Some links for Friday, October 12, 2007: A Saudi woman is sentenced to lashings for being raped. What the hell? Dr. Ruqaya Al Alwani is presented with the Tunisian President Award for her publication The Role of the Muslim Women in Development Al-Ahram argues that the Carnegie Endowment on International Peace’s recent publication on the status of women in Islamic movements is biased. Some good musings about the attire of Muslim women in the media. An interview with ISNA’s (the... Read more
The Empire State Building in New York is lit up in green to mark the Islamic festival of Eid. via BBC News. Muslimah Media Watch wishes all our readers a happy Eid al-Fitr! Eat an extra piece of bakhlava for us. Read more
As you may have noticed, we’ve changed the name and site of the blog. I just added an ‘h’. That lack of an ‘h’ was really killing me. Sorry for the confusion for our loyal readers! I know that “muslima” and “muslimah” are the same things, but I just like it better with an ‘h’! Anyway, I decided to Google the word “Muslima.” And to my surprise, I saw that there was an UrbanDictionary.com entry for the word! Huh! I... Read more
Jon Hemming for Reuters reports that a city in Afghanistan has its own answer to America’s Next Top Model. The news agency boasts that the television show “is breaking boundaries and revealing the beauty under the burqa.” (Thanks to NayLah for the tip!) But before going on to totally ignore which kind of boundaries are being broken, Reuters is haughty enough to paint a quick Orientalist picture of Afghan women: “almost all women in deeply conservative Afghanistan still only appear... Read more
Gender segregation is NOT a long-term solution to harassment, stares, or rape. It’s a tidy short-term solution, but it will not solve the reasons that men harass women; in fact, segregation may make harassment worse. Men of any race, religion, or nationality will harass a woman because they view women as acceptable targets—if men are taught from an early age to take into account women’s feelings, experiences, and humanity, and they are taught and shown that harassment is not acceptable... Read more
Here’s a really good review of The Kingdom. I’m not surprised by anything in the review, but I am curious about how Muslim women are portrayed in the film; I remember seeing a sloppily-placed cut of a Saudi niqabi somewhere in the commercial trailer. Has anyone wasted any money on this film? If you did, what did you think of the inclusion (or exclusion) of Muslim women in the movie? Read more
Here are some links for 10/05/07: Sisters are doin’ it for themselves: some Muslim moms open a law firm. What’s new in Gulf abaya fashion. Didn’t we tell you? Colleges look at Muslim women’s memoirs that reinforce Western stereotypes. Two plays about Muslim women come to the U.S. The Veiled Monologues and Is.Man: two different plays, two different directions. Read more
So the new season of Little Mosque on the Prairie began in Canada tonight on CBC and as a Canadian Muslim I felt I should watch. Also, as someone who watched every episode last season I felt the need to catch the first episode of the second season. It began quite funny. I was very impressed with what seemed to be an improvement in humour and jokes. However, very soon my satisfaction became a cringing discomfort. In this episode we... Read more
Everybody’s jumping on the “Ban Hejab” bandwagon these days. For Germany and Canada, it’s done in the name of secular society and “equality.” For Turkey and Tajikistan, it’s done in the name of secularism, too, but also as a distinct agenda to curtail religious influence in popular opinion and government. The idea of banning hejab is a nasty, exclusionary, and downright ignorant political trick (especially if you read the news link for Germany). But here’s my real beef with the... Read more
So I just barely got around to watching CNN’S God’s Warriors. I know it’s old news. In fact, I found some interesting analysis here. But I still said to myself, “This would be great for my blog!” This might give you an idea of how short on material I’ve been lately. Anyway, I pulled out a notepad and a pencil (very journalistically) and jotted some notes while watching the program. I know that I shouldn’t expect much from CNN, but... Read more
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