The three-hour public radio show Forum devoted one of its hours two weeks ago to discussing Muslim women in Northern California. Host Michael Krasny talked to four women — Amra Tareen, Dian Alyan, Farhana Khera, and Shaherose Charania — and emphasized their positions as successful career women, “practicing Muslims,” and of Asian heritage. All of […]

Jennifer Heath published The Scimitar and the Veil: Extraordinary Women of Islam in 2004. And I loved it. It profiled strong, intelligent women in Islam’s history, including the women of the Prophet’s life, but also Hadith scholars, poets, warriors, etc. It was a quick read despite the thickness of the book because Heath made these […]

Reading through this report entitled Meet Your Average British Muslim Woman… from Asian Image on the preferences of the average Muslim woman in the UK reveals some interesting points about the ways in which Muslim women are viewed within the South Asian community. The reporter appeared “surprised” by some things and found other things “interesting” […]

Editor’s Note: A few Fridays ago, we published a link about the uproar over an Islamic studies course, entitled Women in Arabic and Islamic Literature, taught by Dr. Samar Habib at the University of Western Sydney in Australia. We at MMW believe that knowledge is power (yes, clichés and all), and institutions of higher learning […]

Summayyah Meehan’s article for the Khaleej Times starts out like this: “The headscarf, or hijab, is just a small piece of fabric but the controversy that often surrounds it is immeasurable. Muslim women who wear the hijab are often socially stigmatised, in non-Muslim and sometimes even Muslim countries, as being mindless drones who are under […]

It’s been said that for many women chocolate is better than sex. The reality of this is for each woman to judge for herself, but there is no doubt that the idea has been propagated well. Advertisers have appropriated this belief and used it to target their female, as well as male, population. A great […]

The writers of As the World Turns are getting tired of calm, obedient Ameera. The plot has taken a dramatic turn — Ameera is now plotting and untrustworthy, in addition to being calm and obedient. Since we last left off (here, here), the show has added a tone of creepiness, evident in the ever-present ominous […]

I went to see You Don’t Mess With the Zohan this weekend. I’ve never been a huge fan of Adam Sandler’s, so it was mostly to see Maysoon Zayid make a cameo in the film (tip: at one point, she slams the phone down and yells, “SHARMUTA!” Which was worth half the cost of my […]

Muslim Girl magazine has been out for about a year and half and has been profiled previously on MMW. On Monday, CBC radio show, Sounds Like Canada, interviewed Ausma Khan, founder and editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl. Interviewed by host Amanda Putz, Khan talked about the magazine as well as herself and her own experiences. Putz […]

This may not be timely, but it makes up for it in offensiveness. Watch this skit, MadTV’s idea of what English-language Al Jazeera is like. The skit is packed with racist stereotypes about the Middle East. The only female reporter in the skit is a woman in niqab (presumably forced on her). She says, “My […]