“Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” -Toni Morrison, Beloved Awhile back, a friend and colleague said something about me I wasn’t sure how to take: “Heba,” she said, “in some ways you shatter everything that I thought I knew about Muslim women; in other ways, you absolutely embody stereotypes I have.” I smiled, […]

Swedish fashion designer Iman Aldebe is leading a modest fashion revolution. Aldebe has been celebrated for her designs by both Muslim and non-Muslims who choose to wear her signature pieces, however her success hasn’t come easily. The barriers she has faced and reasons for her eventual success may give us an indication as to the […]

This week’s Friday Links were compiled by Eren and Samya.  Australia Racism and sexism is creating a toxic mix for the hundreds of thousands of Muslim women living in Australia, says Dr. Mehreen Faruqi as they have become the most likely targets of those retaliating and venting their anger in the aftermath of terrorist incidents. Dr. […]

Salaams and hello, dear MMW readers, Welcome to our new site! I’m excited to announce to you that Muslimah Media Watch has moved as of today.  You can now find us here at http://www.muslimahmediawatch.org/.  Our archives will stay up at our old Patheos site, but after today, all new content (as well as our archives up to this point) […]

Upon learning about the Paris attacks and the #PrayforParis hashtag that emerged, I felt many things – but I was not shocked. Violence does not shock me. As a woman of colour and as an immigrant, it is part of my surroundings. I have become desensitized to violence. If you are like me and grew […]

“Do not let your difficulties fill you with anxiety, after all it is only in the darkest nights that stars shine more brightly” – Ali Ibn Abu Talib (RA) Only from darkness can we see light. Only from struggle do we understand the roots of solidarity. These days in Toronto, these expressions could not be […]

When I first heard the title of Dr. Nina Ansary’s latest book, Jewels of Allah, on the life of women in Iran, I must admit I had to restrain myself. In general I’m pretty wary about labelling women as two-dimensional objects, whether in a negative (‘lollipops’) or positive (‘pearl in its shell’) way. Ansary explains […]

This post was written by Guest contributor Seema Shafei (@seemashafei). I’ll never forget the time a classmate turned to me and said that we couldn’t elect Obama because his middle name was Hussein. You never know, she told me. He could be just like Saddam. If a name could elicit this much fear, a language […]

Saba Ahmed, the founder of the Republican Muslim Coalition, appeared on Fox News in an American flag hijab. See the BBC news article here (as I refuse to link to anything going to Fox News) and if you want to buy her hijab, Forbes has let us know it is ten dollars and can be […]

Guest contributor Stéphanie Renée Roy (@LGD_Stephy) interviews Eman El Husseini.    It was 2 years ago that I first saw Eman El Husseini’s stand-up comedy. I was then a fairly new convert and Eman impressed me when she spoke so honestly about Canadian experience as a Palestinian Muslim. She began professional comedy in 2006 because she […]