Today’s film “captures the true essence of the protagonist’s feelings getting into an arrange marriage.” It was submitted by Sanaa Iftikar in Pakistan. What do you think, readers? You can watch the rest of the submissions at the Women’s Voices Now website.

“Nour” is a real-life interview with, Eman, a woman who is living with HIV/AIDS told through a fictional reenactment. What do you think, readers? Check out the rest of the submissions at the Women’s Voices Now website.

“Saturday Mothers of Turkey” is a short documentary that highlights women in Turkey who are protesting the disappearance of Kurdish detainees. What do you think, readers? Check out the rest of the submissions at the Women’s Voices Now website.

The late submission deadline for the Women’s Voices Now “Women’s Voices from the Muslim World” film festival closed last week. We thought it would be a great time to highlight some of the films submitted–we’ll be featuring a new film every day this week. This one, titled “Sunglasses,” was submitted by Mustafa Kia in Afghanistan: […]

The Correctional Service of Canada has hired its first female Muslim prison guard, and her hiring has garnered mixed reviews. Last weekend, hundreds of Muslim believers gathered outside Azerbaijan’s education ministry to protest a ban on hijab, which police broke up. More here and here and here. MuslimMatters deconstructs an Islamophobic chain email that claims […]

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.”

Yesterday, I went over the presentations at the NVIC conference “Female Actors in the Egyptian Islamic Public Sphere-Increasing Significance through Increasing Mediatization;” today, I’ll cover the speakers’ day. Four female speakers were invited, representing different messages and perspectives. The speakers were Dalia Younis, a final year medical student who is the moderator for her mother’s […]

A very interesting workshop was organized on November 24-25 by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) titled: “Female Actors in Islamic Public Sphere – Increasing Significance through Increasing Mediatization.” This was a great conference, and I wish I could recap it all for you. But I’ll keep my review to the media-related panels. Maria Roeder […]

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 […]

Al Jazeera reports that a new Egyptian law guarantees 64 seats to female candidates, meaning a 1,500% rise in female parliamentarians. Remember Aisha? From the Time cover? Her father-in-law has been arrested in connection with her mutilation. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has not been released from prison. We’re confused, too. Read up on what’s going on […]