So I guess I’m the newbie to MMW, and I’m really, really excited about it! I guess you can tell by the title that this is my first post. I’m looking forward to sharing my critique and analysis on Muslim women in the media, and I hope you, as readers, will be interested in whatever I write whether you agree or disagree. A little about myself: My name is Ruqia, and I’m a student at the University of Houston. I’m... Read more
Belgium moves towards public ban of niqab and burka after a city bans headscarves and drafts a law against niqabs. More from GetReligion and the Telegraph. A young Yemeni girl escapes her abusers after years of physical and sexual abuse. May Allah keep her and give her justice. Meanwhile, the debate about legal marriage age is polarizing Yemeni society. For her project The Taxi Takes on Terror, freelance documentary filmmaker Vandana Sood interviews a female Muslim taxi driver in Mumbai.... Read more
I’d like to give it up to Hissa Hilal, a Saudi woman who’s caused some controversy for slamming Islamic extremists in an American Idol spinoff called Million’s Poet. Instead of singing, contestants are judged based on how well they recite poems in front of a live audience; a panel of judges, along with thousands of viewers voting by text message, determine who walks away with the $1.3 million prize. Over the past episodes, poets romanticized Arab culture with odes to... Read more
At the end of February, a Muslimah “pray-in” led by Fatima Thompson at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. created a stir in the media. A small group of women chose to pray in the back of the men’s section of the prayer area, rather than use the separate women’s section. Mosque leaders proceeded to inform the police after unsuccessfully asking the women to move to the small women’s “area off to the side and gated off by a solid... Read more
I don’t know how you spend your Thursday nights, but mine are usually spent in front of the television for NBC’s Thursday night comedy line up. And usually, Community is one of my favorite shows. It’s a comedy about a misfit group of community college students. This weekend, I saw the “Basic Geneaology” episode while I was catching up on all the episodes I missed from the past few weeks. This episode showcased “Family Day” at Greendale Community College. Everyone’s... Read more
Who is She in Lebanon, an online database with profiles of notable contemporary Lebanese women, was launched by IWSAW (the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World) on the 2nd of March. The project, which was created in partnership with KVINFO, aims to provide an easily accessible database of prominent Lebanese woman, documenting their achievements in a variety of fields, as well as providing information and contact details to promote their knowledge and experience. The project has its background... Read more
This was written by Thea Lim and originally appeared at Racialicious. We are late on picking up the story of Nazia Quazi, a Canadian woman being held against her will in Saudi Arabia. The Coast recently ran an interview with Quazi, explaining her situation: A Canadian woman being held against her will in Saudi Arabia says the Canadian government is not taking her plight seriously. Nazia Quazi was taken to Saudi Arabia by her father in November 2007. Because of... Read more
Salam alaikum, readers! It’s been awhile, but we’re back to our regular Friday links! I’m still a little jet-lagged, so there may be stories missing. As always, if you see a news story about Muslim women that isn’t on our links, feel free to post it in the comments! A judge at Riyadh Summary Court has ridiculed calls for the construction of extra floors just for women at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. elan speaks with Maria Ebrahimji about working... Read more
I am so, so sick of talking about the niqab. So I’m not really going to, despite the fact that the Canadian province of Quebec recently introduced a bill that, if made law, would force everyone to show their face when dealing with provincial government bodies. If anyone else has intelligent insight on recent Quebec-related media coverage, please share. I, for one, can’t think of anything new that I haven’t said a million times already. You’d think the politicians would... Read more
This was written by Özlem Sensoy and Elizabeth Marshall, and originally appeared in Rethinking Schools Online. Part I & Part II ran earlier this week. Learning a Stereotype Lesson #3: Muslim Girls and Women Want To Be Saved by the West For many in the West, the plight of Afghanistan is framed exclusively within a post 9/11, U.S.-led “war on terror.” While radical women’s organizations like RAWA have condemned brutality against women in Afghanistan for decades, their voices were absent,... Read more
Muslimah Media Watch
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In