Salon’s “Feminists face off over the veil” is supposed to reflect a serious debate, not only related to feminism itself, but to the conception non-Muslim feminists have of Islam. Writer Tracy Clark-Flory depicts the feud in a very anti-feminist way, as some kind of wrestling game: “In one corner, we have Naomi Wolf […] In the other, we have Phyllis Chesler”. The warlike lexicon in this text seems trying either to turn the dialogue between the two feminists into an... Read more
Our Stories, Our Lives is an anthology of a diverse group of women in Bradford, England, offering a glimpse into their lives and their issues with reconciling their Muslim identities with being British. With the media’s daily onslaught on the image of Muslims and assumptions about so-called conflicting alliances (Islam and the West), a “proud British Muslim” would sound like an oxymoron to many. But it isn’t, and talking to many Muslims in Britain will tell you just that. The... Read more
This was originally published at my personal site. Phyllis Chesler and Naomi Wolf have gotten themselves into a battle royale over…the veil. And everyone seems to be concerned what two privileged non-Muslim white ladies think about this subject. Funny, considering Chesler picks fights all the time, and no one seemed to be interested in an actual debate she had with Dorchen Leidholdt a few months ago about Islam and women that was actually informed and somewhat rational (on Dorchen’s end,... Read more
Nesrine Malik weighs in on the Saudi guardianship campaign. More thoughts on the German media fallout after Marwa el Sherbini’s death. NPR looks at the outcome of a U.S. military strategy employing women in Afghanistan. South African women join together to support hijab. A Muslim woman loses her life over tensions in Gujarat, India. May Allah give her peace. White, non-Muslim women start fighting over the veil. (eyeroll) More here and here. Double X interviews Haleh Esfandiari about her time... Read more
Aged patronizing feminists, young veiled victims (of Islamist threat), and endangered laïcité éternelle (everlasting secularism): those were the main ingredients of a huge media bubble blown into people’s minds in France this summer. It all started with the sketch of a proposition bill: André Gérin, a left-wing deputy and mayor asked in June the French Parliament to create an Enquiry Commission into the wearing of burqa. His text, co-signed by 58 other deputies, aimed to define legally the length of... Read more
When a woman says, “My guardian knows what’s best for me,” what should we do? Earlier this month, blogger Eman Al Nafjan posted her feelings about a new campaign in Saudi Arabia. The campaign, which began last month, is called “My guardian knows what’s best for me” and aims to gather one million signatures in support of the kingdom’s status quo in regard to women’s guardianship laws. According to Al Nafjan, two Saudi princesses who support this campaign have started... Read more
Melinda wrote a while ago about negative media representation of Latina Muslim women. She described a lot of the common one-dimensional assumptions attributed to Latina women who become Muslim, such as the idea that: in Latino culture, men are macho jerks and women are sex objects. In Islam, they are covered up and immediately respected. The author retells the woman’s decision to leave Catholicism for Islam, her experience putting on hijab, and the sad reactions of her family. If the... Read more
This originally appeared at AltMuslimah and was written by Uzma Mariam Ahmed. A recent headline article on CNN.com written by CNN correspondent John Blake entitled “Muslim Women Uncover Myths About the Hijab,” attempted to expose the “myths” surrounding the hijab. Though the title implies that the article contains insightful analysis of the popular misconceptions surrounding the hijab and the reasons why women wear it, the piece falls far short of this goal. Instead, under the pretext of sympathetically noting the... Read more
CNN shows us Nujood’s life after her divorce. The Feminist School keeps us updated on imprisonments, releases, and an interview with Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani. Al Jazeera highlights a Lebanese citizenship case that could affect whether Lebanese women pass their citizenship to their children. Two police officers in Karachi have been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of three-year-old Sana. May Allah give her peace. Islam Online is holding a blogging competition for Ramadan. Ladies, start your keyboards! The... Read more
When I first saw the book Muhajababes by Allegra Stratton in a bookshop in Beirut, I was intrigued enough to buy it. The cover boldly claims to have found, “the new Middle East–cool, sexy and devout”. I happily forked out the $14. On closer inspection however, the cover of the book is quite problematic (featured left). It features a woman with hot red lips in a black headscarf. The rest of her face has been blanked out, spelling only one... Read more
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