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 […]

In spring 2006, I was in a Barnes & Nobles in downtown Philadelphia looking for a book to read, when Minaret caught my eye. It was in a display of books recommended by the staff. The front cover wasn’t that intriguing (usual woman with a veil on her face that often shows up on books […]

The authors ask why a society known for sheltering women, would design and sell the kinkiest styles of lingerie. Of course all women need bras and panties, but the lingerie described in this book is more Frederick’s of Hollywood than it is Hanes Her Way.

SAL.AM magazine is “a freely distributed, quarterly lifestyle magazine, targeted at Muslims”, according to the magazine’s website. The original idea was to have a paper magazine, which is why there’s a mock-up featured on the site. I am not comfortable with this woman’s body on the front of the magazine, with her head cut off. […]

A recent Toronto Life magazine article regarding Toronto teenager Aqsa Parvez’s murder, entitled Girl, Interrupted, has sparked outrage in many circles in Toronto and beyond. And for very good reason. Journalist Mary Rogan has simply perpetuated stereotypes about Muslims, South Asian culture, and immigrant communities. The disrespectful treatment begins with the front cover, where you […]

This post was written by Marwa El Naggar and previously published at alt.muslim and IslamOnline. There’s something not quite right about seeing a citation for One Thousand and One Nights in a bibliography for a novel about the Lady Aishah, Prophet Muhammad’s famous wife. What it says about an author who would, in writing about […]

This was written by Amal Awad and originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald. As I spot one veiled cliche after another in the bookshop, I realise that when it comes to Muslims in print, if kidnapped children and enslavement were the flavour of the ’80s and ’90s, honour killings are the leitmotif of 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 […]

This was written by Sakina and originally published at Ruined by Reading. I recently finished Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni, which is a memoir of an Iranian girl who grew up in California and has moved to Tehran as a BBC correspondent in an effort to find a place where she belongs. She spent her […]

Muslimah Media Watch thanks Aynur for the tip! The title caught my eye. The blurb promised that: “The Muslim Next Door clears away the misconceptions about Islam and why they flourish –media distortion, confusion about what is cultural rather than religious, the language barrier, and the old tall tales that still persist after thirteen centuries.” […]