Salam waleykum, readers! Hot on the heels of our honorable mention for Best Group Blog at the Brass Crescent Awards, we’ve been nominated for the 2008 Weblog Awards! Thanks to those of you who tipped us off. We’ve been nominated for Best Middle East/Africa blog! Oddly enough, we weren’t nominated for Best Religion Blog. Next […]

A recent Reuters article vaguely described sexual harassment in Libya by blaming it on “antiquated male attitudes that decades of gender equality reforms have failed to dislodge.” While it is true that Libyan law sets the foundation for female equality, it was never properly enacted. To say that there have been “decades of gender equality […]

Like a lot of people, I’ve spent the past couple of days glued to my TV set and the papers, monitoring the horrible situation in the Gaza strip, and the Arab world’s increasing disenchantment with Egypt. So far, according to the UN, at least 373 Palestinians have been killed and 1,720 are injured. Of those […]

Recently, Australia’s ABC National Radio show, The Religion Report, covered the issue of racism experienced by Muslim women. In light of a recent Australian report entitled “Race, Faith and Gender” published by the Islamic Women’s Welfare Council of Victoria that assessed the impact of racism on Muslim women, host David Rutledge interviewed Joumanah El Matra, […]

In this past week’s Friday links, Fatemeh mentioned that Al-Azhar University had for the first time approved a tafsir (interpretation) of the Qur’an written by a woman, Kariman Hamzah. The BBC story on this event left a lot to be desired. The first thing that was seriously wrong was the headline “Egypt clerics back woman’s […]

The first thing anyone, male or female, Arab or not ever says to me when they find out I’m Libyan is, “Wow, I’ve never met a Libyan before.” The follow-up question almost always involves a snide comment about Libya’s female bodyguards. These lovely ladies, trained in combat, accompany Colonel Qaddafi, Libya’s head of state, everywhere […]

This was originally published on ISNA and Payvand. It has been edited for clarity. The first award for female Iranian poets will be awarded in the week of December 21-27 (first week of the Iranian month of Dey).   According to the news agency ISNA, in the news conference held on November 23rd, seven works […]

Dubai’s leading U.A.E.-based international property developer, Hydra Properties, recently announced plans to build an all-female office tower for businesswomen. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I dislike it because it promotes segregation of the sexes and further perpetuates the idea that women need ‘different’ facilities in order to succeed in the workforce. […]

American hijabis often have a lot to think about when they step outside their doors. Will we be denied a job because of hijab? Will we be asked to take off our hijabs at work or school? Will our hijabs make us a target for racists and xenophobes? Will we be pulled out of line […]

MMW would like to thank Thabet for the tip! Katherine Zopf’s Sunday article in The New York Times about flight attendants in the Emirates set off quite a storm in the blogosphere. And rightly so: it’s often eye-rollingly essentializing when discussing Arab women and society. But why waste my breath when others said it better? […]