Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley writes for the Time about how violence against Muslim Women is racist and misogynist. On December 10, Wheaton College associate professor of political science Larycia Hawkins announced on Facebook that she would wear a hijab. On Tuesday, the professor was placed on administrative leave by the Christian liberal arts school. Amid Rising […]

The optimism in my last post, at least for Switzerland, has been tempered with news coming out of Switzerland last week. In Switzerland (where niqab is already banned in Ticino since 2013), the German-speaking newspaper SonntagsBlick recently cited a survey saying that 62% of the Swiss population would be in favor of a burqa ban. […]

Since the anti-burqa law (or whatever you want to call it, I can’t anymore) was passed in France, women with “full cover” can be cited for non-compliance, and can be stopped for identity checks.  We all remember the story of the polygamous butcher and his many niqab-clad wives gleefully committing welfare fraud.  One of his wives […]

This article was written by Peter Gray. France’s decision to outlaw face veils sparked a robust debate about religion and women’s rights. In response to concerns that the law will negatively impact Muslim women, its advocates frequently mention that it enjoys the approval of several prominent French Muslim feminists. What is not mentioned, however, is […]

In France, they really don’t like any type of head coverings.  After decades of one headscarf affair after another, where generations of young women who wear hijab are forced to stop their education (way to go in liberating women, France), things got serious when France woke up in recent years to the threat of illegal […]

This is a guest post, written by Layla in response to our Doha Debates Roundtable. I’m a Muslim woman by birth and cultural affiliation that has lived in the U.S., the Middle East, and most recently, France.  For a year and a half now, since President Sarkozy first began advocating the ban on the face […]

(See Part 1 here.) I didn’t make it to the Friday panels because of schoolwork, but I was able to catch the talks on Saturday (November 20).  The first panel was called “The Theoretical and Analytical Challenges of Identity Politics,” with speakers Monique Deveaux, Cécile Laborde, and Beverley Baines; the second panel was entitled “’Managing’ […]

Quebec’s Bill 94, which would deny access to public services to women who wear niqab, is back in parliamentary hearings and, by all accounts, likely to pass.  This past weekend, an international conference entitled “Revealing Democracy: Bill 94 and the challenges of religious pluralism and ethnocultural diversity in Quebec” was held at Concordia University in […]

Last month, the Qatar Foundation’s Doha Debates took on the French niqab ban, discussing the motion: “This House believes France is right to ban the face veil.” Since the niqab ban (or the “burqa ban,” and we’ve dubbed it) has been a big media issue on MMW,  a few of MMW’s ladies decided to get […]

Early this month Amparo Sánchez Rosell (President of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Valencia) met with the Special Commission on the Study of Gender Violence of Les Corts Valencianes. As reported by ABC Agencias and WebIslam, Sánchez asked the commission to eradicate the idea that Islam consents or encourages gender violence, which she believes is […]