Cómo Orientalista: Telemundo’s El Clon, Part I

Last updated on: April 21, 2010 at 12:00 am By diana

Spanish soap operas (telenovelas) are just like any other serial dramas, with all the conventional characteristics: star -crossed lovers, dramatic music, a flair for the outrageous and a seemingly never-ending plot. This is exactly what can be expected from Telemundo’s telenovela, El Clon (The Clone). A remake of a Brazilian soap opera that aired in 2001 and 2002 titled O Clone, this Spanish-language telenovela is targeted at the U.S.’s Spanish speaking market. However, what is unexpected is the drama’s lengthy... Read more

The Fine Art of Sexism: “Islamic Erotica”

Last updated on: April 20, 2010 at 12:00 am By Sara Yasin

I was hit by a case of déjà vu when reading two recent articles discussing the work of Makan Emadi, which MMW has discussed before. In a piece posted at the Daily Beast, Betwa Sharma boldly claims that Makan’s work is part of a rise in “Islamic Erotica.” Sharma says that Muslim artists are depicting Muslim women as pin-ups. The mainly discusses an ongoing debate about Islamic rulings on the depiction of human beings. Rather than being indicative of a... Read more

Nazia Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: On Nazia Quazi and the Media

Last updated on: April 19, 2010 at 12:00 am By nicole

Despite her story being told in a series of media alerts posted a few weeks ago on Racialicious, Katha Politt’s blog at The Nation, and here at MMW, Nazia Quazi’s problem is not making the headlines it should. Dual Indian-Canadian citizen Quazi has been held in Saudi Arabia for the past two years due to her male guardian’s (in this case, her father) refusal to allow her to leave the country. There are many versions to Quazi’s story—some including a... Read more

Friday Links — April 16, 2010

Last updated on: April 16, 2010 at 12:00 am By fatemeh

Salam alaikum, readers! Sorry for the silence all week! But don’t worry–we’ll be back to our regular schedule next week, and we didn’t forget about the Friday Links! A female suicide bomber killed herself after fatally shooting a police officer in Russia. The National reports that Oman’s government will grant free land to women to build their own houses. Bosnian colleges draw students avoiding Turkey’s headscarf ban. Electronic Intifada reviews the play Kull Shi Tamaam (Everything is Fine), which examines... Read more

MMW’s Newest Contributor, Diana

Last updated on: April 13, 2010 at 12:00 am By diana

Asalaamu Alaykum everyone! My name is Diana and I will be joining the lovely ladies of MMW. I have been following MMW for some time now and I am amazed at what a wonderful job everyone has done so far. It is truly a blessing to join a group of women with such talent and hopefully I can do some justice to the mission of MMW. I will most certainly add to the diversity of women on this site, though... Read more

Friday Links — April 9, 2010

Last updated on: April 9, 2010 at 12:00 am By fatemeh

The Saudi Arabian Department of Civil Affairs will begin issuing ID cards for women that do not require male guardianship. In Pakistan, the family of a woman murdered by her husband’s family is seeking justice at the national level. May Allah give the victim and her family peace and justice. The Media Line asks whether Iraq’s women miss Saddam Hussein. The Guardian highlights a new danger for sex workers in Bangladesh: steroids. Imam Zaid Shakir writes about the “ethics of... Read more

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: the Niqab Debate and Ableism

Last updated on: April 8, 2010 at 12:00 am By Krista

The Quebec niqab thing keeps going and going (ugh), and I’m still avoiding talking about media coverage of the issue head-on, mostly because I think I’ll explode if I think more about the absurdity of it all, and I’ve written on niqab so much already that there’s not a lot else to say. This post at Racialicious is a pretty good overview of the issue, and of some of the media and activism that has come out in response. (Also, avoiding... Read more

Jihad Jane & Co.: Brainwashed or Hell-Bent?

Last updated on: April 7, 2010 at 12:00 am By ruqia

The phrase “homegrown terrorist” is being thrown around a lot these days. ABC News used it in reference to Colleen LaRose, a Pennsylvania woman who has been charged with using the Internet for terrorist recruitment. She has also been accused of planning to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who drew cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog. In a similar story, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez from Colorado was detained in Ireland under the accusation to kill the same... Read more

On the brink of reductionism

Last updated on: April 6, 2010 at 12:00 am By Guest Contributor

This was written by Azmat Khan and originally published at AltMuslimah. After years of critique from local female activists, why did one of the most powerful media platforms for women’s empowerment, Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast, preclude the more meaningful ways to understand the complex lives of women in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Their recent summit in New York City featured a discussion titled “On the Brink: Women in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” which embodied longstanding critiques of how gender and women’s... Read more

Homeland Insecurities: Nel Hedayat and Afghanistan

Last updated on: April 5, 2010 at 12:00 am By ayaan

The BBC documentary Women, Weddings, War and Me follows 21-year-old British Afghan Nel Hedayat (pictured below) as she returns to Afghanistan 15 years after she and her family left. The accompanying article was my first exposure to Hedayat’s experience there, and it provides a different perspective than the documentary did. The article came across as another replay of the broken record of dual British Muslim identities and the experience of women in non-Western countries as unrelentingly tragic, while the women... Read more