MMW‘s Friday Links last week had within it three links about Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani (below), who has appeared in the recent Hollywood film Body of Lies. Apparently, from the news reports, it seems that Farahani has created quite a stir within Iran, or as the LA Times reported some “Middle East-style intrigue”. Middle East-style […]

Muslimah Media Watch thanks Ali Eteraz for the tip! A few weeks ago, several Western outlets featured an exposé on Yasmin Fostok (pictured below), the daughter of infamous cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed. And when I say exposé, I’m not kidding: the majority of outlets that ran the story ran it with accompanying pictures of her […]

This was written by Muse and originally appeared at her blog Between Hope & Fear. It’s joyful to be a Muslim woman. So says Mohja Kahf. I agree with the sentiment and the substance of pretty much everything she wrote here, but her style bothers me. This is nothing new – I wrote about her […]

The Washington Post ran an op-ed on Sunday by Mohja Kahf, author of The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Entitled “Spare Me the Sermon on Muslim Women” Kahf responds to those who insist that the Muslim woman is oppressed, repressed, monolithic, brainwashed, and worthy of pity. Using brilliant language, which creates colourful pictures in the […]

There is a whole lotta ugly going on out there in the election coverage these days. (I’m thinking Canada, but this is true in the U.S. as well, and, come to think of it, likely anywhere else that might be having an election. But that’s a different story.) Montréal-Bourassa NDP candidate Samira Laouni (pictured below […]

It can sometimes be interesting (i.e. RIDICULOUS) to hear the advice of a man on how women can achieve equality. Now, of course men can be feminists…I see it all the time. Every movement needs allies and the feminist movement is no exception. However, the first and (by far) most important thing that men can […]

Today, let’s briefly re-visit one “frontier” of America’s War of on Terror. About a month or so ago we in the West began to hear about Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (pictured right), an American-educated Pakistani doctor who disappeared from Karachi, Pakistan in 2003, who had all of sudden re-appeared. It is reported that on her way […]

…but somehow the news article that covers it decides to completely change the subject to whether or not Islam condones/accepts polygamy. Yeah…I don’t quite understand the flow either. I was super excited to see the headline (“Iranian women battle the system”). It was like a “Yeah! Finally, Muslim women are being portrayed as really strong […]

Study blames mums for Afghan child mortality Seriously? The article tells us: High child mortality rates in conservative Afghanistan are linked not just to war but to mothers being uneducated and having little or no say when their children need medical help, a study has found. And according to the headline, this is somehow the […]

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a critique of a LA Times blog post about and Egyptian organization that is working to combat sexual harassment in Egypt. The BBC News has now has a piece on its website about Egyptian women and sexual harassment as well. The two articles are different. The LA Times […]