After our roundtable on Nouman Ali Khan and spiritual abuse, multiple women have accused  scholar Tariq Ramadan  of rape and sexual abuse. In addition, the Harvey Weinstein scandal has triggered responses by  victims and survivors sharing their accounts of sexual violence almost daily. This included the social media campaign #metoo, in which  some women  voiced […]

The past couple of months have felt like a dam has broken as more and more women (and men) come forward to disclose their experiences with sexual harassment and/or assault and to name their abusers. I still am not sure what it is about this moment that has made people listen to the survivors, because […]

Famous Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan has been accused of rape by at least three adult women as well as having been accused of having  sexual relationships with underage students while he was teaching in Geneva. As a Muslim living in Switzerland, and who didn’t run in his circles, I was warned about his “close relationships” […]

A few years ago, a friend of mine pulled me over at a conference I was attending on sports and politics. “Shireen, how do I get a place at the table? There is never a space for me,” he said. I stopped what I was doing and looked him squarely in the eyes: “Build your […]

The past year has been tumultuous for international politics. Citizens of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union (a move usually termed “Brexit”);  Donald Trump became the president of the United States, despite his attacks on liberal media and unfiltered islamophobia, racism and sexism; Saudi women gained the right to drive in the […]

This post is related, but only slightly, to the Nouman Ali Khan (NAK) scandal (in which a religious leader used his power to harass and threaten women, as MMW explored in a recent roundtable). I don’t want to talk about NAK, but I do want to talk about the idea of spiritual abuse, a concern […]

Recently, The Independent reported on a study finding that discrimination in the job market adversely affects employment prospects for young Muslims. The Independent reports on the study as if the information is new, but three years ago Roger Dobson wrote an article on a study with similar findings for the same periodical. The gist of […]

Lately reading the news from around the world has felt like swimming in a wave pool. Every time you get over a wave and find your footing, another one comes and knocks you off your feet. It’s hard to rejoice in anything positive.  Having fun seems like a betrayal. Attempting to create art feels like […]

Last month on Aug 9, a gay man and a transgender woman from Singapore were arrested in a mall in Abu Dhabi just a day after they arrived for a photoshoot and networking. For the charges of ‘wearing women’s clothes’ and ‘outrageous acts in public’, according to court documents, the two were sentenced to a […]

On September 7, Mexico and Guatemala experienced the most destructive earthquake since the eighteenth century. Whereas Mexico City remained almost intact, the areas closer to the epicentre, including Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guatemala, suffered incredible damages. Media coverage of the issue has been quite poor, to be honest, focusing primarily on Juchitán, an important economic Zapotec […]