This may not be timely, but it makes up for it in offensiveness. Watch this skit, MadTV’s idea of what English-language Al Jazeera is like. The skit is packed with racist stereotypes about the Middle East. The only female reporter in the skit is a woman in niqab (presumably forced on her). She says, “My […]

Let’s play a game, shall we? It will be like a drinking game, but without drinking. Okay, here are the rules: every time you read a columnist use the follow words in an article that talks about Muslim women, give five dollars to charity: • “pushing boundaries” • “East and West” • “tradition” • a […]

This was written by Safiya, and originally appeared at Outlines.   This week the programme is set in the U.K Regular viewers and/or readers of these reviews may have noticed that this programme is a tad fond of sweeping generalisations. The first words spoken by Armani Zain are: “Tonight I’m exploring a world right on […]

It’s a common assumption that Muslim women don’t—or can’t—speak for themselves. Fawzia Afzal-Khan aims to break that idea into tiny pieces with a book: Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out (2005). The book is a compilation of works written by different Muslim women, with a forward written by Nawal El Saadawi. In the introduction, […]

* Alya Alvi looks at the state of Kashmiri women. * Malaysia’s The Star features a laudable article on rape having nothing to do with women’s attire. * A Bosnian Serb police officer is sentenced for war crimes, among them rape of Muslim women. * The president of the Association of Muslim Intellectuals in Italy […]

MMW thanks bint battuta for the tip! Why do articles mention women’s clothing when it’s not relevant? Exhibit A: an article on the status of prostitution in Afghanistan (you might recognize it from Friday links). Exhibit B: the story of an attempted kidnapping, from the arms of the child’s grandmother, in Iraq. “A” was written […]

In 2007, hairdresser Deborah Rodriguez published a memoir of her experience in Afghanistan. Despite the cringe-inducing subtitle — An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil — the book itself, Kabul Beauty School, isn’t bad. (Interestingly, the book goes by a different subtitle in the U.K., The Art of Friendship and Freedom.) Rodriguez is moved to […]

This was written by Emrah Güler and was originally published at the Turkish Daily News. In light of celebrating Mother’s Day last Sunday and the Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival continuing in Ankara this week, we take a brief look at women in the history of Turkish cinema. We look at how women were […]

This was written by Safiya, and originally published at Outlines. You can see earlier reviews of this show here. This week’s episode is in Cairo. Presenter Amani Zain is quick to paint it as a party town from her experiences there as a student. Zain gives a good insight into dress in Cairo, explaining that […]

This was written by Sakina and originally appeared at Ruined by Reading. The Veil And The Male Elite by Fatima Mernissi is probably worth reading even if you don’t agree with it, and it should only take you 2-4 hours to get through. I don’t agree with a lot of what she says, and I […]