I write this post as an expression of solidarity, because as someone who lives in Turtle Island (Canada) and has close ties to Latin American immigrant and refugee communities, I find myself needing to speak out. I come from a country where the situation of violence and poverty since the mid-90s (and before) has driven […]

A Singaporean news channel produced a series of Youtube videos featuring selected athletes with disabilities, or para-athletes. One featured athlete is Aishah Samad, a shooter who had to have all four of her limbs amputated after going into septic shock and contracting gangrene in the hospital on the way home from a trip to China. […]

There are many not so nice things about being immediately recognizable as a Muslim in today’s world, but there are a few things that are, usually, nice. One of them is what I like to call the salam nod. You spot a fellow Muslim, and do a nod of acknowledgement, and depending on how you […]

A recent study has shown the number of Saudi women who do not marry young has shot up to four million, more than double the number five years ago, because apparently Saudi women prioritize employment and education over early marriage. A reader of The Arab American News, who had stopped at a traffic light with the […]

As is usually the case in France, any time anything happens where Muslims could even remotely be involved, it becomes a media circus – any time is a good time to talk about how “Muslims want it their way” or how “Muslims don’t want to integrate.” Last week, a 21 year old woman in a […]

A few weeks ago, I was meeting a friend of a friend for the first time. Now usually, my name gets transformed into Tamsin, or Tasmeem, or Tasmeen (the last two have quite unfortunate meanings in Arabic). In this case, the person I was introducing myself to said “Oh, like that creepy ISI woman.” I […]

This post was originally published on the writer’s blog.  I left the mosque many years ago. I think the last straw for me was seeing female teachers and preachers telling us that women should not be in positions of leadership; that they should stay home and care for their children; or that a woman’s nature […]

An expose by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in November 2014 on the use of virginity tests in Indonesia’s police force has revealed that just because people are silent over a long-standing practice, it doesn’t mean that it is accepted as a normal part of everyday life. Also referred to as the “two-finger test”, it involves […]

Who doesn’t love stories and reports of young Muslims girls in Afghanistan, leaping through the air and landing on their skateboards? The agility and passion for skateboarding is juxtaposed with general tomboy badassery, which it is implied, is surprising to find in in their homeland. Their long colourful dresses heighten the wonder of their athleticism. […]

One of the events at the All About Women program held at Sydney Opera House this year was entitled “Conversations with Muslim Women.” Featuring two Australian Muslim women, Randa Abdel-Fattah and Susan Carland, the event was advertised as a conversation with, rather than about, Muslim women. So the three women on stage have an engaging discussion, […]