On Thursday nights in the United States, ABC airs American Crime, an 11-part series that looks at a murder that took place in Modesto, California. The story doesn’t follow the detectives around as they solve a mystery-of-the-week like most crime shows, though, and instead focuses on the lives of everyone else involved and the relationships between one another. Each week reveals a new layer of information for each of the characters, who include: the couple—a murdered husband and an... Read more
“Poetic Pilgrimage isn’t just a rap group — it’s a statement about Islam, women and what it means to belong,” writes Antonia Blumberg for The Huffington Post, in her article titled “Poetic Pilgrimage Is The Muslim Women’s Rap Duo The World Needs Right Now.” Canadian Conservative backbencher Larry Miller has apologized for saying Muslim women who do not want to remove their face coverings when taking the citizenship oath should “stay the hell where [they] come from“. Esther Oluga... Read more
So apparently Swiss politicians, lacking in creativity, have nothing better to do than copy what is going on in France. After the burqa ban in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino and some local issues in the German-speaking cantons, the latest part of Switzerland to jump on the “policing women’s clothing” bandwagon is the Canton of Valais. In an article in the Geneva daily Le Temps, a delegate from the Swiss Socialist Party was quoted as asking if there was... Read more
Various papers have been covering Canada’s niqab controversy after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that the niqab is rooted in “anti-women” culture, with some Muslim women responding, saying they choose to wear the niqab out of religious obligation. Germany’s Constitutional Court has lifted a ban on female Muslim teachers wearing headscarves. The Telegraph writes about hip-hop hijabis. In relation to Harper’s comments, Monia Mazigh writes about how the bodies of Muslim women are used to justify wars. Glen McGregor discusses misleading photos of “Muslim women... Read more
In my humble (maybe not so much) opinion, Latin Americans feel a strong attachment to charismatic figures. Think for example, of Che Guevara. Che Guevara is drilled into our minds since an early age as a symbol of justice, leadership and true revolutionary Latin American spirit. In fact, even thinking about challenging the idea of what Che Guevara means to my Latin American identity makes me nervous! However, much of what we say about Che Guevara has more to do with... Read more
The issue of stereotyping Muslims has been controversial throughout Hollywood’s history, and looking at American films and TV in general, we can see that Muslim men (usually represented as dark skinned, bearded, and speaking broken English) have almost invariably placed the “bad people category.” Nick Recktenwald, from The Mic comments on this here: In general, Muslims in Hollywood cinema exist as one-dimensional characters: ignorant menaces hell-bent on kidnapping or killing as many Westerners in service of their exotic, violent god. Edward... Read more
A group of Afghan men have marched through the capital Kabul in burkas to draw attention to women’s rights. A group of Afghan men have marched through the capital Kabul in burkas to draw attention to women’s rights. Pakistani group “No Guts, No Heart, No Glory” hopes to change the way some media outlets depict Muslim women as oppressed and subservient, weak victims, or jihadi brides. Yasmeen Kamel writes about hiring policies that target Muslim women in the US, and discusses the court case by... Read more
This piece was written by guest contributor Amna Qureshi (@Amnamaq), and originally published at the Toronto Star. Judge Eliana Marengo has made a serious error by telling a Muslim woman that she must take off her hijab in court before her case would be heard. Her justification — that the woman was not “suitably dressed” — is wrong-headed and a troubling slippery slope. Last week a hijab-wearing Muslim woman, Rania El-Alloul, appeared on her own in a Quebec court without counsel and applied... Read more
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s Refusing the Veil, part of the Provocations series by Biteback publishing, is a very short, refreshingly honest book about why the author thinks Muslim women should give up wearing the veil, in all its various forms, so that they can be liberated women in the 21st century. The book begins with a list of all the possible words for veil. It proceeds, taking a conversational tone with very occasional academic flourishes but a merciful lack of jargon, in... Read more
Salaams and happy 2015, dear MMW readers! The MMW team will be taking a break for a couple months as we deal with other commitment in our lives and work outside of the blog. We may have a few posts here and there over the next little while, and Eren will be sharing past posts through our Facebook and Twitter feeds, but otherwise things will be pretty quiet around here. We wish you a great start to the new year, and... Read more
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