A recent BBC News article has provided an astonishing suggestion that, far from being the monolithic oppressed group that many readers of mainstream Western media have come to expect, Muslim women can come from a wide range of possible experiences and backgrounds.  Who knew? Journalist Christopher Landau begins his article by telling us, The role […]

Tunisian filmmaker Kalthoum Bornaz’s film Shtar M’Haba (The Other Half of the Sky) was recently discussed in Lebanon’s The Daily Star. As it turns out, Bornaz was the only female director to enter the official competition at Ouagadougou’s Pan-African Film and Television Festival earlier this month. The Daily Star tells us that she was not […]

The internet is abuzz with talk of Khamisa Sawadi, a 75-year-old Syrian widow living in Saudi Arabia who was sentenced to 40 lashes and 4 months in jail for the crime of khalwa, being alone with a man who is not her relative. The verdict, issued on March 3rd, also demands that Sawadi be deported after […]

This was originally published at Hurriyet Daily News. The author is unknown. In a Fethiye beauty salon window, I saw an advertisement suggesting customers celebrate International Women’s Day, or IWD, by getting a manicure and a new hairdo. I received messages from my bank wishing me “Happy Women’s Day.” And then there were the ads […]

A prominent Tunisian academic, Amel Grami, calls for ijtihad. Rafia Zakaria writes for Pakistan’s Daily Times about the Pakistani Taleban’s increasing violence against women in Swat and elsewhere, despite Zardari’s pledges for women’s rights. IPS jumps in about what Pakistani women are doing to resist the violence. Dubai’s mufti declares that women can issue fatwas […]

A longer version of this article appears on altmuslimah, while this version appeared at Racialicious. I finally got around to watching AmericanEast this weekend. Full disclosure: I had originally read Tariq Nelson’s review, which was a pretty good rundown. AmericanEast is an attempt at mainstreaming American Muslims and attempts to portray the struggles Muslims face […]

One of the most common questions that the media, and maybe even non-Muslim in everyday life, have for women who wear hijab is “how do you do [insert whatever said activity here] in hijab?” It is probably also a question that Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir gets often, since she is a star high school basketball player in […]

The following has been cross posted at Muslim Lookout. For a while now Sally Armstrong has been documenting the situation of women in Afghanistan through her books and documentary. She recently spoke at the University of Guelph fundraising breakfast and Guelph, Ontario’s Guelph Mercury covered the talk given by Armstrong  – a journalist, it seems, […]

Salam waleykum, readers! I have lots of announcements! altmuslimah, a kind of “sister” site to altmuslim, launched today. It’s a wonderful site that discusses gender and Islam in an intelligent, thoughtful way, and it’s put forth by many of the same people who are behind altmuslim, with one notable addition: me! I’m serving as associate […]

On Thursday, February 26, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) welcomed Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders and sponsored a viewing of his short film Fitna. Muslimah feminists Irshad Manji and Daisy Khan were on CNN commenting on the issue, specifically whether or not Geert Wilders should be welcomed by our government and how it impacts Muslims. You can […]