Saudi Women at the Helm: Beneficiaries of the Arab Spring

Last updated on: April 30, 2013 at 11:34 pm By merium

For the past two years, sweeping political changes in parts of the Middle East have had a profound impact on socio-cultural and legal traditions. Arab women have been at the forefront of this change, exercising their rights as political citizens and raising their voices against injustices within their own countries and in support of others across the region. Recent developments, however, suggest that while the Gulf states (excluding Bahrain) have remained largely untouched by revolutionary antics, Saudi Arabia appears to... Read more

Introducing MMW’s Newest Writers!

Last updated on: April 30, 2013 at 11:51 pm By Krista

Hello and salaams MMW friends, The MMW team is excited to announce that we’ve recently welcomed six new writers on board! We are very happy that the following women (listed along with their recent guest posts, so you can get a sense of their writing if you haven’t already) have joined our team of regular writers: Shireen Ahmed (“Hijab in Sport and Unhelpful Media Biases” and “World Hijab Day: Everyone’s Favourite Dress-Up Day“) Amina Jabbar (“The Subtleties of Being Caught... Read more

Interview with Celebrity Food Blogger Thasneen Ansi

Last updated on: April 30, 2013 at 6:38 am By Izzie

Cooking hasn’t been one of my strong points ever, and after getting married to a family whose cuisine was completely different to mine, I was lost. Since most of the dishes prepared in my husband’s home are unique, their recipes were pretty hard to find online as well. That’s when I found Thasneen Ansi’s blog “Cooking with Thas.” Almost all of mother-in-law’s signature recipes, like steamed plaintain cakes and layered crepes, were available to me. I became an ardent fan... Read more

Sri Lanka: “When Sleeping Women Wake, Mountains Move”

Last updated on: April 27, 2013 at 10:44 pm By Guest Contributor

This post was written by guest contributor Hafsa, and originally published at Sisterhood. Last June, while visiting a north-western province in Sri Lanka, I had the chance of observing a community development initiative that focused on women’s empowerment and enhancing their role in participatory democracy. One of interesting prescripts that I observed was that most of the requests came from local women, who brought their concerns to informal gatherings; from where community organizers took on the role of coming up... Read more

Friday Links | April 26, 2013

Last updated on: April 25, 2013 at 10:28 pm By anneke

There were, of course, a lot of news items related to the (female) relatives of the alleged “Boston bombers” this week: there were interviews with the mother and the aunt, and a lot of speculation about both the mother and the converted wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Katherine Russell. One Muslim woman in the Boston area has reported an attack against her, where she, as a Muslim, was accused of the Boston bombing. The Iranian government hopes that a house-to-house health education drive... Read more

The Mother and the Motherland in Arab Literature

Last updated on: April 25, 2013 at 9:46 am By tasnim

Moroccan novelist Mohammed Berrada’s Lu’bat al Nisyan (The Game of Forgetting, 1987) begins with “In the Beginning was the Mother.” The main character in the novel, Hadi, is a leftist journalist suffering from a midlife crisis, disillusioned on the communal level by the deteriorating political situation in Morocco, and devastated on a personal level by the death of his mother, Lala Lghalya. Hadi’s mother is referred to as “indispensable, like salt in food” and represented in terms that depict her... Read more

Hijab and the Boston Bombers

Last updated on: April 23, 2013 at 10:10 pm By Guest Contributor

This post was written by guest contributor Nicole J. Hunter Mostafa (@nicolejhm). Ladies, let’s be honest: hijab is a tired topic for us Muslimahs. We still debate, discuss, and attempt to define it, but pretty much everything has been said at some point or another. But for some, it apparently never gets old. And now, with the narrative of radicalization of the suspected Boston bombers unfolding in the media, inevitably a focus has been placed on the women in their... Read more

Colours and Voices: The International Museum of Women Muslima

Last updated on: April 23, 2013 at 10:38 pm By eren

After converting to Islam, I struggled with my community’s views on art, women and the combination of both. Having grown up in a society that prides itself on a variety of artistic movements, and being part of a very artistic family, I felt uncomfortable accepting my Muslim community’s idea that art is prohibited in Islam. Growing up, I was part of a children’s musical show that played music specifically for children. Being a child singer was a great part of... Read more

The Colourful Hijab of the African Muslimah

Last updated on: April 17, 2013 at 12:11 am By anike

The Darfur Sartorialist is an exhibition launched by Portuguese urban engineer, humanitarian and photographer Pedro Matos to showcase the colourful clothing and trendy fashion sense of women in Darfur, Sudan. Matos was in Darfur for three and a half years with the World Food Programme when he started taking these photographs in a country where it is apparently forbidden to do so. Initially surprised by the style and fashion that thrives in Darfur, contrary to Western images of the region... Read more

Friday Links | April 19, 2013

Last updated on: April 18, 2013 at 11:18 pm By anneke

Nausheen Tobassum, a 17-year-old Indian girl, shares her horrific story as an “one month wife,” and reveals the scope of the sex tourism business in Hyderabad, India. More and more young Afghan men and women meet each other on Facebook; in a society where dating is strictly prohibited, many young men and women have (multiple) relationships online. Syrian members of a closed female Islamic movement, Qubeysiat, which works to advance the education of women and girls, are embarassed by their leader’s allegiance to the... Read more