When Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, a feminist dystopia set in a world run by a totalitarian theocracy, she said that she hadn’t “invented anything,” but taken her inspiration from fundamentalist Christianity in the United States, and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, among other things. In the context of the war on Afghanistan, Mary […]

The prolific and eclectic Danish writer Suzanne Brøgger has more than twenty works to her name, most of which have at one time or another been labeled as provocative. Brøgger became an overnight celebrity in Denmark back in 1973 with the publication of her acerbically-titled book of essays Fri os fra kærligheden (Deliver Us from […]

Isobel Coleman’s recently-released Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East presents a case-study of sorts, highlighting the work of Muslim women who are engaged in combating patriarchal culture as a means to change societal norms and achieve empowerment. A large part of Coleman’s argument emphasizes the role of Islamic Feminism, where […]

Editor’s Note: Readers, since this has been a busy week of travel for me, I haven’t been able to put together a regular Friday links. But we’ve got a treat for you! Enjoy Raaz’s interview with G. Willow Wilson! In The Butterfly Mosque, G. Willow Wilson presents her own personal experience of her conversion to […]

After reading Ali Eteraz’s Children of Dust, I bemoaned the lack of examples in literature—and even in the public discourse—of healthy relationships and interactions between Muslim men and women.  In films, literature, the blogosphere, and even in the everyday interactions of Muslims, interactions (especially romantic relationships) are often presented in a negative light: Muslim women […]

This story was written by M. Lynx Qualey and originally appeared at Arabic Literature (in English). Al Jazeera reports that the cultural pages of Gulf newspapers are brimming with talk about sex. Or, rather, they’re brimming with talk about talk about sex. This is because sex has been a growing phenomenon in Saudi literature. Earlier […]

For those familiar with women’s “lifestyle” magazines, the call to be “sexy” in some way or another is not new. We women need to have “sexy” everything: attitude, legs, skin, armpits, you name it. So pervasive is this message that I’m surprised that no one has spontaneously combusted from sexual arousal at the sight of […]

In March, MMW ran a guest post by Özlem Sensoy and Elizabeth Marshall about representations of Muslim women and girls in young adult literature (part one, part two, and part three.)  The article focuses on stories, written by non-Muslim Western authors, of Muslim girls living in places like Afghanistan, and the kinds of images that are created through these novels.  In […]

“I got married secretly in a mosque,” says Elisabeth Elhazza. Her words are the title of an article in Tara, a Swedish women’s magazine, which gives an account of Elisabeth’s marriage to “seven years younger Khairi Elhazza from Libya,” how he proposed, and how “Elisabeth said yes without hesitation and stepped into what was, for […]

Turkish novelist Elif Şafak (pictured below) ties her diversity of experiences and her background into her storytelling. Writing in both Turkish and English, Şafak’s writing is rich with history: her last novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, received several glowing reviews. Her latest novel, The Forty Rules of Love, tells the tale of a discontent 40-year-old […]