Years ago, loose gravel on a trail up Margalla Hills landed me in the emergency room with a sprained ankle.  All I remember at the time was the excruciating pain radiating from my ankle and worrying if it was broken and whether I’d be able catch a plane on time to return to university.  My […]

In Singapore, the hijab is more commonly referred to with the Malay word ‘tudung’, which simply means a covering. In October this year, a petition was started on Avaaz.org by a “Syafiqah K.” to allow Muslim women in Singapore to wear tudung (hijab) in the workplace. It aimed to reach 20,000 signatures, but was closed […]

“Being free from shame is a beautiful freedom” Corona is Bushra Rehman’s riveting first novel. The first sentence of the book begins by smashing assumptions; we think “Corona” and think alcoholic beverage. Well, I certainly do. But that’s not what Rehman is writing about. “Corona, and I’m not talking about the beer. I’m talking about […]

The bodies of at least 87 migrants, predominantly women and children, have been found in the Sahara desert in Niger, close the Algerian border. They died earlier this month in a failed attempt to reach the Algerian border; 21 migrants of the same group survived and have all been returned to Niger. Complaints about anti-Islamic ads on […]

The daughter of a close friend recently turned 10, and I went to a children’s book and toy store to look for a gift.  I made my way past the picture books, marvelling at how fast the time has gone since I was buying her a Scaredy Squirrel book for her sixth birthday, and stood […]

“I can’t follow the news anymore, it’s too much.” Over the last two years, I’ve heard this sentence over and over again from friends and family who no longer live their lives to the soundtrack of Arab satellite channels, from local variants like Libya Al-Ahrar to the pan-Arab channels Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera. It has become […]

The last few months have witnessed an uproar in my home state, Kerala, surrounding the government’s release of a circular legalizing the registration of marriages of Muslim women younger than 18 years old and Muslim men younger than 21 years old. India, though a secular country, allows Muslims to follow the Muslim Personal Law in […]

A female suicide bomber attacked a bus in southern Russia last Monday, killing six and injuring dozens. Naida Asiyalova, the alleged bomber, is from the region of Dagestan, and her husband, an ethnic Russian convert to Islam, is currently on the run. An online “halal” sex shop has opened in Turkey. While some welcome the concept, other […]

Editor’s note: Malala Yousafzai has been extensively covered in media lately, and several MMW writers wanted to weigh in on the way she is being portrayed. This is the final post about her; see also Amina’s and Nicole’s posts from earlier this week. Malala Yousafzai has figured in MMW’s posts since the Taliban attempted to kill […]

Continuing our tradition of sharing reflections on Eid (see our posts from Eid-ul-Adha last year, in two parts, and from Eid-ul-Fitr this year), today we’ll be posting four reflections from Eid last week, written by Eren, Izzie, Krista, and Shireen. This Eid-ul-Adha was the first one I have not attended salah. Due to recent knee surgery, attending the […]