This may not be timely, but it makes up for it in offensiveness. Watch this skit, MadTV’s idea of what English-language Al Jazeera is like. The skit is packed with racist stereotypes about the Middle East. The only female reporter in the skit is a woman in niqab (presumably forced on her). She says, “My husband only allows me to say this: Death to America.” She is told to shut up by the other male) reporters. The “death to America”... Read more
Let’s play a game, shall we? It will be like a drinking game, but without drinking. Okay, here are the rules: every time you read a columnist use the follow words in an article that talks about Muslim women, give five dollars to charity: • “pushing boundaries”• “East and West”• “tradition”• a description of what a Muslim woman wears that includes “free-flowing hair” or “veiled” If you play this game while reading this article from the Los Angeles Times, you... Read more
This was written by Safiya, and originally appeared at Outlines. This week the programme is set in the U.K Regular viewers and/or readers of these reviews may have noticed that this programme is a tad fond of sweeping generalisations. The first words spoken by Armani Zain are: “Tonight I’m exploring a world right on my doorstep, Asian Muslim women.” (Note: by Asian, she means Pakistani/Indian/Bangladeshi) Holy marginalisation, Batman! While many U.K. Muslims are ethnically Asian, there are also large... Read more
It’s a common assumption that Muslim women don’t—or can’t—speak for themselves. Fawzia Afzal-Khan aims to break that idea into tiny pieces with a book: Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out (2005). The book is a compilation of works written by different Muslim women, with a forward written by Nawal El Saadawi. In the introduction, Afzal-Khan explains that this books aims to counter the negative attitudes and ideas about Muslim women that are still proliferated post-9/11. It’s divided into works... Read more
* Alya Alvi looks at the state of Kashmiri women. * Malaysia’s The Star features a laudable article on rape having nothing to do with women’s attire. * A Bosnian Serb police officer is sentenced for war crimes, among them rape of Muslim women. * The president of the Association of Muslim Intellectuals in Italy warns against the creation of a “uniform” for Muslim women. * The New Nation argues that Bangladeshi women need their own bank. * A debate... Read more
MMW thanks bint battuta for the tip! Why do articles mention women’s clothing when it’s not relevant? Exhibit A: an article on the status of prostitution in Afghanistan (you might recognize it from Friday links). Exhibit B: the story of an attempted kidnapping, from the arms of the child’s grandmother, in Iraq. “A” was written by Reuters and published by Al Arabiya, and “B” was in an LA Times blog, but both make the same mistake. We’ll look first at... Read more
In 2007, hairdresser Deborah Rodriguez published a memoir of her experience in Afghanistan. Despite the cringe-inducing subtitle — An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil — the book itself, Kabul Beauty School, isn’t bad. (Interestingly, the book goes by a different subtitle in the U.K., The Art of Friendship and Freedom.) Rodriguez is moved to travel to Afghanistan and help when she hears about the war and suffering of women. She has a second motive: to get away from her... Read more
This was written by Emrah Güler and was originally published at the Turkish Daily News. In light of celebrating Mother’s Day last Sunday and the Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival continuing in Ankara this week, we take a brief look at women in the history of Turkish cinema. We look at how women were played by men in the beginning of this century, how the sacred mother was one of the stereotypical images of women in Turkish cinema for... Read more
This was written by Safiya, and originally published at Outlines. You can see earlier reviews of this show here. This week’s episode is in Cairo. Presenter Amani Zain is quick to paint it as a party town from her experiences there as a student. Zain gives a good insight into dress in Cairo, explaining that while wearing the hijab is becoming increasingly common, many women do not wear the hijab. Those that do wear it, often experiment with many different... Read more
This was written by Sakina and originally appeared at Ruined by Reading. The Veil And The Male Elite by Fatima Mernissi is probably worth reading even if you don’t agree with it, and it should only take you 2-4 hours to get through. I don’t agree with a lot of what she says, and I really, really don’t agree with many of her interpretations and ideologies. This really isn’t a book for non-Muslims, unless you know know your way around... Read more
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