I was excited when the book Does My Head Look Big in This? came out a few years ago (see Melinda’s MMW review of it here.) In that book, author Randa Abdel-Fattah tells the story of Amal, a young Australian Muslim woman who decides to wear hijab and navigates the challenges of expressing her identity as an Australian Muslim. Books about young Muslims in the West (a political and not geographic definition, obviously, given that I’m including Australia) aren’t exactly... Read more
Salam waleykum, readers, and happy International Women’s Day! For more info, you can go to the IWD website, which lists IWD events by country and has a cool photo gallery of past IWD events. Read more
The Independent reports on how activists are working to end female genital cutting in African countries. Women who give birth in U.A.E. jails may soon be able to keep their children with them for the duration of their sentence. Saudi poet Ayda al-Jahani is leading in Millions Poet. Women’s rights groups in Turkey voice concern about the growing militarization and increasing violence of Turkish society. The National examines the history of Abu Dhabi”s Women’s College. Al Ahram Weekly examines several... Read more
There’s a new Moroccan movie out that, on the surface, seems to tackle the issue of pre-marital sex in the country. They’re a dime a dozen these days, but this one is stirring up controversy like crazy. Why? I’ll give you a hint: The name of the movie is Amours Voilées, Hijab al-hob, which translates as Veiled Love in French, and The Veil of Love in Arabic. Ta da! Once more, we have proved what is now fact: plug in... Read more
Gallup released a new study on Monday examining American Muslims. Some of the results: Muslims are highly educated. More so than most of the American population. Muslims are only second to Jews in educational attainment. American Muslims are an incredibly diverse group comprised of 35% African Americans, 28% whites, 18% Asians and 1% Latinos. American Muslim women are actually more slightly educated than American Muslim men and more educated than U.S. women overall. The results were not very surprising to... Read more
This piece was written by both Sobia and Krista After getting all of that sarcasm out of our systems two weeks ago, we decided it might be useful to put together a list of actual guidelines for writing about Muslims. Of course, this is mostly just wishful thinking, because if reporters actually seemed willing to adhere to guidelines like this, then there would be no need for this blog. But here are some suggestions anyway. A lot of this isn’t... Read more
All week, all I and my Arab and Arab-friendly friends (fellow Near Eastern studies graduates) have been talking about is Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World, being held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. It is the largest congregation of Arab artists ever. As a new Washington, D.C. resident, my status as an expatriate is two-fold: I’m not only an Arab outside ancestral terrain, but I’m far away from my niche, far away from the Arab household I was... Read more
Last Thursday, I went to the launch of AQSAZINE, a project that describes itself as “a grassroots publication open to 16-35 year old women and trans people who self-identify as Muslim.” The theme of this first issue is “resistance & self defense,” and it includes poetry, rants, articles and artwork on themes including war, occupation, homophobia, and racism. The purpose and perspective of the zine comes through in this paragraph from a letter at the beginning of the first issue:... Read more
The Hijablog gives her thoughts on situation in Norway regarding the police forces’ rescinding of the allowance of headscarves on the force. More on the story at the Gulf Times, Islam in Europe, and The Norway Post. An Oklahoma woman who wasn’t allowed to renew her driver’s license because of her headscarf was finally allowed to do so last week. The state is considering a law prohibiting headcoverings in driver’s license photos. IslamOnline also profiles Love in a Headscarf. A... Read more
This was originally written by Megan and published on Jezebel. Sally Quinn just got back from a Brookings Institute conference in Doha and, judging by her appearance on MSNBC talking about the status of women in the Middle East, she didn’t apparently learn much. Quinn peddles so many offensive stereotypes about Middle Eastern countries, the status of women in those countries and the interplay of national wealth and personal poverty (not like we’d know anything about that in America) that... Read more
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