A recent Gulf News article entitled “Feminism in the Arab World” aims to give a picture of, well, feminism in the Arab world. It interviews professors and students about their experiences of feminism, female leadership, and the status of women in Arab countries. While the analysis and interviews are interesting (you can go read that for yourself), the piece seems to rest on some rather fuzzy definitions of the very terms that the writer wants to discuss. For example, the... Read more
The BBC is airing a six-episode television series, called Muslim Driving School, about Muslim women who are learning to drive. The show purports to not only follow these women as they learn, but to provide an insight into their inner lives. Muslim Driving School is billed as being about British Muslim women, but from the introduction onward, a narrower focus is introduced–a focus on mostly Asian Muslim women, from what are described as “traditional” Muslim communities, living in northern mill... Read more
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is Muslim. In her articles she often likes to tell you this in the first sentence to give herself an air of authenticity. Therefore, when her articles are mere fodder for the further stereotyping and othering of Muslims, it is not because she is lazily feeding the expectations of her non-Muslim readers, but because her words are the truth? After all, she is Muslim, so how can she be wrong? Since the media pathologizes Muslims on a daily... Read more
Christopher Dickey’s analysis of an interview with Defne Bayrak (pictured below), the wife of the Jordanian suicide bomber Humam Al-Balawi in Afghanistan, asks the wrong questions. Instead of pondering the reason why a woman of Bayrak’s intelligence would condone suicide bombing, he creates an image of women involved in al-Qaeda that made me feel like I was reading the review of a Lifetime movie called Wives of Terror: the Women of al-Qaeda. The article did not shed much light on... Read more
Salam alaikum, readers! I’ve got quite a lot on my plate this week, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to do a slap-dash job of the Links this week. Apologies! gulfnews : Feminism in the Arab world DAWN.COM | National | Jury selected for Dr Aafia’s trial Anything for fair skin, even SR30,000 placenta shot We will not send women to work as housemaids in Kingdom: Egyptian minister Qassim women start computer business Women set their targets on the... Read more
Tahmena Bokhari, a feminist, Muslim, Canadian, social worker, and educator, was recently crowned Mrs. Pakistan 2010 (not to be confused with Miss Pakistan World). Bokhari’s accomplishments are varied and impressive: a master’s degree in social work, a history of working at women’s shelters and other humanitarian initiatives. She currently teaches social work at two different colleges, and also acts as a diversity consultant. There’s a good interview with her here about her experiences with the Mrs. Pakistan pageant, and about... Read more
It’s hard not to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, an article by its headline, when the first words that scream out at you are: From bikinis to burkas: A Yemeni memoir. If your first thought is, “Not again. Haven’t we been down this cliché-littered road before?” then you’re not alone. But since Yemen is the latest Muslim-majority country to grace the headlines of nearly every recent newspaper article and television broadcast, it was almost inevitable... Read more
Earlier this month, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a gradual introduction of body scanners into U.K. airports following the failed attack on an American airliner on Christmas Day European nations are split over the necessity of introducing the body scanners. Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are planning to install the scanners on a large scale in the near future, while France, Germany and Spain remain undecided, with the Belgian Home Secretary coming out to declare the... Read more
This was written by Mandy van Deven and originally appeared at Bitch magazine. Since her 2007 album Dans ma Bulle (Inside My Bubble) debuted at the top of the charts by selling 50K copies in its first week, Diam’s has become the hottest emcee in France. Not the hottest female emcee, but the hottest emcee in general. Diam’s is known as a feminist rebel who spits rhymes about war, racism, poverty, and injustice–something that has placed the rapper in the... Read more
After the Afghan parliament rejected several of his cabinet member appointments, Hamid Karzai submits new nominees, three of which are women. But don’t get excited yet: the rejected nominees include a woman, so it’s unclear whether parliament doesn’t want any women, or just one in particular. One of Turkey’s most prominent human rights lawyers reveals a secret about her family that may help begin to heal the Turkish-Armenian divide. Nadia Hassan speaks out about her invasive airport search last week... Read more
Muslimah Media Watch
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