What’s the first image that comes to your mind when you think of a Muslim woman? Is she Arab or South Asian? White or maybe Afghan or Indonesian? Notice that I haven’t mentioned African American (and also Latina). The media depiction of Muslim women usually does not include African American women. Often, Muslim women are […]

This was written by Muse and originally appeared at her blog Between Hope & Fear. It’s joyful to be a Muslim woman. So says Mohja Kahf. I agree with the sentiment and the substance of pretty much everything she wrote here, but her style bothers me. This is nothing new – I wrote about her […]

The Washington Post ran an op-ed on Sunday by Mohja Kahf, author of The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Entitled “Spare Me the Sermon on Muslim Women” Kahf responds to those who insist that the Muslim woman is oppressed, repressed, monolithic, brainwashed, and worthy of pity. Using brilliant language, which creates colourful pictures in the […]

Normally, whenever I see anything with the phrase “Behind the veil” I automatically cringe and get myself ready for Orientalist stereotypes and generalizations about Muslim women. Na’ima B. Robert’s “Behind the veil: the online diary of a British Muslim woman” isn’t quite so bad. Although at first glance it does seem that way, especially considering […]

This post was written by Sahar and originally published at Nuseiba. Last week was ‘Fashion Week’ here in New Zealand, where both emerging and established designers show off their ‘creation’ on long impressive catwalks; a moment of ego basking in the glory of all of New Zealand’s fashionistas. Not surprisingly, I hadn’t taken much notice […]

The Guardian’s Life and Style section has a biweekly series called This Muslim Life. The series consists mainly of vignettes of the experiences of its author, Noorjehan Barmania, who writes on “the life of an Asian immigrant in Britain.” The author brings in anecdotes about topics such as multiculturalism in Britain, her childhood in South […]

This was written by Cycads and originally published at her blog. Come into my parlour: A scene from Nadine Labaki’s ‘Caramel’ (2007) The depiction of liberal Muslim women in film is a moment made of groundbreaking stuff. In a time where the veil is a symbol of subjugation, films about Muslim women like ‘Caramel‘ (2007) […]

How excited was I when our editor, Fatemeh, emailed out a link to a new online magazine called Bekhsoos!? Of course, I jumped at the chance to cover the first issue of the mag, which is called Bekhsoos il Homophobia (Concerning Homophobia) and is chock-full of editorials, personal stories, health articles, media analyses and more, […]

They’re popping up everywhere in harmless-looking packaging: shame cartoons. A quick search online will turn up a multitude of articles, op-eds and full-on rants appealing to women’s sense of shame (One particularly delightful article was titled “I appeal to your sense of shame my Muslim sister.”) And then we have cartoons. The first kind are […]

At 13% of the population, Muslims are a significant demographic in India. However, relations between Muslims and other populations in India, most notably the Hindu population, have not always gone smoothly. Shabana Azmi is an Indian actor, social activist and ex-MP who spoken extensively on various issues impacting Indian Muslims. Some of her views have […]