Salam waleykum, readers!

I’m in Boston this weekend, attending the Women, Action & The Media Conference (WAM!). This year’s theme is Inside/Outside.

I feel this theme is applicable to the position Muslim women often find themselves in: sometimes we are insiders in our faith, sometimes we are outsiders. Muslim women are often called on as insiders to speak about Islam, but we are often denied places in our own mosques, thought of as outsiders to houses of worship. Muslim women are often constructed as victims of Islam, needing to be saved from it, ignoring the reality of our status as insiders and how we operate within Islam. Muslim women are often seen as outsiders to non-Muslim cultures, despite the fact that many of us are born in, grow up in, or come to non-Muslim cultures and make room for ourselves as insiders.

Just some of my thoughts on the inside/outside theme on the eve of the WAM! conference. What are your thoughts on the status of Muslim women as insiders and outsiders?