The Media and the Headscarf: Kosovo Public Schools Edition (not the final episode)

Last updated on: February 22, 2013 at 6:15 pm By Guest Contributor

This post was written by guest contributor Asifa Akbar. In the last couple of weeks, reports have surfaced about Kosovo’s supposed ban on the wearing of the headscarf (hijab) by Muslim girls in its public schools. Such reports were reposted on social media and influential blogs; for example, already over 900 people have recommended an online Al Jazeera report entitled “Kosovo orders ban on headscarves in schools.” The latest reports centre on the case of student Njomza Jashari, who was... Read more

Sex Education, Not “Sex Parties”: Protesting Valentine’s Day In Indonesia

Last updated on: February 20, 2013 at 7:14 am By syahirah

In recent months, Indonesia has been appearing in the Asian media every time there is a non-Muslim celebration. I first noticed this with the debates on wishing “Merry Christmas” by Muslims to Christians, on Christians holding Christmas mass, and the accounts of violence done to churches in December 2012. A few weeks ago, the same debates were repeated on the occasion of Imlek, or Chinese New Year, on the mistaken basis of it being a Buddhist tradition, even though it is a national holiday. Now,... Read more

Tabloid Dawah, Make Me A Muslim!

Last updated on: February 19, 2013 at 1:24 pm By woodturtle

When I think of Britain, I don’t think of a society so “rife” with promiscuity and drunkenness that its very moral fibre is in need of repair. Call me naive, but I usually imagine red telephone boxes, Mister Darcy, imperialism, fish & chips, curry houses, and Doctor Who. But according to a mini-series from 2007 called “Make Me a Muslim,” Britain is so horribly off track with naked women in the streets and hooligans living hedonistic lifestyles, that things are going to get much worse unless... Read more

Gardens of Water: Teacher’s Guide

Last updated on: February 17, 2013 at 12:07 am By Guest Contributor

This post was written by guest contributor Rahela Choudhury, whose initial review of Gardens of Water can be found here. Other writing by Rahela is available here, here, and here. This second post about Alan Drew’s novel Gardens of Water will serve as a critique of the book’s accompanying teacher’s guide. In particular the focus will be on how this guide, while leading readers to reflect on certain aspects of the character Irem’s life, manages to either minimize or altogether... Read more

Friday Links | February 15, 2013

Last updated on: February 14, 2013 at 11:55 pm By anneke

Some Indonesian Muslim women are taking up a more active role in the country’s radical Islamic groups; many of these women are the wives of jailed convicted terrorists. Despite the fact that Hizb-u-Tahrir, an Islamist group, is banned in Tajikistan, the organization continues to recruit new members, mainly targeting vulnerable women and adolescents. Stories of sexual violence, forced marriage and abuse continue to emerge in Mali; the ethnic Tuareg group is predominantly blamed for the atrocities. The question whether or not Muslims... Read more

Responding to Hijab “Costume”

Last updated on: February 14, 2013 at 1:48 am By Azra

Last week, several major news outlets in Minnesota reported St. Paul police officers dressed as Somali women wearing hijab (I’ve included links here from Minnesota Public Radio; the stories also received coverage in local newspapers The Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press). Pictures of the police officers were found on Twitter and initiated a strong response by local activists. The first image reported by outlets showed an off-duty St. Paul officer wearing a hijab with a cell phone tucked... Read more

Muslim Women, YouTube, and Third Space

Last updated on: February 13, 2013 at 10:59 am By Guest Contributor

This post was written by guest contributor Deonna Kelli Sayed. Media technology and the Muslim world are interesting collaborators. Cassette tape propagation of Ayatollah Khomeini’s sermons provided important precursors for the Iranian Revolution. Likewise, Facebook and Twitter offered political leverage in the Arab Spring developments. For observers, social media, in particular, is potentially changing the dynamics of the public sphere in the Muslim world. New media technology provides a “Third Space” where some Muslims who are using social media to... Read more

Talking with “Hip Hop Hijabis” Filmmaker Mette Reitzel

Last updated on: February 11, 2013 at 4:02 pm By sharrae

Who comes to mind when hip hop and Islam are mentioned in the same sentence? Maybe hip hop and rap icons like Lupe Fiasco or Napoleon. The music genre and the religion have a long and intimate history; however, how many female artists come to mind? In the U.K., a duo of women called Poetic Pilgrimage has been mixing their Jamaican culture, their politics and their Islam into the fabrics of England’s music scene. Made up of Sukina Abdul Noor... Read more

Underwraps: Defining Modesty on the Runway

Last updated on: February 10, 2013 at 1:02 am By eren

Through the years MMW has had the opportunity to analyze Muslim women’s role in fashion in a variety of contexts. Some of our articles have discussed fashion in the context of in Mali, Russia and Chechnya, and a piece by Sharrae featured what is thought to be the only Muslim Model agency: Underwraps. Underwraps is famous not only for its inclusion of hijab-wearing women, but also for its founder Nailah Lymus, featured in one of my pieces in 2011. Last week, Underwraps... Read more

Friday Links | February 8, 2013

Last updated on: February 8, 2013 at 12:59 am By anneke

A story about a female sniper in Aleppo, Syria speaks to the imagination, but articles about the terror Syrian women have to endure are more common. Inside Syria rape and sexual assault is rampant; an initiative by Columbia University hopes to track rape inside Syria by following social media. Khetam Bneyan has been out of Syrian jail for a month now, but she cannot forget the women and their stories she left behind. Syrian refugees, and in particular women, face difficulties outside Syria too.... Read more