This was originally published at Migrant Rights. On April 10th, Kuwait’s Arab Times reported about the rape and kidnapping of an unnamed Indonesian maid by a police officer. This report is an appalling example of the regional papers’ disregard to migrant and women’s rights. Kuwaiti press in general (except for Ben Garcia, a staff reporter […]

Despite her story being told in a series of media alerts posted a few weeks ago on Racialicious, Katha Politt’s blog at The Nation, and here at MMW, Nazia Quazi’s problem is not making the headlines it should. Dual Indian-Canadian citizen Quazi has been held in Saudi Arabia for the past two years due to […]

The Quebec niqab thing keeps going and going (ugh), and I’m still avoiding talking about media coverage of the issue head-on, mostly because I think I’ll explode if I think more about the absurdity of it all, and I’ve written on niqab so much already that there’s not a lot else to say.  This post at […]

The phrase “homegrown terrorist” is being thrown around a lot these days. ABC News used it in reference to Colleen LaRose, a Pennsylvania woman who has been charged with using the Internet for terrorist recruitment. She has also been accused of planning to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who drew cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed […]

At the end of February, a Muslimah “pray-in” led by Fatima Thompson at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. created a stir in the media.  A small group of women chose to pray in the back of the men’s section of the prayer area, rather than use the separate women’s section.  Mosque leaders proceeded to […]

This was written by Thea Lim and originally appeared at Racialicious. We are late on picking up the story of Nazia Quazi, a Canadian woman being held against her will in Saudi Arabia. The Coast recently ran an interview with Quazi, explaining her situation: A Canadian woman being held against her will in Saudi Arabia […]

I am so, so sick of talking about the niqab.  So I’m not really going to, despite the fact that the Canadian province of Quebec recently introduced a bill that, if made law, would force everyone to show their face when dealing with provincial government bodies.  If anyone else has intelligent insight on recent Quebec-related […]

British tabloids are often accused of offering hysterical coverage of major and inconsequential events alike.* The Daily Mail lives up to this unflattering generalization in its article regarding Essma Marjam, a single mother of six who is receiving housing benefits for a five bedroom house in the London Borough of Westminster. This is one in […]

In early February, a story broke about a briefing being given to Belgian soldiers departing for Afghanistan. In this briefing, the speaker notably made the following points, as related by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir: “[Having a] girl to a Muslim usually means that the man has poor sperm quality. I’m not joking. Manly men make […]

This is an edited version of an article published at Café Pyala. You can read the article in its entirety at their website. Oh, shoot. Here we go again with coverage of Fashion Week in Pakistan. Can we do anything in Pakistan without it being linked in some way to either appeasing the Taliban or […]