Gareth Compton’s Tweet: A Stone’s Throw from Islamophobia

Last updated on: December 6, 2010 at 12:00 am By eren

Last month, Tory councilor Gareth Compton was arrested and later released on bail for writing a message in Twitter that said: “Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing, really.” Compton has apologized for the Tweet and has declared that he was quite frustrated because Alibhai-Brown said in an interview that no British politicians are morally qualified to talk about human rights violations. Compton’s membership to the Conservative... Read more

A Saudi Trailblazer Making Her Vision Come True

Last updated on: December 3, 2010 at 1:00 am By Guest Contributor

This was originally published at American Bedu. American Bedu is pleased to present an exclusive interview with an inspirational Saudi woman, Aysha AlKusayer. Aysha (and her husband) have always been writers. Aysha now shares with American Bedu readers about a TV dramady she has lead with a group of 15 Saudi women under the umbrella of Scenario Creative Production; the dramady will debut on MBC Group in the near future. American Bedu: Gosh, Aysha, I am so excited for you... Read more

December 3: Day of Action Against Bill 94

Last updated on: December 3, 2010 at 12:00 am By Krista

In case you haven’t heard enough about Bill 94 from my two posts this week, I wanted to let you know that today, December 3, is a day of action against the bill. Below are some suggested actions from the Non/No Bill 94 Coalition: Speak up! Write, email, phone, fax Quebec Premier Jean Charest, along with Minister of Immigration and Cultural Communities Yolande James, Minister of Justice Kathleen Weil, and Minister of Culture, Communications & the Status of Women Christine... Read more

Revealing Democracy: A Conference on Bill 94 (Part II)

Last updated on: March 2, 2013 at 3:58 pm By Krista

(See Part 1 here.) I didn’t make it to the Friday panels because of schoolwork, but I was able to catch the talks on Saturday (November 20). The first panel was called “The Theoretical and Analytical Challenges of Identity Politics,” with speakers Monique Deveaux, Cécile Laborde, and Beverley Baines; the second panel was entitled “’Managing’ Religious and Ethnocultural Diversity: Looking Beyond Existing Models,” and included Sirma Bilge, Sedef Arat-Koç, and François Rocher. Because many of the topics overlapped, I’ll look... Read more

Revealing Democracy: A Conference on Bill 94 (Part I)

Last updated on: December 1, 2010 at 12:00 am By Krista

Quebec’s Bill 94, which would deny access to public services to women who wear niqab, is back in parliamentary hearings and, by all accounts, likely to pass. This past weekend, an international conference entitled “Revealing Democracy: Bill 94 and the challenges of religious pluralism and ethnocultural diversity in Quebec” was held at Concordia University in Montreal. Its focus was on looking critically at the social and political contexts in which the bill has come to be. Among other topics, presenters talked about... Read more

Looking at the Mother of a Nation: Fatima Jinnah

Last updated on: November 30, 2010 at 12:00 am By merium

When discussing prominent Pakistani women, references are usually made to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, human rights activists Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani, or even entertainers like Zeba Bakhtiar and Nazia Hassan. Pakistani women like Mukhtaran Mai or Asia Bibi have also rightly garnered media attention for different reasons. Fatima Jinnah, sister and confidante of the founder of modern day Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah (M.A. Jinnah), is not as often referenced by western media. Snippets on her life have been... Read more

Within a Dream World: A Look at “Women Without Men”

Last updated on: November 29, 2010 at 12:00 am By Azra

Women Without Men, directed by Shirin Neshat, looks at the visually evocative and at times interspersing lives of four women in Iran in the early 1950s. It is a time of political unrest, as Prime Minister Mossadegh faced increasing opposition from US and British-backed movements. The film explores the women’s relationships with men and their understanding of sexuality, friendship, faith, and political involvement. It is based on Shahrnush Parsipur’s Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran, first published in... Read more

No need to go undercover to get to know Muslims

Last updated on: November 26, 2010 at 12:00 am By Guest Contributor

Salam alaikum, readers! I’m traveling for the next week, and your regularly scheduled Friday Links will be temporarily on hold. But I’ve scheduled some wonderful articles for you in my absence. Friday Links will be back in a few weeks; in the meantime, enjoy! –Fatemeh This post was written by Shazia Kamal. An edited version of this essay was published at AltMuslimah. I appreciate Cassidy Herrington stepping out of her comfort zone, or as she said it, “climbing out of... Read more

The Doha Debates on The Burqa Ban

Last updated on: November 25, 2010 at 12:00 am By fatemeh

Last month, the Qatar Foundation’s Doha Debates took on the French niqab ban, discussing the motion: “This House believes France is right to ban the face veil.” Since the niqab ban (or the “burqa ban,” and we’ve dubbed it) has been a big media issue on MMW, a few of MMW’s ladies decided to get together to talk about this edition of the Debates. You can read the transcript or watch video at the website. Yusra: Was it just me... Read more

Dutch as Such: “Delfts Blauw Meets Hijab”

Last updated on: November 24, 2010 at 12:00 am By nicole

“Delfts blauw meets hijab” is the title of a new Dutch documentary analyzing the experience of female Dutch converts to Islam and, at the same time, exploring the compatibility (or lack of) between so-called “Dutch identity” with “Muslim values.” The documentary, created by Janina Pigaht, follows the experience of young Dutch women, Laura, Marion, Djamila, Anne-Marie and Elsa, who chose Islam in spite of an increasingly anti-Muslim sentiment in society. As the director herself says, “Sometimes I think conversion is... Read more