A few weeks ago, an Indonesian religious teacher triggered a debate on Twitter when he made a series of tweets regarding women. Among his tweets were: The strength of a woman is in her gentleness and maternal traits | what else could it be? | firm, strong, and fatherly? hehe.. Fyi, a pious husband loves to be relied on, counted on, and trusted | it makes him feel appreciated as a man 😀 A wife who is meek in front... Read more
The news here in Quebec – and in many other parts of Canada – has been flooded in the past few weeks with stories about the newly-proposed Charter of Quebec Values. Formally announced on Tuesday, September 10 (although some details had been leaked a couple weeks prior), the charter, if eventually passed as law, would prevent people working in the public sector from wearing “conspicuous religious symbols,” including headscarves, face veils, kippas, turbans, and large crosses. Framed as a way... Read more
Sudanese woman Amira Osman Hamed faces trial on September 19 for refusing to wear a headscarf. Indian diarist and women’s rights activist Sushmita Banerjee has been killed in Afghanistan. Sushmita Banerjee was married to an Afghan man and recently moved back to Afghanistan, where she was said to be filming the lives of local women. Her book about her escape from the Taliban, published in 1995, became a bestseller in India. According to a research by the Muslim Women’s Network UK Asian... Read more
I have to admit that hijab narratives in media turn me off. Whether because it is exhaustively discussed or because most of these narratives rely heavily on clichés and fallacies, hijab is a subject that seems to me overloaded with notions that are not related in any way to what I see as the core of its true essence. However, being surrounded with multitudes of articles and reports on the topic, and being a Muslim woman living in a Muslim... Read more
This last week has seen protests in Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya and Jogjakarta over the Miss World 2013 beauty pageant to be held in the next few weeks. Recently, I wrote a post about a similar debate in Malaysia where their Muslim participants were eventually dropped. The Miss World 2013 protests numbered in the thousands and were made up of members of small Islamist organizations such as the Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front or FPI) on the island of Java,... Read more
FRONTLINE is one of my favorite shows to watch on television. Their documentaries are thoughtful and available to watch indefinitely online in the United States. In addition to airing documentaries, they have a fantastic online presence and provide additional commentary, interviews, and chats for each of their shows to further engage with viewers. I watched The Interrupters in 2012 for Muslimah Media Watch, when it aired under FRONTLINE in the United States. You can still watch that film online. I... Read more
Pink princess toy cameras. Pink princess wallets. Pink princess magic meal time cutlery. Pink princess backpacks, pencil cases, water bottles, golden hair extensions, and the most fabulous silver sparkle princess shoes with pink flashing lights. After only a week in full-time school, my daughter Eryn has embraced this new world of marketing around princess culture — and even though she has never seen a Disney princess film, she can now name all of the popular princesses off by heart. Princess... Read more
Child marriage is forbidden in Nigeria, but in the predominantly Muslim north, one in four rural girls are married off before they turn fifteen; that child marriage is in fact illegal is something that many people in northern Nigeria do not understand. Sex trade is flourishing in Afghanistan; it is unclear how many women are sold in sexual slavery, but the country has become a key source for victims of sex-trafficking. According to a report by Amnesty International, displaced women and children in Somalia are... Read more
When I wear hijab, I find that the average Pakistani takes me a lot more seriously. Vendors at farmer’s markets don’t over charge me for being a “valaithi” (foreigner); the guy at the pharmacy limits eye contact and listens politely while I discuss the pros and cons of generic versus brand medications. I get fewer curious stares and far less incidences of “accidental” brush-ups when maneuvering crowded streets. Even match-making mamas are impressed by my modesty (not my age, but... Read more
Like Khaled Hosseini’s two earlier novels, The Kite Runner (2003) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), which spent a combined total of 171 weeks on the bestseller list, his latest novel, And the Mountains Echoed has received wide acclaim, and has been described as “heartbreaking,” “emotionally resonant,” and the writer’s “most ambitious work yet.” The novel begins with a folk tale about a div, a giant of Afghan folklore, who steals the youngest son of an impoverished family in a... Read more
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