Recently Mara Brock Akil, creator and producer of one of my favourite shows, Girlfriends, was featured on the August 2008 cover of Domino magazine (pictured to right). The show, initially about four, but then after a few seasons three, Black girlfriends, gained much critical acclaim for its content and its willingness to focus on serious issues, all the time maintaining a comic appeal. Often referred to as the Black Sex and the City, Girlfriends, in my opinion, was much, much... Read more
Fashion designers are now starting to see head scarves as the latest hot fashion trend. In an IslamOnline article, various designers were quoted about this new trend. Two words that came up often were”modesty” and “chastity”. Apparently, fashion designers want to show that modesty, chastity, and elegance are not mutually exclusive. Although the designers said that they weren’t focused solely on Muslim women, I’m sure that Muslim women are definitely a market that is increasingly being focused on by the... Read more
Speaking of Muslim women’s clothing in the media…did we expect anything but Islamophobia and sexism from the New York Post? Some of Serena French’s thoughts on an Islamic clothing fashion show in Tehran, Iran, from her article “Perfect for Today’s Medieval Woman”: “Having a bad body day? This chador’s for you.Sexy, it ain’t, but the collection that took to the Persian carpet over the weekend in Tehran has several things to recommend it in the Western world.A plastic-surgery holiday wardrobe,... Read more
Every week, the Friday links here at Muslimah Media Watch include several stories about Muslim women’s clothing. Our posts often cover these issues as well. We look at definitions of veiling and modesty, and how these are perceived by Muslim and non-Muslim media. How some Muslim women are often seen as oppressed by their clothing, or other times are seen as stronger/better/more pious because of their clothing, and how people’s identities are always much more complicated than this. But most... Read more
On headscarves and generation gaps in Sarajevo. Al-Ahram profiles Egyptian pentathlete Aya Medani. The Asia Times looks at prostitution in Pakistan. Via TalkIslam. Adam Dokurugu examines what kind of vice president Hajia Alima Mahama would be for Ghana. may/hem posts on female suicide bombers. Muslim women in Italy who face abuse find help through an abuse hotline. A Muslim women’s group in Napa Valley, California, spreads charity. Wives and children of polygamous marriages now have the right to inheritance in... Read more
Last week, I critiqued the first of two articles on modesty written by Anam Majeed. Today I’ll look at the second piece – Islam, Modesty, and Sex in the West – Part II. This time, Majeed begins with a GQ interview with fashion designer Miuccia Prada in which she critiques the show Sex and the City. Prada states that SATC is not a show women should be emulating, as it leads to unhappiness. She feels that women today try too... Read more
Mona Eltahawy recently did an interview with Ron Kuby on Air America Radio on the recent New York Times articles about hymen reconstruction, a Moroccan couple in France who divorced because the wife was not a virgin, and feminism in Islam. The interview was 12 minutes, which is longer than those five segments you see on cable newschannels. Still, I feel that a topic like this, especially for non-Muslim audiences should be afforded more time. The interview itself, though, did... Read more
I saw this documentary, called Gay Muslims, quite a while ago…it came out more than two years ago! Still, I found that not too many people knew about it or had seen it. And with A Jihad For Love touring around the country right now, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at what Parvez Sharma’s predecessors have come up when it comes to queer Muslims. The video above is only part 1 of 6.... Read more
MMW thanks G. Willow Wilson for the tip! Woah. When I first read this, it took me several tries before I could even start to get my head around what it’s trying to say. Go read it, take a minute to roll your eyes, shake your head, look quizzically at the computer screen, or whatever else you need to do, then come back and let’s talk. This latest source of mind-bogglement comes from an art project that was... Read more
A few updates on the site: If you’ll scroll down a little, on the right you’ll see a new collection of links entitled “Resources.” These links are mostly non-profit organizations that seek to help Muslim women. I’ve included as many organizations from as many countries as I can. If you know of an organization that seeks to empower Muslim women, be sure to let us know! After a group discussion, we’ve decided to do away with “anonymous” comments. So now,... Read more
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