The Day I Met Amina Wadud – a Critique

Last updated on: March 27, 2009 at 12:00 am By alicia

Salam waleykum, readers! I’m traveling, and so I didn’t have time to put together Friday Links this week. In their place, I’m sharing this great critique with you. It was written by Cycads and originally appeared on her blog. Next week, our regularly scheduled programming will resume, so stay tuned. Any self-respecting news editor would know that significant, if not historical events require pretty polished reporting. The star-studded Musawah conference last February on Islamic family law reforms was one such... Read more

WAM! Conference

Last updated on: March 26, 2009 at 4:16 pm By fatemeh

Salam waleykum, readers! I’m in Boston this weekend, attending the Women, Action & The Media Conference (WAM!). This year’s theme is Inside/Outside. I feel this theme is applicable to the position Muslim women often find themselves in: sometimes we are insiders in our faith, sometimes we are outsiders. Muslim women are often called on as insiders to speak about Islam, but we are often denied places in our own mosques, thought of as outsiders to houses of worship. Muslim women... Read more

Introduction

Last updated on: March 26, 2009 at 7:37 am By safiyyah

Dear Readers Wishing you all the peace and blessings of the Universe. This is my very first post on Muslimah Media Watch. I am a proudly South African Muslimah, named Safiyyah. I am currently pursuing my undergraduate degree in Islamic Studies and Arabic at final year, not to mention chasing a career in developmental journalism. Life is pretty exciting at the moment; as a believer, student, wife and writer, I have plenty to fill my days. Like many others I... Read more

Pushing the Law: Challenges for Divorced Women in Malaysia

Last updated on: March 25, 2009 at 12:00 am By Krista

After Sobia’s post last week about The Other Half of the Sky, a Tunisian film that tells a story about a woman’s experience with inheritance laws, I was interested to see this article, which talked about other cracks that women may fall through in another shariah-inspired legal system. In this case, Mariam Mokhtar is writing about Muslim women’s experiences of divorce in Malaysia. To back up a bit, Mokhtar was responding to developments described in this article: Muslim women with... Read more

Oppressed and Downtrodden: The New York Times Profiles Abused Afghan Women

Last updated on: March 25, 2009 at 12:00 am By faith

Covering Afghan women must be an especially hard task for many Western journalists. I say this because every piece I have read about Afghan women makes them seem like they are some of the most oppressed women in the world, with little to no hope for happiness, sans intervention by a Western savior or “Western” inspired program of some sort. A recent New York Times piece on Afghan women fleeing domestic violence, unfortunately, does little to break from this pattern.... Read more

From Bikinis to Hijabs: Using Psychology to Your Advantage

Last updated on: March 24, 2009 at 12:00 am By sobia

My eyebrows raised when I read this article on IslamOnline. The article, entitled Study: Men Objectify Scantily Clad Women, used a current study conducted by well-known Princeton psychologist, Dr. Susan Fiske, to promote modest clothing. I am familiar with Dr. Fiske’s work, and I couldn’t help but question whether IslamOnline was misrepresenting the study in an effort to promote the necessity of hijab. As someone doing her Ph.D. in social psychology, I am familiar with how the results of social... Read more

Pimp My Daughter: Iraqi Women and Prostitution

Last updated on: March 23, 2009 at 12:00 am By yusra

I saw the movie Taken with my friend and her husband the other day and walked out of the theater feeling scared. It’s not a horror movie; the plot focuses on the sex trafficking of young women. The buyers are rich Arab men, of course. I wanted to be angry with the filmmakers for portraying Arab men as the root of all evil, but then I thought of Iraq and how prostitution sky-rocketed after the 2003 invasion. While I blame... Read more

Friday Links — March 20, 2009

Last updated on: March 20, 2009 at 12:00 am By fatemeh

Ethar writes about how Egyptian universities and banks are teaming up to improve Egyptian women’s business skills. Hurriyet Daily News profiles Yaşar Seyman, a political powerhouse in Turkey. The New York Times examines Sheikh Hasina’s political troubles. Government offices in Dubai are getting ready to implement childcare in every office. YEAH! More here. Muzzammil Hassan has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife, Aasiya. Uh…. The New York Times interviews Jehan Sadat, Anwar Sadat’s widow. Al-Ahram also has a word... Read more

The Ideal Egyptian Woman, According to CityStars Mall

Last updated on: March 19, 2009 at 12:00 am By ethar

For those who don’t know, CityStars mall in Cairo was the biggest mall in the Middle East until it was surpassed by Dubai Mall in November 2008. Nevertheless, it’s still a huge mall, with (according to their website) over 550 stores, 6,000 parking spaces, three hotels, two indoor theme parks, and a 21-screen cinema complex. Over $800 million has been invested in it to date and it is visited by approximately 45,000 people each day. On the weekends, visitors range from... Read more

Rear View: LMOTP Tackles Mosque Segregation

Last updated on: March 18, 2009 at 12:00 am By Krista

This piece was written by both Sobia and Krista and originally posted at Muslim Lookout. Viewers in Canada can now watch full episodes of the show here. This review looks at Episode 18, “Baber Makes an Entrance.” Sobia: It’s been a while since I’ve written about Little Mosque on the Prairie. Unfortunately I haven’t been watching it on a regular basis. However, after seeing this week’s promo my curiosity was peaked. The premise this week: Baber, the ultra-conservative Muslim is... Read more