Friday Links — May 1, 2009

Last updated on: May 1, 2009 at 12:00 am By fatemeh

The eight-year-old Saudi girl who was previously denied a divorce has finally been granted one. Doctors are worried about the levels of anorexia nervosa among teenage girls in the Emirates. Dr. Fahmida Mirza, Pakistan’s first female speaker of the national assembly, asks for help for Pakistan. Women’s employment in Turkey is rising despite the economy. The Iraqi Minister of Human Rights says her department is working to improve the situation of women in Iraq. CITYarts will honor Shaikha Manal in... Read more

My Daughters’ Keeper: Nahid Persson’s “Prostitution Behind The Veil”

Last updated on: April 30, 2009 at 12:00 am By alicia

For a relatively high-brow TV channel, BBC4 is known for providing top quality programs and dramas. So when the BBC commemorated the 30th anniversary of Islamic Revolution in Iran, I became glued to the channel’s string of intriguing documentaries on all things Iranian, post-1979. There were plenty on Iran-US nuclear politics and the fall of the Shah, all testosterone-fueled stuff. Sticking out from the rest for bearing themes that were uniquely female was the unfortunately-titled Prostitution Behind The Veil (2004).... Read more

Score One for the BBC!

Last updated on: April 29, 2009 at 12:00 am By faith

A couple of weeks of ago, the BBC featured a story on Kurdish women football teams. Two weeks later, the story is still on the front page of the Middle East section of the BBC News’s website. I kept flirting with the whether or not to cover the story, but since it covers two issues that get little coverage in the same story–Muslimahs and sports–I decided it was worth looking at. The story itself had positive and negative points. By... Read more

Sexy Things: Women or Lingerie?

Last updated on: April 28, 2009 at 12:00 am By Krista

You know things are sad in the world of news about Muslimahs when “Muslim women value sexy” seems like not a bad headline. After all, it’s a nice change from “Muslim women are oppressed,” “Muslim women are passive objects and could not possibly have any personality” and “Muslim women need the West to rescue them.” But this article, originally an AFP news piece that was recently re-published on modernghana.com, is about lingerie sales in a market in Damascus, making “Muslim... Read more

Soft Serve: Time’s Article on Islam’s “Soft Revolution”

Last updated on: April 27, 2009 at 12:00 am By safiyyah

The March 2009 issue of Time magazine carried an extensive article about Islam, called “A Quiet Revolution grows in the Muslim world” by Robin Wright. While the article speaks broadly about Islam, I will focus on those passages and statements which deal with Muslim women. This is how Time describes the “soft revolution”: Today’s revolution is more vibrantly Islamic than ever. Yet it is also decidedly antijihadist and ambivalent about Islamist political parties. Culturally, it is deeply conservative, but its... Read more

Friday Links — April 24, 2009

Last updated on: April 24, 2009 at 12:00 am By fatemeh

Domestic workers in Lebanon may have a new hope about fair treatment. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy travels through her native Pakistan to look at the toll that the war has taken on children. Kurdish women are looking to get in on the football frenzy. Obtuse lawmakers in Yemen are trying to stall the ban on child marriage. Karzai backpedals on the Shi’a law. Finally. Rabble alleges that this law is the result of U.S. foreign policy, lines magazine discusses Afghanistan’s invasion as... Read more

Unfair Play: Doha Conference Sheds Light on Biased Images of Muslim Women in Western Media

Last updated on: April 23, 2009 at 12:00 am By faith

This week in Doha, Qatar, the “East and West — Women in Media’s Eye” conference took place in Education City. The Peninsula and The Gulf Times both had pieces on the event. However, I was hard pressed to find any articles about the conference in any Western based, English language media outlet. Insha’Allah (God willing), this event will get more attention in some Western English language media outlets because the results definitely need to be heard not only by readers... Read more

Sabria Hersi Issa: Media Maker, CEO, and Kick-Ass Muslimah

Last updated on: April 22, 2009 at 12:00 am By fatemeh

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my experiences at the WAM! conference in Boston. I had the pleasure of meeting Sabrina Hersi Issa during my time there, and interviewed her for MMW. Muslimah Media Watch: You spoke on a WAM! panel about investigative journalism. Can you speak a little about your experience as a journalist? Sabrina Hersi Issa: I started working in journalism at a network affiliate, where I helped reporters do research for stories, investigative pieces, find sources... Read more

Canada’s Military and Afghan Women: A Follow-Up

Last updated on: April 21, 2009 at 12:00 am By Krista

This piece is also posted at Muslim Lookout. I know I just talked about this last week, but all these questions about Canada’s involvement with the rights of Afghan women have remained a major news story, so I thought it was worth doing a follow-up. There are still quite a few articles out there about how the new law that came out a couple weeks ago is making everyone question Canada’s mission in Afghanistan (yeah, I know: Canada’s military has... Read more

Mugshot VS Murder: the Media’s Angle on Bhia Hadid’s Murder

Last updated on: April 20, 2009 at 12:00 am By safiyyah

A two year old girl, Bhia Hadid, has been killed. The police have arrested and charged her aunt for the murder. Which of these things is more noteworthy? The Southtown Star and various other newspapers across Chicago and the U.S carried articles about the case which posits that the latter is more important: the accused, Nour Hadid, happens to be a Muslim, and she also happens to wear the hijab. During her arrest and subsequent mugshot, Hadid was forced to remove... Read more