Moroccan sociologist and feminist writer Fatima Mernissi passed away on the 30th of November, aged 75. As the news broke on social media, many of us at MMW shared stories about the lasting impact Mernissi had on our lives, and what we had learned from this pioneer of Muslim feminism. Here is that conversation.   […]

A recent report in The Independent highlighted that there has been a spike in Islamophobic hate crime of more than 300 per cent since the Paris attacks. Most victims of the UK hate crimes were Muslim girls and women aged from 14 to 45 in “traditional Islamic dress.” Even before the attacks, the recent high […]

“Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” -Toni Morrison, Beloved Awhile back, a friend and colleague said something about me I wasn’t sure how to take: “Heba,” she said, “in some ways you shatter everything that I thought I knew about Muslim women; in other ways, you absolutely embody stereotypes I have.” I smiled, […]

Upon learning about the Paris attacks and the #PrayforParis hashtag that emerged, I felt many things – but I was not shocked. Violence does not shock me. As a woman of colour and as an immigrant, it is part of my surroundings. I have become desensitized to violence. If you are like me and grew […]

“Do not let your difficulties fill you with anxiety, after all it is only in the darkest nights that stars shine more brightly” – Ali Ibn Abu Talib (RA) Only from darkness can we see light. Only from struggle do we understand the roots of solidarity. These days in Toronto, these expressions could not be […]

This post was written by Guest contributor Seema Shafei (@seemashafei). I’ll never forget the time a classmate turned to me and said that we couldn’t elect Obama because his middle name was Hussein. You never know, she told me. He could be just like Saddam. If a name could elicit this much fear, a language […]

Guest contributor Stéphanie Renée Roy (@LGD_Stephy) interviews Eman El Husseini.    It was 2 years ago that I first saw Eman El Husseini’s stand-up comedy. I was then a fairly new convert and Eman impressed me when she spoke so honestly about Canadian experience as a Palestinian Muslim. She began professional comedy in 2006 because she […]

This post is written by guest contributor, Sarabi N. Eventide (@SarabiNEventide) Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), the extremist group in Bangladesh responsible for the deaths of numerous secular and liberal bloggers, is once again attempting to dictate what is and is not acceptable in Bengali media. In its most recent move, the group issued a threat to media companies employing women […]

Emma Watson met with Malala Yousafzai in an interview posted online this week. I will let you draw your own conclusions (more sources here and here). Speaking of Malala, U.S. Presidential candidate Marco Rubio named her as someone he would like to have a beer with. The Republican Party, always with its fingers on the […]

This post was written by guest contributor Shereen Malherbe (@malherbegirl). Headline grabbing assertions made by British MP Baroness Cox regarding Muslim men having up to 20 children each have been condemned by the Muslim community. In search of the representation of women in the UK media, it didn’t take me long to come across the Telegraph article […]