The producing and dissemination of images by mainstream media has a direct impact on society. It affects the ways that we view ourselves and the way we perceive others. Television, film, advertising, and even education all play a role in spreading specific versions of reality. Communities who experience state-violence, police brutality, and increased rates […]

Black Muslims took to Twitter last month in light of Black History Month, which is celebrated in February in North America. The Muslim Anti-Racist Collaborative (MuslimARC), a collaborative of diverse Muslims dedicated to combatting anti-Black racism, discrimination and exclusion within the Muslim community, launched a Twitter campaign that has opened the door to discussing anti-black […]

Recently, the Huffington Post re-published an Associated Press article on Sufi resurgence in Somalia. Following the withdrawal of the armed militant group Al-Shabab from the country’s capital of Mogadishu, Somalis are once again allowed to engage in Sufi practices without fear of death and violent repression. The article paints a landscape of men and women […]

In Part 1 of this post, I introduced to you activist, artist and documentary filmmaker Red Summer. She along with the women in her upcoming film Al Nisa: Muslim Women in Atlanta’s Gay Mecca have been creating intentional spaces of community for Black Lesbian Muslims, where they can share and connect without negotiating the multiple […]

Oppression works in strategic ways. When we think of who is the oppressor and who is the oppressed, as Muslim women in “the West” we often automatically think about the white liberal feminist who speaks on the behalf of “Third World” women, women of colour and Muslim women. However, what about the level of social […]

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to catch up with director of the documentary film “Hip Hop Hijabis,” Mette Reitzel, who followed the lives of UK-based hip hop duo, Poetic Pilgrimage. Poetic Pilgrimage consists of two Muslim convert women, Tanya Muneera Williams and Sukina Owen-Douglas, who have shaken the U.K hip hop scene. […]

Queer Muslim. These two words appear to be incongruent terms in many contexts; however, there has been a real commitment recently to creating a discourse that allows for queer Muslim voices to be respected and validated. It is tiring to be caught in conversations when the various parties cannot accept each other simply for their […]

Who comes to mind when hip hop and Islam are mentioned in the same sentence? Maybe hip hop and rap icons like Lupe Fiasco or Napoleon. The music genre and the religion have a long and intimate history; however, how many female artists come to mind? In the U.K., a duo of women called Poetic […]

“Let me begin with a story. A story from your history. One that I hope will stay in your minds as you think about our common future.” These are words taken from a speech recently delivered by Justin Trudeau, a well-known Canadian politician, to the thousands of Muslims in attendance at the most recent Reviving […]

Finding black Muslim women in mainstream media circuits can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Most of the representations of Muslim people are confined to Arab and South Asian people, which are both the faults of mainstream producers and Muslim-owned media makers. However, it leaves other communities within the broader Muslim community to […]