When I chose Islam, almost a decade ago, I did not have much experience with fasting. I had grown up in not a very diverse environment and my experience with the Lent was very limited, coming from a Protestant background. Still, some years we would attend weekly “soup meetings,” where different families would come together during the Lent to eat soup. While eating soup for dinner might be a real challenge for some people, for the often frugal Dutch, it... Read more
SETimes reports that domestic violence in Kosovo remains a problem; most victims are married women suffering at the hands of their husbands. Iranians, from inside and outside Iran, have started a facebook campaign called “No to Mandatory Hijab,” where both men and women post pictures of themselves supporting the right of women to chose whether or not they want to wear the hijab. Refugee women in Somalia, fleeing hunger and/or violence, face now a sexual assault and rape in one of... Read more
Growing up in Mexico City, one of my first interactions with Arabs and Muslims was through the Lebanese community in Mexico. Although Mexico is a largely multicultural country and its cuisine has been largely recognized as a mix of different cultures, the dominant identity discourse these days is the mix between Indigenous peoples and the Spanish colonizers (mestizaje). The term mestizaje has constantly been challenged for a number of reasons including the fact that it selectively highlights some identities (i.e.... Read more
Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt is always special in its very traditional way. You wait for the Lunar confirmation that next day is first day of Ramadan, then you hear the Taraweeh Prayer calls in all mosques. A few hours later, the first Sohour begins, with a special guy (we call him “Messaharati”) banging on a drum in the streets calling for Sohour to each and every person in his neighborhood, especially kids. Small confession: I used to make him call... Read more
I am usually not good at taking pictures of food because I tend to have eaten halfway through before remembering to take a photo. Therefore, this is a rare photo of a typical iftar at home, that is, at my mother’s. Starting from the cup of water, which is at the bottom right, and moving anti-clockwise: (more…) Read more
This year is my thirteenth Ramadan, and I have spent ten of them working full time. While my husband was always able to organize his annual leave to be off for two weeks in Ramadan, a collection of luck and circumstances meant that I usually had to work – a board meeting, a month-end close, a big court case…the list goes on. So I have gotten very good at organizing my life during Ramadan to make sure that I can... Read more
Last week, Hanifa Safi, an Afghan Women’s Affairs official was killed by a car bomb. While she is not the first female Afghan official to be killed, the Afghan government has not done much to prevent these murders, or to bring those responsible to justice. In the same week, a young Afghan girls, Tamana, was killed, which proves, once again, that violence against women is on the rise in Afghanistan. When Najat Vallaud-Belkacem became the French minister of women’s rights, Muslims, and in... Read more
Ramadan Karim to all our readers, we’d like to wish you all a happy blessed month. And a reminder – starting next week will be our series on Ramadan experiences from different parts of the world! (more…) Read more
As a person who interacts with a Western Muslim community that places great importance in women’s clothing and female modesty, I am rarely surprised by the focus on hijab as the sign of piety. Similarly, I have unfortunately gotten used to the obsession in some Western media with hijabs and black robes as symbols of oppression. Hijab is everywhere. It is in my mosque, in my community, and in the media. However reading the multitude of recent media stories on... Read more
We are bombarded with images from Syria every day — flashing across our television screens and updating in our Facebook newsfeeds. They are horrific pictures of the carnage left in the aftermath of massacres. It has been over a year now since the beginning of the Syrian uprising and there seems to be no relief from the continuing assaults on the Syrian people. At a time when we risk becoming desensitized to this ongoing horror, it is important to truly... Read more
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