More Iraqi women, both from Sunni and Shi’ite communities, are donning a more conservative religious dress. Al Jazeera features a documentary on the rise of religious schools, or madrasas, for girls and women in Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch calls for the investigation of the death of Nilufar Rahimjonova, who died earlier this year in an Uzbek prison, where she was serving a 10 year sentence. She was said to be in good health. A reporter reunites with Marwadah Priyanka, a... Read more
The optimism in my last post, at least for Switzerland, has been tempered with news coming out of Switzerland last week. In Switzerland (where niqab is already banned in Ticino since 2013), the German-speaking newspaper SonntagsBlick recently cited a survey saying that 62% of the Swiss population would be in favor of a burqa ban. Granted, the Tribune de Geneve mentioned that the methodology of the SonntagsBlick survery was not made clear. But as usual, Muslim women and their clothing... Read more
In Iraq, ISIL is said to have killed over 150 women and girls for refusing to get married to ISIL fighters. Seven people have been arrested in Spain and Morocco in several raids targeting an alleged network recruiting women to join ISIL, including a woman from Chile. According to a UN expert one of the Austrian teenage girls who left to join ISIL has been killed and the other has disappeared. Last Wednesday, UK police stopped a plane on the runway... Read more
When I attempted entering “Islamic erotica” in a search engine, I was not sure what to expect. A few weeks before doing that, I had stumbled upon the genre while reading Afrocentric Muslimah’s blog post on the need for Muslim women to embrace their sexuality. Curious to know more about Islamic erotica, I decided to search for more on the topic. I have since discovered that there are various works of art and/or books grouped under the Islamic (or Muslim) erotica tag.... Read more
I must admit, I can’t wait until the year is over. I have had a difficult year first dealing with my partner’s passing, and then trying to figure out what follows the grieving process. Right after Saad’s passing, I found that my Muslim community had a rather complex and unexplored relationship with death. Many of my fellow Muslims did not only tell me that I should have gotten over Saad’s death after three days, as some traditions mandate; but some... Read more
Women’s participation in the Jordanian political scene has always been a controversial one. Several women in Jordanian political history have made news because of their strong political opposition to their male counterparts’ dominance. The most famous one was Toujan Al-Faisal, who was Jordan’s first female member of parliament. In 2002, Al-Faisal made it to the news headlines after she published an open letter to King Abdullah II, accusing the government of corruption. She was arrested and charged with “tarnishing the... Read more
Videos continue to emerge online of Central Asian migrant workers humiliated by their countrymen for allegedly being prostitutes and a shame for their nation. Militants belonging to Al Shabaab in Somalia have killed two Somali policewomen; in return a policeman has killed five women belonging to the group who were held by Somali police. The capital of China’s Xinjiang province, Urumqi has banned the Islamic face veil, in what is said to be an attempt to curb terrorism. The High... Read more
If you’re our regular reader, you know that mainstream media sorely lacks female characters who have a range of emotions, abilities and ambitions – in other words: real women. Children’s animated films are of no exception. It was only in 2009 that Disney introduced its first Disney princess of colour, black princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. More recently, Princess Elsa of Frozen (2013) was lauded for being a “complex and contentious heroine” by the Feminist Wire. But most characters and children’s... Read more
Normally, I jump at the chance to speak at women’s conferences and participate in any way that will allow me to speak about my advocacy and organization around Women in sport. As a Muslimah living in the Toronto area, I have been very fortunate to be in a region that is bursting with female scholarship of varying degrees and community initiatives by intrepid women. There are tremendous organizations and groups that give nods to Muslim women and their expertise in... Read more
For the last month, I have been looking into the literature on discrimination in academia, reading books with titles such as Making Our Voices Heard: Women of Color in Academia and Overcoming Adversity in Academia: Stories from Generation X Faculty. At the same time, I have been attending a course intended to teach academic teachers how to teach in higher education. The experience has left me thinking over my situation, as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman in the ivory tower. For... Read more
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