What do you think when you hear the word Latin? Or Latina, to be more exact? Spicy? Or perhaps “loud,” “flamboyant” and “sexy”? Maybe the word just inspires images of women like Salma Hayek and J-Lo. Many of us are, sadly, very familiar with the image of what “Latinas” are supposed to look like. Just […]

Editor’s Note: This post was written by Yasmin Ali.  I apologise for not including her name when this was originally posted. – Krista I recently attended a symposium on Islamophobia at American Islamic College titled “Facing Religious Intolerance: Islamophobia in the 21st Century .” Panel members included Nathan Lean as well as Ahmed Rehab and Dr. […]

This post was written by guest contributor Emaan Majed. The scene opens on a bustling Peshawar market. The street vendors peddle ripe oranges and bananas. Decorated rickshaws bustle through busy streets as Maya, the determined female protagonist of Zero Dark Thirty, makes her way to her destination. But in contrast to actual Peshawar markets, the […]

An attack in Quetta, Pakistan on February 16 in a predominantly Shi’a Hazara neighborhood has killed at least 91 people. Women in Quetta, and in other cities as well, staged protests and said they would refuse to bury their dead until authorities would take action bringing those responsible to justice. After several days of protests, last […]

This post was written by guest contributor Asifa Akbar. In the last couple of weeks, reports have surfaced about Kosovo’s supposed ban on the wearing of the headscarf (hijab) by Muslim girls in its public schools. Such reports were reposted on social media and influential blogs; for example, already over 900 people have recommended an […]

In recent months, Indonesia has been appearing in the Asian media every time there is a non-Muslim celebration. I first noticed this with the debates on wishing “Merry Christmas” by Muslims to Christians, on Christians holding Christmas mass, and the accounts of violence done to churches in December 2012. A few weeks ago, the same debates were repeated on the […]

When I think of Britain, I don’t think of a society so “rife” with promiscuity and drunkenness that its very moral fibre is in need of repair. Call me naive, but I usually imagine red telephone boxes, Mister Darcy, imperialism, fish & chips, curry houses, and Doctor Who. But according to a mini-series from 2007 called “Make Me a Muslim,” Britain […]

This post was written by guest contributor Rahela Choudhury, whose initial review of Gardens of Water can be found here. Other writing by Rahela is available here, here, and here. This second post about Alan Drew’s novel Gardens of Water will serve as a critique of the book’s accompanying teacher’s guide. In particular the focus […]

Some Indonesian Muslim women are taking up a more active role in the country’s radical Islamic groups; many of these women are the wives of jailed convicted terrorists. Despite the fact that Hizb-u-Tahrir, an Islamist group, is banned in Tajikistan, the organization continues to recruit new members, mainly targeting vulnerable women and adolescents. Stories of sexual […]

Last week, several major news outlets in Minnesota reported St. Paul police officers dressed as Somali women wearing hijab (I’ve included links here from Minnesota Public Radio; the stories also received coverage in local newspapers The Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press). Pictures of the police officers were found on Twitter and initiated a […]