Yet Another Sensationalist Story about Muslim Girls and Swimming Lessons

Last updated on: June 3, 2012 at 5:23 pm By nicole

Certain topics related to Muslims seem to go on and on like broken records in European countries. If it isn’t headscarves, it is swimming lessons (like these stories from Germany, Finland, and Norway). This spring, a story about yet another Muslim family refusing swimming lessons made headlines in Switzerland. In Basel, the families of five Muslim girls in elementary school were fined upon appeal to the Swiss Supreme Court for refusing that their daughters take part in mixed swimming lessons. ... Read more

Zarifa Qazizadah: Afghan Supergran

Last updated on: June 3, 2012 at 2:33 pm By Lara Alamad

To people of a certain age, the word Supergran might bring to mind a Scottish superhero from the 80’s, but this week a headline about an Afghan “supergran” was a world away from Saturday afternoon TV. The article tells us that Zarifah Qazizadah is Afghanistan’s only female village chief; in fact, she’s only the second woman to ever hold this position. So what did she do to achieve such a level of authority that is so rarely allowed for women?... Read more

Stop Using Us: Women’s Votes in the Egyptian Presidential Elections

Last updated on: June 4, 2012 at 8:07 am By emanhashim

During the Egyptian elections campaigning, women were, of course, targeted by those looking for votes. Akher Kalam – “Final Words” – is one of the most viewed TV talk shows in Egypt. As with most Egyptian media outlets lately, it has been paying much attention to the elections, and its coverage of women’s issues in the Egyptian elections is typical of how many other media outlets were talking about these topics. That show had earlier had an episode with Christian... Read more

Friday Links | June 1, 2012

Last updated on: June 1, 2012 at 12:00 am By anneke

The upcoming Olympics and the whole debate around the hijab in sports has resulted in numerous pieces featuring female Muslim athletes, such as Kuwaiti shooter Mariam Erzouqi and Qatari swimmer Nada Arkaji. An article in The Daily Star focuses on the legacy of female Muslim athletes during the Olympics and the fields yet to be conquered. RFERL features a photo gallery on female Muslim athletes and the hijab. KV Rabiya is the subject of a documentary on her eventful life. Born handicapped in... Read more

TEDxMogadishu: A Talk by Ilwad Elman

Last updated on: May 30, 2012 at 9:27 pm By Krista

Last week, Samya covered the TEDxMogadishu talks for MMW. As Samya wrote, “TEDx Mogadishu is not just a meeting of creative minds to gather and share their views on the welfare of the people in Somalia; it is also an opportunity for outsiders to change their perceptions about developments in that country, especially as they relate to women and children.” A first TEDxMogadishu talk has been edited and posted online. The talk, by Ilwad Elman, is entitled “In Memory of... Read more

“Lost” Girls Are Not Sex Objects – Whatever Their Race

Last updated on: May 29, 2012 at 12:56 pm By merium

A group of nine men of Pakistani and Afghan origin were sentenced to jail recently for using alcohol and drugs to “groom” white British girls for sex. The abuse took place in the town of Rochdale, near Manchester in northwest England. The men, aged 24 to 38, were employed as taxi drivers, and included a religious studies teacher and a takeaway worker who were indicted for assaulting victims as young as 13 years of age. Since then, another two people... Read more

Book Review: G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen

Last updated on: May 28, 2012 at 11:34 pm By Azra

Back in 2010, I was so excited for the chance to review G. Willow Wilson’s memoir The Butterfly Mosque, where she explored her move to Egypt, conversion to Islam, and relationship with her husband. Here’s what I had to say about The Butterfly Mosque in 2010: Muslim women are presented in an Islamic society not as subservient to patriarchal culture, but instead as strong, empowered individuals capable of deciding how they lead their lives within a religious and cultural framework. ... Read more

A Muslim Woman Worth Her Salt

Last updated on: May 27, 2012 at 10:34 pm By Krista

So I never really envisioned this being a topic worth mentioning on MMW. However, for reasons that will become clear in a minute (or already, for most of you, given the photo attached to this post), it has become unexpectedly relevant to tell you that my family has an impressively (or embarrassingly, depending on who you ask) large collection of salt and pepper shakers – the more ridiculous and tacky, the better. It started a long time ago with salt... Read more

Friday Links | May 25, 2012

Last updated on: May 25, 2012 at 12:40 am By anneke

At the upcoming June 19 elections in Libya, Libyan women hope to secure a good amount of seats in the national assembly. The Saudi Gazette features a story about a Saudi woman, Alya Al-Ghamdi, whose ex-husband denies her the right to see her children, supposedly because he is afraid that her new British Muslim husband will molest their daughters. Al Akhbar English features a piece on the “veiling policies” of Lebanese satellite channel Manar TV. The Bangladeshi High Court has... Read more

TEDx Mogadishu and the Symbolic Rebirth of a Torn Society

Last updated on: May 23, 2012 at 12:55 am By samya

During the past three decades, global perceptions of Somalia have for the most part been shaped by images of the country as a disaster area, ravaged by poverty and war. Somalia seems to appear in the news only in the context of humanitarian assistance appeals or of Al Qaeda-inspired militias carrying out their heinous acts across the country. Since the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, there has been virtually no central government control in Somalia. The country has... Read more