A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to catch up with director of the documentary film “Hip Hop Hijabis,” Mette Reitzel, who followed the lives of UK-based hip hop duo, Poetic Pilgrimage. Poetic Pilgrimage consists of two Muslim convert women, Tanya Muneera Williams and Sukina Owen-Douglas, who have shaken the U.K hip hop scene. […]

This post was written by guest contributor Yasmin N. Ali. The sounds of violin spun around an increasingly frenzied melody of sitar, tabla and the loud, confident vocals of the lead singer.  He danced and spun around his band mates, all of whom were jumping to the steady beats pouring from the drummer.  The result […]

Who comes to mind when hip hop and Islam are mentioned in the same sentence? Maybe hip hop and rap icons like Lupe Fiasco or Napoleon. The music genre and the religion have a long and intimate history; however, how many female artists come to mind? In the U.K., a duo of women called Poetic […]

Mali is a country well known for its strong musical traditions. In a country where music is viewed as part of a cultural heritage, it is especially used as a means through which history is recorded. Music is considered to be Mali’s “greatest and most important export product”. It is also a tool of resistance. […]

Editor’s Note: Please join me in welcoming Anike, MMW’s newest contributor!  You may know her better from her blog as “cosmic yoruba.”  We’re thrilled to have Anike join the MMW team. It is still quite rare to come across depictions of Muslim women in “mainstream” Ghanaian or Nigerian media. (By “mainstream”, I am referring to […]

Earlier this year, South African Muslim media was abuzz with the story of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted and sentenced to 86 years in prison for assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. The media campaign served to raise awareness about Siddiqui’s alleged abuse at the […]

The ladies of MMW recieved a link to this video on Twitter. For the videophobes and those who don’t want their brain to melt and leak out of their ears, it is a song apparently about hijab called “You Got it Covered.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNAs771kWGY&feature=youtu.be A sampling of the lyrics is as follows: “girl, you’re more than […]

The new “Bad Girls” music video by M.I.A. has been circulating over the past week or so.  For those who haven’t seen it, it’s posted below, and here’s one description from a  LA Times blog post: Set to M.I.A.’s Punjabi-laced chill-banger, “Bad Girls” is a lady gangsta fantasy but one that plays off very real […]

As 2011 draws to a close, we at MMW are looking back at our year of posts.  For those who missed posts earlier in the year, or for those who want to look back through some of the things we wrote about, we’ll be going through some of those through the rest of this week.  […]

“My voice is a gift from God.” Khaira Arby in an interview with Steve Hochman for Spinner. Reading through a list of upcoming acts at my local music venue, I came across a woman whose name I hadn’t heard of before—Khaira Arby. Intrigued, I clicked on her act to learn more about her. Singing in […]