As an American Muslimah who graduated from an American university in 2004, I was very interested to read Shabana Mir’s new book Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity, to see how her conclusions lined up with my experiences. In this book, Mir looks at how Muslim women students forge their social […]

Reading Hajiya Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s Sin is a Puppy That Follows You Home was to me like watching a Nigerian movie, in particular one on Africa Magic Hausa, a channel devoted to Hausa language movies. I could picture popular actors and actresses in the roles of different characters and imagined them bringing these roles to […]

Another week, and more news on women and ISIS. In Iraq, ISIS has publicly executed women’s rights activist Samira Salih al Nuiami, after a “court ruling” which found she was an apostate. Mariam Al Mansouria, UAE’s first female pilot, has led air strikes against ISIS in Syria. One Syrian woman has filmed footage of life under […]

On September 16, 2014, basketball’s international governing body, FIBA, announced it would be allowing headcoverings during competitive play for a trial period. It stopped short, however, of permanently lifting its ban on hijabs, turbans and yarmulkes worn by basketball players. Stories of players being rejected from tournaments and forced to forfeit because of their headcoverings […]

“How is your situation with attending the mosque?” begins a video by Kuwaiti preacher Mishary Al-Kharaz, before he introduces us to his “friend in Yemen”. The video shows Kamal, a young man with a “handicap”, as he enters a mosque, prays sitting on a chair and then goes up to the second floor after the […]

Much of the news involving Muslim women last week was focused on the female involvement in the current wars in Iraq and Syria. The Guardian featured an item on ISIS targeting the predominantly Somali community in the US heartland for female recruitment. Another article focuses on the social media presence of female ISIS supporters. Meanwhile, it […]

News that Scottish student Aqsa Mahmood has joined ISIS in Syria shocked many, but she isn’t the only woman to do so. The Guardian features an article on the reasons why young women choose to go to Syria and what kind of life they are living there. Human Rights Watch reports that African Union peacekeepers in Somalia have sexually […]

I’ve always been fascinated by how certain symbols function as gender markers in the societies I’ve known. Little hijabs for little girls is one example, while a non-Muslim friend of mine dresses her also sparsely coiffed infant in frilly pink dresses because people keep thinking she’s a little boy. It can be so uncomfortable for […]

This piece was compiled by Altmuslim editors and originally posted at Altmuslim. The Muslim American and larger American community lost a beloved soul last week — Tayyibah Taylor, founder and editor-in-chief of Azizah Magazine passed away. The outpouring of love and grief was immediate, as news spread quickly. Tributes came pouring in on Facebook, Twitter […]

Every year, the holy month of Ramadan brings lots of spiritual moments, as well as hours of continuous entertainment in the form of shows and soap operas. Every Ramadan, I pick a number of soap operas to watch and write about. This year, there was a large number of television series that discussed issues faced […]