — December 26, 2008
December 26, 2008 By fatemeh
Islam in Europe highlights a niqabi protest in Brussels, Belgium. Two women in Iran committed suicide in response to violence from their husbands. May Allah give them peace. Aaminah Hernàndez writes two great posts about how women are defined according to men. Saudi Arabia has no place for Nujoods. Via ProgressiveIslam. More from the Guardian and the Saudi Gazette. Pakistan will issue a 10 rupee coin in honor of Benazir Bhutto. Apparently, all it takes to be desirable to women… Read more
All About Eve: a Women’s Only Business Complex in Dubai
December 25, 2008 By Muslimah Media Watch
Dubai’s leading U.A.E.-based international property developer, Hydra Properties, recently announced plans to build an all-female office tower for businesswomen. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I dislike it because it promotes segregation of the sexes and further perpetuates the idea that women need ‘different’ facilities in order to succeed in the workforce. This article in Emirates Business 24/7 paints the development as a Utopian picture (and for some reason gives us at the very end a small… Read more
Lisa Valentine: hijab and expletives
December 24, 2008 By Muslimah Media Watch
American hijabis often have a lot to think about when they step outside their doors. Will we be denied a job because of hijab? Will we be asked to take off our hijabs at work or school? Will our hijabs make us a target for racists and xenophobes? Will we be pulled out of line at the airport because of our hijabs? However, one place we don’t expect hijab to cause us issue is in court. In courtrooms throughout the… Read more
Fly Girls: the NYT’s essentialist profile of Emirati flight attendants
December 23, 2008 By Muslimah Media Watch
MMW would like to thank Thabet for the tip! Katherine Zopf’s Sunday article in The New York Times about flight attendants in the Emirates set off quite a storm in the blogosphere. And rightly so: it’s often eye-rollingly essentializing when discussing Arab women and society. But why waste my breath when others said it better? The Angry Arab News Service highlights two very important issues the article leaves out: First, of all consider the silly title, implying that Arab women… Read more
“Forced to Marry”: A Look at the Documentary
December 23, 2008 By Muslimah Media Watch
Last week’s “Friday Links” linked to a story of a documentary about forced marriages of young Pakistani-British girls to men in Pakistan. I followed the link and decided to watch this new British documentary. I found the film, called Forced to Marry and which aired on BBC Two on December 1st: fascinating, frustrating, disturbing, chilling, sad, and, at times, hopeful and heartening. The film, which was filmed, produced, and directed by Ruhi Hamid and narrated and presented by Saira Khan,… Read more
Not Australia’s Next Top Model: Iktimal Hage-Ali
December 22, 2008 By Muslimah Media Watch
Iktimal Hage-Ali, 24 is a Lebanese-Australian woman whose life reads like an episode of E! True Hollywood Story. Hage-Ali, a former member of the government‘s Muslim Community Reference Group was arrested for conspiring to sell drugs on Nov. 22, 2006, eight days before she was named New South Wales’ Young Australian of the Year award. She relinquished this title after pictures of her sipping champagne surfaced on the Internet and reports about her cocaine habit were made public. She was… Read more
A great big thank-you!
December 20, 2008 By fatemeh
Muslimah Media Watch earned an honorable mention at this year’s Brass Crescent Awards, alhamdulillah! We would like to thank all of you that voted! Be sure to check out the winner’s list: there are some great blogs on it. A big thanks goes to all of our readers, whether you voted or not. Your comments, both positive and critical, and your support mean a lot to us. The biggest thanks of all goes to all of the wonderful contributors to… Read more
Friday Links — December 19, 2008
December 19, 2008 By fatemeh
The Mirwais Meena girls’ school in Kandahar is still empty after the acid attacks on students. Meribeth Deen profiles a Saudi designer who specializes in women’s clothes. Indian Muslims takes a look at reactions to the Kerala Muslim Marriage Bill. Yasmeen Khan explores British desis in comedy. A photograph exhibit on hejab is in the U.A.E. Sheikh Hasina’s election promises. This is just fucked up. The New Nation covers Begum Rokeya’s role in pioneering women’s rights in Bangladesh. Muslim women… Read more
Egyptian Spinsters and Old Maids Sitting Happily on the Shelf
December 18, 2008 By Muslimah Media Watch
I am a 21-year-old spinster. Yes, a spinster at 21. In my country, although many many Egyptian women are delaying getting married until they’re in their mid-to-late twenties, society still looks at them with a critical, disapproving gaze. “Men and women were made for one another. You are a sinister spinster.” “Better a man’s shadow than that of a wall.” Both are Arabic proverbs reiterated by mothers, aunties, grandmothers and even friends, the former meaning that women who don’t marry… Read more
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