An eclectic round-up of some articles of interest elsewhere on the internet: A Muslim participant on Project Runway Philippines was recently eliminated.  MMW reader Sumaya writes that, “Just as quickly as I found out about the first Muslimah to be on Project Runway in the third season of Project Runway Phillipines, sadly I found out […]

This post was written by guest contributor Maheen Nusrat. On March 24th, 2012, a 32-year-old Iraqi-American woman, Shaima Alawadi, passed away.  She been found three days earlier by her 17-year-old daughter, brutally beaten in her home with a note next to her that said, “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” The story made national […]

Exactly a year ago on March 15th, the official day of Syrian uprising, I wrote about the Vogue feature on Syrian first-lady Asma al-Assad, which glamorized the haute couture-clad co-dictator while painting a painful picture of a woman genuinely fighting, on her own terms, for “democracy” in Syria.  The piece itself could not have been […]

When I first considered writing about Pakistan’s Shad Begum, one of the recipients of the 2012 International Women of Courage Award, I was quick to label the event as yet another attempt by American authorities to politicize women’s rights issues in self-serving ways.  Undoubtedly, politicization of Muslim women not only has a colonial legacy but […]

On a quiet Saturday morning, while browsing the web for the day’s news, a story from Saudi Arabia caught my attention: thousands of female university students at the King Khalid University in the southern city of Abha were reported protesting against against poor on-campus sanitary services. According to Emirati newspaper Al Bayan, one of the […]

The burdens of poverty affect most, if not all aspects, of social relations. Most prominently (and unsurprisingly), women carry the greatest burden of the social predicaments that arise from a dire lack of economic security.  Women in groups hit hardest by financial strain easily become seen as sources of further strain on their families. Education […]

Last month, the Lahore High Court made an interesting decision: to hand over a Pakistani child, Amina Tarar, to her French mother.  The case made headlines because the child’s mother, Ingrid Brandon Burger, is a non-Muslim. Amina’s father, Abdul Razzak Tarar, had taken the child from France to Pakistan in 2005, but the parties disagree […]

Last month marked a positive milestone in Pakistan’s civil rights legislations. Transgendered citizens, known as hijra or eunuchs, were allowed for the first time identify themselves as transgendered when registering to vote. The new legislation came after a much debated constitutional case in 2008 regarding the humiliation and ill treatment of transgendered persons in Pakistan.  […]

With the recent high-profile acquittal (on charges of sodomy) of Malaysia’s former Deputy Prime Minister and current opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, there has been increased international interest in Malaysian politics. Along with Ibrahim, the spotlight has also fallen on his People’s Justice Party and one of its leading lights, Nurul Izzah Anwar, daughter of Ibrahim […]

In the past few days, the Spanish media has been reporting on the case of a Moroccan woman in Spain who was bitten by her husband for refusing to wear hijab. The case of the unnamed woman has surprisingly made it to the media, where the other 36% of the domestic violence cases involving immigrants […]