Editor’s Note: As previous RIS-themed posts have noted (see our post from 2008, two posts from 2009, and two posts from the 2011 Convention), the lack of women scholars is a persistent problem at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit events.  Here, Sumaya, a guest contributor to MMW, outlines some of the reasons that this is […]

Yesterday, we posted Sharrae’s analysis of gender issues at the 2011 Reviving the Islamic Spirit Convention.  Although I wasn’t able to attend the Convention, I did make it to the Knowledge Retreat, a six-day series of classes with several of the RIS scholars.  There is much to say about the Retreat, but one moment in […]

See Part One here. Oh it did NOT just go there… My blood began to rise during the lecture of Dr. Abdal Hakim Jackson within the session, “Changing the Present, Dreaming the Future.” Mid-way during his lecture, Dr. Jackson beseeched us sisters to “calm down for the next 30 seconds.” He then asked the audience what […]

Editor’s note: I would like to welcome Sharrae, MMW’s newest contributor!  Sharrae starts us off with a two-part post on the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference held in Toronto ever December.  MMW has covered previous RIS conferences in 2008 and 2009 (part one and part two).  Check back tomorrow for even more RIS-related coverage. For […]

We didn’t have our usual links last week, so this week’s list is extra long, and covers both weeks.  Enjoy! Pakistan has passed the “Prevention of Anti-Women Practices” bill, but the fight is far from over, according to activists and legal professionals. The Deutsche Welle features an interview with female politician Sitara Ayaz, who highlights […]

Shortly after the results of the first stage of the Egyptian parliament elections, everyone started to freak out.  After the majority win of Islamist parties Al-Nahda party in Tunisia and the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in Egypt, memories from Sudan in 1989, Gaza in 2006, and, most importantly, Iran in 1979 came to mind. […]

After reading a couple of reviews (on FilmJabber and Afterellen.com) about Circumstance, a recent film by Maryam Keshavarz, I decided to give the film a shot. Circumstance is a drama set in Iran, where gender and sexuality are heavily controlled by the political regime. The film depicts the story of Atafeh and Shireen, two sixteen-year-old […]

Since its debut in November, TLC’s All-American Muslim has received a lot of coverage (to say the least). Among the highlights, the show has been talked about for its novelty of portraying American Muslims on television, critiques of the portrayal of a singular American Muslim community, critiques from everyone regarding the portrayal of hijab on […]

When Lebanese writer and poet Joumana Haddad’s I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of An Angry Arab Woman was published in 2010, it was described as a bold treatise, intentionally designed to be revolutionary, written in manifesto style. Recently, a revived interest has situated it in more superficial terms as “a provocative new book which “lifts the veil” […]

As 2011 draws to a close, we at MMW are looking back at our year of posts.  For those who missed posts earlier in the year, or for those who want to look back through some of the things we wrote about, we’ll be going through some of those through the rest of this week.  […]