This article was written for Muslimah Media Watch by Anny Gaul. Yesterday, The New York Times ran an article about what Iraqi women are wearing these days. It paints a picture of a once-secular society’s pluralism run amok: “Vendors around the Kadhimiya mosque in northern Baghdad sell all manner of women’s clothing, from drape-like black […]

Apparently, and without much to my own knowledge, I, as the generic Muslim female, have been gettin’ the haraam on in public washrooms. Okay, a huge exaggeration but this stems from a frustration rooted in a justified source of contempt for media coverage of the female body of the non-European/White persuasion. There is something sincerely tiring about this voyeuristic obsession with not only the sex lives and sexualities of women but those, in particular, of Muslim (see also: ethnic, brown, ‘other’) women…

The ongoing sexual excesses of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi routinely make headlines. In fact, the tabloid fodder that is his life has been somewhat of a release for me in a time of heavy news (Egypt and Tunisia, anyone?).   Orgies with showgirls, presents for nubile barely legal girls who are “just friends,” and assorted […]

The images that Afghanistan conjures are usually ones that mirror front-page stories of newspapers around the world: armed Taliban crouching at the entry of a mountain cave, women in burqas, and images of public stonings are just a few that are constantly associated with the country. HBO is schedule to air a two-part documentary that […]

The Violence is Not Our Culture (VNC) Campaign and the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) network recently launched a new publication on zina (illicit sex) laws and their tentative (re)introduction in some predominantly Muslim nations.  “Control and Sexuality – The Revival of Zina Laws in Muslim Contexts,” is an attempt by civil society organizations […]

On Friday, the President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia fled his homeland as it was engulfed by an uprising, sparked by the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed university graduate who had taken to selling fruit in Sidi Bouzid.  When authorities confiscated his wares for not having a license, Bouazizi set himself on fire in front […]

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is now a high-profile human rights case around the world. The chronology of Ashtiani’s case has been reported by a number of sources, but here’s the basic story: in 2006, Ashtiani was accused of having an illicit relationship with two men after the death of her husband. However, the confession presented by […]

On November 28th, the Swiss voted in one of their many referendums. The topic of this referendum was the deportation of criminal foreigners. This seems innocent enough, but the Swiss, at least for one local party, found a way to give it an anti-female anti-Islam twist.  Sadly, this initiative, spearheaded (as usual) by the Swiss […]

In a recent article by heralded Muslim Feminist Mona Eltahawy in the ever-tabloid Toronto Star, asks to be allowed to confuse you, the reader, by virtue of the apparently contradictory label self-assigned to her socio-political and religious beliefs. The point of article, as it become somewhat clear-ish in the last few sparse paragraphs, is to shed light on how despite her unorthodox views on Islam, and particularly gender in Islam, the faith “belongs” to her as much as to any other Muslim, more orthodox than her or not. This perspective frames her support for the Mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, Park51; a support caught between ” [televangelist] Bill Keller’s right wing: bigoted and xenophobic [..and] the Muslim right wing, which uses Islam…to fuel its misogyny.”

According to a recent study carried out by Transparency International, Somalia was deemed to be the most corrupt nation in the world. The economic and political instability of Somalia has made it the site of many human rights violations, particularly against women. Females are underrepresented in the workforce as well as education. In fact, slightly […]