Isobel Coleman’s recently-released Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East presents a case-study of sorts, highlighting the work of Muslim women who are engaged in combating patriarchal culture as a means to change societal norms and achieve empowerment. A large part of Coleman’s argument emphasizes the role of Islamic Feminism, where […]

Al Nisa (Arabic for “the women”), a Muslim woman’s organization based out of the Netherlands, has found a new and eye-catching way to combat misconceptions about Muslim women in the Netherlands. In early May they launched their campaign titled, “Really Dutch.” This poster campaign features Muslim women, pictured wearing a headscarf, doing things which are […]

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 […]

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 […]

Rima Fakih, an Arab Muslim immigrant, won the Miss USA Pageant Sunday night: She beat out four blondes and set off a whirlwind of media coverage stemming from her “stripper” past to her Shi’a background. On the positive side, one idealist commenter compared her to Barack Obama. Another went so far as to say her […]

Today is the Day of Action on Quebec’s Bill 94, which I wrote about last week. In honor of this, I wanted to share a video of a community dialogue on the bill, which took place in Toronto in early May.  It was a really impressive event, with a very engaging panel and over 150 people […]

The provincial legislature of Quebec, Canada, is currently considering a bill that would refuse key social services to anyone wearing a face covering if made into law.  Political discussions around this bill have made it clear that the law specifically targets women who wear niqab, a face veil worn by some Muslim women. As Muslim […]

Al Jazeera recently aired a piece titled Lebanon’s Women Warriors, which features the testimonies and stories of eight women who fought against occupying forces from 1975-1990 in Lebanon. The film offers a unique perspective: it shows the role women played in the war, the unconventional weapons they used, and ways they fought. Perhaps the most […]

In March, MMW ran a guest post by Özlem Sensoy and Elizabeth Marshall about representations of Muslim women and girls in young adult literature (part one, part two, and part three.)  The article focuses on stories, written by non-Muslim Western authors, of Muslim girls living in places like Afghanistan, and the kinds of images that are created through these novels.  In […]