Salaams readers! Goodbyes are rarely easy and I’m horrible at them. So this goodbye won’t be very well done. I have recently decided to leave MMW. At this point my PhD work hangs over my head and is feeling quite neglected. However, my time with MMW has been amazing, loads of fun, and very educational. […]

Genius headline of the week: lewd stares distressing for women. You don’t say! TwoCircles.net reports on a study of maternity care and births among Muslim women in Mumbai slums. More on Marwa el Sherbini’s murder and global reactions: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. More on France’s burqa ban: here, here, […]

Rabble.ca, an alternative news source in Canada, recently posted a podcast that was originally broadcast on Co-Op Radio in Vancouver, on their show “The F Word,” which looks at feminist issues.  Entitled “Islam, women and feminisms,” this segment features interviews with two Canadian Muslim women, Itrath Syed and Farzana Doctor. The host of the show […]

In the wake of the Sarkozy-Burqa fiasco, last week the BBC radio aired a show on the Women’s Hour program discussing the topic. It is definitely worth a listen, as two strong viewpoints are voiced. The presenter, Jane is joined by Um Abdullah, who wears the burqa and Maryam Namazie, who wants it banned. Emma […]

Uighur Women in the Spotlight The media loves Uighur women. They give them lots of margins, and inches on front pages. They plaster their photos and quote them favorably. In prominent photo spreads, they marvel at their exotic traditional attire. They sympathize with their struggle against the brutal, ruthless Communist China. Looking at the photos […]

This originally appeared on Safiya’s blog Outlines. A lot of the discourse of Muslim women both here and elsewhere concerns the battle to speak for ourselves. To define our religion, our beliefs on our terms, without the headpatting and correcting of outsiders. Fatemeh’s post at Altmuslimah gives a thorough outline of the usual mistakes made […]

The New York Times reports on the headscarf’s rise as a political symbol in Indonesia. Women in Turkey take back the night. A Palestinian journalist claims that Hamas arrested her while she was at the beach. The man who murdered Banaz Mahmood will be extradited to stand trial for her rape and murder. More on […]

By now many Muslims have heard of the tragic murder of Marwa el-Sherbini, mother, daughter, wife, pharmacist, who lived in Germany while her husband completed his Ph.D. May God give her peace and grant her paradise. According to the BBC: Marwa Sherbini, 31, was stabbed 18 times by Axel W, who is now under arrest […]

A recent anti-discrimination campaign in the Netherlands is using a poster of a hijabi, whose face is hidden behind the photo of a non-hijabi, as part of an advertising campaign to fight discrimination. The poster appears at bus stops, and says “Do you have to let yourself at home when going out?” At first, I […]

Originally posted at Muslim Lookout The Canadian government has (finally) decided to lay to rest its plans to introduce legislation that would force women who wear niqab (fabric that covers their faces) to show their faces when voting. This comes as a relief, not so much because of the actual legislation, but because of the […]