When I watched Afshan Azad entering the Yule Ball as Padma Patil with Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I did not even think about whether or not she was a Muslim. Instead, like many Potter fans, I was thinking about Hermione, and how the two of them really just needed […]

June is exam time in North Africa. With some amusement, I read a link forwarded to me from an Algerian website about young women using their Bluetooths and hijab to cheat on their baccalaureate exams.  A quick Google search proved this was a pan-Maghreb thing, as Moroccan and Tunisian media has written on the subject. […]

The Independent recently published an article by Jerome Taylor, titled “First woman to lead Friday prayers in the UK,” talking about the mixed-congregation Friday prayers that Canadian Raheel Raza was to lead the following day.  I read it, feeling confused: didn’t Amina Wadud do this already? Well, yes, she did.  The beginning of the article […]

Those of you who have been following debates surrounding academic freedom might remember the story of Dr. Samar Habib (pictured below right), whose “Women in Arabic and Islamic Literature” course was cut from the University of Western Sydney schedule largely due to complaints by Muslim organizations like the Australian National Imams Council and Muslims for […]

The father and brother of Aqsa Parvez, a Muslim Canadian teenager who was killed in December 2007, recently confessed to murdering her and were sentenced to life in prison.  Canadian media outlets covered this news widely.  At the Toronto Star, one of the reporters writing about the case was Noor Javed, who co-wrote one detailed overview […]

The Short version: Time: A few months ago. Action: Eight female journalists working for Al Jazeera network signed an official complaint against Deputy Editor Ayman Jaballah, stating that they have been harassed by his comments on their appearance. Reaction: The network ordered an investigation. Then: Time: Last month. Action: The network reported it was within […]

Rima Fakih has become an unlikely member of the Islamophobic grab-bag of images. Joining the images of oppressed burqa-wearers and angry men with beards, Miss USA’s victory has become a part of another far-fetched conspiracy. The best part is that we are actually seeing a ridiculous debate about the legitimacy of her victory, and whether […]

This was written by Sabria S. Jawhar and was originally published in the Saudi Gazette. Two weeks ago I was interviewed on an Australian television news program about the wave of proposed burqa bans in Europe, Canada, and now, apparently, in Australia. No one should be surprised about my opinion of the whole thing: It’s […]

This is what happens when you paint niqabs and the women who wear them as evil. Cultural issues keep Arab-American women away from health care. Iran has sentenced in absentia award-winning women’s rights activist Shadi Sadr. A Saudi woman gives a morality officer a taste of his own medicine. More here. Miss USA link dump! […]

At the end of April, on the Swiss German-language television show Arena, one of the “rising stars” of the “Muslim scene” in Switzerland, convert Nicholas Abdullah Blancho, was present. With Blancho was an acolyte in his CCIS/IZRS (Conseil central islamique suisse/Islamisches Zentralrats Schweiz) organization, a certain young Swiss convert of Kurdish Alevi origin named Ferah […]