Spiced Spare Ribs! A Woman’s Question Time was a refreshing hour-long panel/audience discussion that touched on a lot of issues affecting British Muslims, Western Muslims as well as Muslims from around the globe. The women on the panel were four extremely articulate women: Catherine Heseltine (seated on the far left), Khola Hassan (seated next to […]

Egyptian women have something to celebrate: yesterday the first man in Egyptian history was sentenced to jail for sexual harassment. And not just any sentence: three years in jail with hard labor in addition to an LE 5,001 fine (approximately $1,000). An unexpected, but very welcome sentence. 27-year-old filmmaker Noha Rushdie Saleh was groped last […]

When I started to read a recent NPR story about an Iraqi woman married to an American sergeant, I had to double check to make sure that I was actually reading a news story and not a piece of Orientalist fiction. “From The Iraq War, A Troubled Romance In America” is filled with so many […]

MMW‘s Friday Links last week had within it three links about Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani (below), who has appeared in the recent Hollywood film Body of Lies. Apparently, from the news reports, it seems that Farahani has created quite a stir within Iran, or as the LA Times reported some “Middle East-style intrigue”. Middle East-style […]

A few months ago, my mother gave me the CD of a Muslimah who she saw rapping at a masjid in Philadelphia. The CD is titled Muslimas with Attitude and the artist is Miss Undastood (link to her MySpace page here). She’s still a relatively new rapper who has released a few mixed-track CDs. Listening […]

I’ve always loved viewing art, especially at museums, though I’ve never considered myself savvy enough to ‘get it,’ always resorting to a laywoman’s interpretation. However, I’ve learned that regardless of what the artist intended in his/her piece, the observer/viewer/art connoisseur will see what s/he wants. Therefore, art can be a very controversial arena for expressing […]

Muslimah Media Watch thanks Ali Eteraz for the tip! A few weeks ago, several Western outlets featured an exposé on Yasmin Fostok (pictured below), the daughter of infamous cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed. And when I say exposé, I’m not kidding: the majority of outlets that ran the story ran it with accompanying pictures of her […]

The Washington Post ran an op-ed on Sunday by Mohja Kahf, author of The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Entitled “Spare Me the Sermon on Muslim Women” Kahf responds to those who insist that the Muslim woman is oppressed, repressed, monolithic, brainwashed, and worthy of pity. Using brilliant language, which creates colourful pictures in the […]

The Jewel of Medina goes on sale in the United States today. *queue scary music.* Two weeks ago, I got a copy of the novel from Beaufort Books, the U.S. publisher, to review for the magazine I work at. I read the book, interviewed Denise Spellberg—the associate professor of history and Middle Eastern studies at […]

Disclaimer: Below is an analysis of a debate between Irshad Manji and Dalia Mogahed. This analysis will be about the way in which the women were represented, how they spoke, how they interacted with one another, as well as with the moderator and audience (and vice versa), and some of the comments they made, etc. […]