The following originally appeared at the blog FreeWriters. Browsing the Guardian‘s web site earlier this week, I came across a picture of four hijabis*. I don’t know what it is about me, but as soon as I see a veil / headscarf / bearded bro / muslimah / anything related to Islam / Muslims – I can’t help but click on the link. Often, I am faced with another damning article about how unjust Islam is as a religion; but... Read more
In case you haven’t heard, it’s Islamo-Facism awareness week: David Horowitz and some other conservatives have decided that they’re going to pretend to take on the cause of the “poor, defenseless Muslim woman.” What garbage! On Monday, Nonie Darwish (pictured here on the cover of her book) spoke at Wellesley College. Darwish is the founder of Arabs for Israel, and was a guest of Wellesley’s Jewish Hillel group. She was interviewed by Phyllis Chesler for Chesler’s blog, and the resulting... Read more
Here’s a brief news story about an Iranian-American Muslim comedian Tissa Hami. In it, Hami describes her comedy as her way of helping combat stereotypes against Muslims. “‘Why aren’t we speaking out for ourselves?’ she said she would ask herself. ‘Why aren’t we doing something? To me this is something I could do. I know it’s comedy. I know it’s this much. But, if we all do this much, it’s something.’” Hami’s comedy is meant to encourage viewers to look... Read more
This Friday, October 26th, is National Pink Hejab day. Women who wear hejab will be wearing pink hejabs to raise awareness for breast cancer. But those of you who don’t wear hejab are thinking, what about me? Well, wear a pink scarf, sisters! It’s October, and (at least where I am) it’s cold! So snuggle up with a warm pink pashmina. Tie a pink ribbon around your hair or wear it on your wrist. Wear pink bracelets or something. Or... Read more
I spend a lot of time on search engines, trying to get our readers the latest on Muslim women (still, tips are oh-so appreciated!). So if you search for “Muslim women” on Google, you’re likely to find The Muslim Woman, a blog that reports news and culture concerning Muslim women. It’s not all negative, but it’s not a happy-go-lucky picnic, either. My beef with this blog is the biased language used. Something tells me they’re not Muslim by the way... Read more
Open wide! Here’s a hefty dose of links for 10.19.07: The world’s First Muslim Skydiving Center open in Tehran, equipped with special programs just for women. Scary. White supremacists demonstrate against niqabis’ rights to vote. A great post on exactly why all this political uproar about niqab in Canada is racist. Unique Muslimah talks about the sly marginalization of Muslim women on Yahoo! Australia kicks around the ridiculous idea of banning hejab in airports. Is Australia still a democracy? Tunisia’s... Read more
Zeenat Rahman, a University of Chicago alumni, twisted the idea of The Vagina Monologues into something that could work for Muslim women. Rahman, knowing that Muslims are still misunderstood within the west, decided to make The Hijabi Monologues to help create awareness of Muslim women’s lives. Muslim women tell their stories, and despite the name, the Monologues don’t focus on the “often-contentious issue of hijab.” So why name it The Hijabi Monologues? I think it would be much more inclusive... Read more
Shahadeh Abu Arrar is looking for wife #9. He’s 58, a member of Israel’s Bedouin community, and already has 67 children by several wives (currently, he only has eight wives; he has others in the West Bank and he has divorced some, too). Two months ago, CNN and Secret Dubai Diary did a similar story on a similar character: this one “Daad Mohammed Murad Abdul Rahman, 60, has already had 15 brides although he has to divorce them as he... Read more
Along with Ramazan and Eid come those funny programs that they show every year: the soap operas. Sadly, I don’t have a satellite, and of course there aren’t any of those shows on American cable T.V., so I have to outsource for my criticism here. I found some good criticism about Arab dramas on a blog called Sugar Cubes. I’ve included the majority of the post, but you can see the whole page here. “On Arabic Drama Series”Like I said... Read more
Arab News reported that a new DVD entitled Gurlz vs. Guyz will be on sale over Eid. Gurlz vs. Guyz is a 12-minute long video that was based on a year-long survey on young Saudi men and their views on dating the opposite sex. The DVD is being released by Izzaty Islamy, which is a women’s social club in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Dating as we think of it in the West isn’t allowed in Saudi Arabia, so “dates” are usually... Read more
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