This post was written by guest contributor Rana Nazzal (@zaytouni_rana). I attended a talk last month by Palestinian woman and activist Yafa Jarrar as part of Israeli Apartheid Week at Carleton University. She spoke on a panel entitled “Indigenous and Palestinian women,” which addressed the struggles Aboriginal women in Canada and Palestinian women faced living under […]

This post was written by guest contributor Afia R. Fitriati (@AfiaRF) In a similar manner that social media helped to catalyze the Arab Spring, Indonesians are increasingly using social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reach out to others, build awareness of social issues, harness support and eventually create positive changes that the […]

In Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soeuif’s novel, The Map of Love, there is a scene that describes the statue Nahdet Masr (Rise of Egypt), a statue of a peasant woman unveiling as she stands next to the Sphinx: “The statue of Nahdet Masr rises before her: the statue at whose feet they had gathered in the […]

This post was written by guest contributor Nur Laura Caskey. This article is not meant as a statement, but as a question. A very long, multidimensional question, but one that I feel is pertinent and needed.  It is also meant partly as a supplement to my own fear-driven inability to act in the moment to […]

When I was a kid, I must confess, I used to love to watch Miss Universe on TV. Despite my mom’s dislike for the show, she would let me watch it (not without swearing at the TV once in a while). Beauty pageants in the 90’s gained popularity in Mexico after Lupita Jones won the […]

Breastfeeding may seem like the most natural thing in the world, but for a percentage of women it can be terribly challenging — especially if they cannot produce enough milk or refrain from breastfeeding due to medical reasons such as severe illness, accident, HIV infection, or taking certain medications that can harm the baby through breast milk. […]

This post was written by guest contributor Deonna Kelli Sayed. Divorce is a growing challenge for North American Muslim communities, as well as in Muslim societies around the world.  Part of that challenge is a lack of understanding regarding Muslim female experiences post-divorce. Thoughtful, researched dialogue exists concerning legal issues impacting divorce among Muslims in […]

Queer Muslim. These two words appear to be incongruent terms in many contexts; however, there has been a real commitment recently to creating a discourse that allows for queer Muslim voices to be respected and validated. It is tiring to be caught in conversations when the various parties cannot accept each other simply for their […]

This post was written by guest contributor Yasmeen Nizamy. The most basic rights: that’s what we will be talking about here. Forget about the flashy statements of the declarations of human rights, for the people I’m discussing are not recognized as humans to begin with. I’m talking about street children. But, who are street children? […]

As many of our loyal and long-time readers are well aware of, we’ve often covered the issue of women’s space and place in mosques. Whether we were looking at Chinese female imams and all-women mosques or the effect of mosque space on women’s love lives and, well, humanity, we’ve explored the various issues of gender, […]