French politician Rachida Dati has been in and out of the headlines since taking office as France’s Minister of Justice. MMW recently covered the hype around Dati’s pregnancy and her decision to return to work only five days after having a caesarian section. Now, Dati is back in the news as we hear that she is being forced to resign from her cabinet position, and to run for a seat in the European Parliament instead. I’ll get to that in... Read more
NPR did a piece on the “honor killing” of Sandeela Kanwal on January 26, 2009. Kanwal was the daughter of Chaudry Rashid, a Pakistani immigrant who lives in a suburb of Atlanta. The police in Clayton County (where Kanwal and Rashid lived) say that Rashid killed his daughter because she wanted to divorce her husband and Rashid felt that this would bring shame upon his family. They also say that he confessed to the crime. Rashid’s lawyer points out that Rashid had... Read more
The Big Picture usually does an excellent job compiling a diverse set of photos. So it's especially hard to believe that the blog couldn't apply that diversity to the gender of its subjects. Women are in only four of 32 photos — that's 12.5 percent. At the same time, there are multiple pictures of elephants and orangutans. And many, many photos of men. One would think that only men represent the world's most populous Muslim country. Read more
Israel’s war on the Palestinians may be over for now, but the conflict remains. About a week and a half ago, I received an email from a wonderful organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, asking me to sign onto a letter to President Obama asking him to create a just foreign policy regarding Israel and Palestine. The title of the email was “Hope,” obviously referencing President’s Obama’s slogan, and the artistic effects of the pictures accompanying the email mirrored Obama’s now... Read more
The Saatchi Gallery’s latest exhibition Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East has received considerable media attention. Despite the overused term, the art is refreshingly original, featuring 19 artists, most of them in their twenties and thirties, from Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria and Algeria. Their art is raw, tender, vicious and vile. Think the Middle East is messed up? Their art is unapologetic, featuring images of homosexual naked Muslim men and Iranian prostitutes and transsexuals. “Ghost” (front view... Read more
Sweden’s Cherine Awad, one of the Halal TV hosts, may be Sweden’s first lawyer who wears a headscarf. Denmark has sentenced a mother for the female genital cutting of her daughters. More from the BBC. Via TalkIslam. Some Qatari women are insisting that clauses assuring them a separate home from their in-laws be included in their marriage contracts. Rime Allaf speaks on Gaza. Women’s rights supporters gather in Bahrain to discuss aiding survivors of domestic violence. A court in Pakistan... Read more
Muslimah Source is a new site that is geared towards Muslim women. When I visited the site, I was hoping for something a little different from the norm. Usually sites catering to Muslim women have sections on relationships, health & beauty, motherhood, how to emulate female companions (sahabah) of the Prophet (saws) and dress (i.e. hijab). Most of MuslimahSource.org does not stray from this formula. There are a couple of essays on marriage and what to look for in a... Read more
* Asian and South Asian will be used interchangeably to refer to those of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, etc., origin. Earlier this month, BBC News ran two stories online on young Asian (read South Asian in North America) women, and both stories exposed our dirty laundry. Or at least that was the way they seemed. The first headline read More Asian women ‘use hard drugs’, and the second More Asian women having abortions. In one month we find out that South... Read more
This post was written by Cycads, and originally appeared on her blog. Malaysian actress Wardina The meteoric rise of Malaysian actress Wardina and singer Waheeda in the last few years was by no means an accident. For decades, women who wore the tudung (hijab) had longed for high-profile role models who shared their values and dress code. Representation is, of course, a good thing, but their popularity can be partly attributed to the public’s preference for fair skin. The... Read more
I watched Brick Lane last night. Full disclosure: I haven’t read the book. I wanted to, I swear. Just never got around to it. So I can’t offer book-versus-movie criticism, which doesn’t seem like such a big deal considering that everyone always says that “the book is better,” anyway. But I really enjoyed the movie. This was the first film I’ve seen in awhile where the movie was solely about one woman, told solely from her viewpoint, and focused solely... Read more
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