“Backwards” is the word often associated with pre-modern ages, and “oppression” is the word that comes to our minds first when we describe the state of women during those ages. Thank God we live in the modern age where human rights activism has brought women rights that they’ve never had before. Right? Sorry to shake your beliefs, but there existed times where pre-modern women (in Egypt in particular and the Middle East in general) were granted rights that modern women... Read more
I apologise for a short list of links this week! Please post anything I’m missing in the comments. Leading up to Iran’s presidential elections, NPR interviews four different Iranian women about their perspectives. In related news, Iranian women are said to be using the upcoming vote as a way to advocate for themselves, although the presidential candidates themselves have different opinions on how women’s issues should be addressed. And in other news, some Iranian women are taking an interest in parkour. A new English translation of the... Read more
Having survived a father who used religion to justify his violence, I’ve spent a lot of time grappling with faith. The process of grappling has taught me the value of difficult, uncomfortable questions and conversations, through which I’ve learned about myself, my ummah, and Islam. But Muslims in the West rarely have the luxury of having difficult conversations that are privy exclusively to the ears of our own communities. And so, difficult discussions, like the ones about domestic violence within... Read more
Last Saturday, the city where I live in Western Canada held its annual Pride Parade. This year and against all odds, the first member of my mosque participated in the parade. Sister Sarah (a pseudonym) decided to participate in the parade after years of struggling with reconciling her faith with her sexuality. She decided “to try to blend in” with the rest of the men and women dressed in colourful outfits by wearing a bright yellow hijab tied at the back... Read more
My toddler cousins, like all children their age, were born into a world of rattles, Legos, diapers, and TV. Now more than ever, kids programming is a dominant and formative force in young children’s lives. The average preschooler spend 32 hours a week latched onto the TV screen, and by high school graduation has clocked more hours watching TV than at school. Studies have already shown us that the way kids’ TV treats race and gender affects how kids see... Read more
Anneke is traveling this week and so am I, which means nobody was able to pull together the Friday Links for today. But if any of you have come across some good (or horrible, or otherwise noteworthy) stories this week, please post them in the comments! Read more
I recently came across this video by UNICEF Nigeria about a community’s difficulty in getting all of their children vaccinated against polio. Polio mainly affects children under the age of five, where it can cause muscle weakness, irreversible paralysis, and death. This video recounts the story of a small settlement called Hawan Dawaki in the state of Kano, northern Nigeria. Here, polio affects almost five per cent of children despite four national campaigns. While this disease is infectious and incurable,... Read more
This post was originally posted at wood turtle’s blog. The day my friend took off hijab was disappointing. While everyone was offering congratulations on the new look, I couldn’t help wonder if my friend was having a crisis of faith. And when I asked if everything was okay, I learned a secret truth that sent me reeling. He never wore hijab in the first place. Naive assumptions led me to stereotype my friend as the “type of Muslim” who sports a... Read more
“When I sleep, I dream like a Hazara” (The Honey Thief, p. 6). The Honey Thief is a successful collaboration between authors Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman, featuring a host of interesting characters and places from Mazari’s native Afghanistan. Winner of the 2005 Australian National Biography Award, Hillman came on board initially to co-author Mazari’s personal story in The Rug Maker of Mazar-e-Sharif. Their first collaboration together describes Mazari’s escape from imminent persecution at the hands of the Taliban and... Read more
Rehana Kausar and Sobia Kamar are the first Muslim lesbians united in a civil ceremony in the UK; both women are from Pakistan and have applied for political asylum, claiming that they fear for their lives upon a return to Pakistan. A leading human rights advocate for Thai Muslims has said that the Thai government is silencing victims of rape and sexual assualt by soldiers with payouts. A district head in Indonesia’s north Aceh has issued a ban on dancing in public... Read more
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