The Subtleties of Being Caught in the Crossfire

Last updated on: April 1, 2013 at 9:37 pm By Guest Contributor

This post was written by guest contributor Amina Jabbar (@AminaJabbar). Amina Jabbar, Twitter handle: @AminaJabbar In a recent article, “Muslim women are caught in the crossfire between bigots on both sides,” Sara Khan thoughtfully maps the spaces that Western Muslimahs negotiate. Muslim women, on one end, are more likely to experience Islamophobic violence than Muslim men. In the UK, Khan notes, as much as 54% of the violence is perpetrated by those with links to the British National Party (BNP)... Read more

Nahdet Masr: Woman, Sphinx, and the Question of Modernity

Last updated on: April 2, 2013 at 4:00 am By tasnim

In Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soeuif’s novel, The Map of Love, there is a scene that describes the statue Nahdet Masr (Rise of Egypt), a statue of a peasant woman unveiling as she stands next to the Sphinx: “The statue of Nahdet Masr rises before her: the statue at whose feet they had gathered in the days of the demonstrations…when it had seemed that the young would conquer the world and they, the students of Egypt, would be among the conquerors.... Read more

Friday Links | March 29, 2013

Last updated on: March 28, 2013 at 8:44 pm By anneke

Last week in Algeria, women went to the streets to defend their local tradition of wearing the white religious garb, the haik, claiming that black religious clothing is inspired by Saudi Arabia and alien to Algerian culture. Gambia’s Isatou Touray has been campaigning against female genital mutilation (FGM) for about 25 years, and even went to prison because of her work, but finally it seems to pay off: Gambia is preparing a law to ban the practice. Despite rumors that she was missing... Read more

Intersections: Where Do We Go From Here?

Last updated on: March 27, 2013 at 3:04 pm By Guest Contributor

This post was written by guest contributor Nur Laura Caskey. This article is not meant as a statement, but as a question. A very long, multidimensional question, but one that I feel is pertinent and needed. It is also meant partly as a supplement to my own fear-driven inability to act in the moment to contest injustice, and to briefly reveal how privilege and oppression can be kept in place through the appropriation of the methods of hegemony. It strikes... Read more

Muslimahs in Beauty Pageants

Last updated on: March 26, 2013 at 9:44 pm By eren

When I was a kid, I must confess, I used to love to watch Miss Universe on TV. Despite my mom’s dislike for the show, she would let me watch it (not without swearing at the TV once in a while). Beauty pageants in the 90’s gained popularity in Mexico after Lupita Jones won the title of Miss Universe in 1991. Although previous title-holders were Latin American, Jones was the first Mexican to win such a pageant and her success... Read more

More than Breast Friends: Kinship and Muslim Milk Banks

Last updated on: March 26, 2013 at 6:23 am By woodturtle

Breastfeeding may seem like the most natural thing in the world, but for a percentage of women it can be terribly challenging — especially if they cannot produce enough milk or refrain from breastfeeding due to medical reasons such as severe illness, accident, HIV infection, or taking certain medications that can harm the baby through breast milk. As I’ve mentioned in another post on breastfeeding in Guinea, it’s widely accepted by health organizations that breast milk is the optimal food for infants and, when... Read more

Sisters Magazine Review

Last updated on: March 24, 2013 at 1:27 pm By Azra

When I volunteered to write a review of the monthly magazine Sisters for MMW last month, I had no idea how challenging it would be for me. Weeks passed with the PDF copies that Sisters had kindly sent waiting in my inbox, until my deadline finally prompted me to give them more than a skim-read. Sisters was founded by Naima B. Robert, whose book Boy vs. Girl was reviewed on MMW in 2011. I’ve broken up my review in 3 parts, looking mostly at... Read more

Friday Links | March 22, 2013

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 11:14 pm By anneke

This week marks the ten-year anniversary of the Iraq war, and when it comes to the position of women in present-day Iraqi society articles are unanimously negative and speak of rampant violence against women, limited freedom for contemporary Iraqi women and the ongoing fight for gender equality. CNN also follows up with “miracle baby Noor,” years after she received medical treatment in the USA. The Guardian speaks to women who have been incarcerated in Iraq and who speak of sexual assault... Read more

North American Muslim Women, Post-Divorce

Last updated on: March 19, 2013 at 10:00 am By Guest Contributor

This post was written by guest contributor Deonna Kelli Sayed. Divorce is a growing challenge for North American Muslim communities, as well as in Muslim societies around the world. Part of that challenge is a lack of understanding regarding Muslim female experiences post-divorce. Thoughtful, researched dialogue exists concerning legal issues impacting divorce among Muslims in North America, for example, as there are unique legal, social and cultural realities impacting these communities. Women are often the primary focus of public discourse... Read more

Creating Spaces of Reconciliation: Queer Muslims Congregate

Last updated on: March 19, 2013 at 11:36 pm By sharrae

Queer Muslim. These two words appear to be incongruent terms in many contexts; however, there has been a real commitment recently to creating a discourse that allows for queer Muslim voices to be respected and validated. It is tiring to be caught in conversations when the various parties cannot accept each other simply for their differences and instead resort to admonitions of an individual’s or a group’s connection to the Most High, based on their sexual identity. It can be... Read more