This post was written by Guest Contributor Habeeba Husain. Habeeba blogs at My Future is at My  Finger Tips and tweets at @HabeebaHusain.  After occupying a top floor unit in an abandoned Baltimore building for nearly a year, Asma Hanif got a bitter taste of what it’s like to be homeless. People living with addiction health issues […]

In the article “Domestic violence is more than just physical abuse” published in Malay language newspaper Berita Harian on December 1, 2017, the executive director of local ulama (religious scholar) organisation Pergas, Mohd Yusri Yuhbi Mohd Yusof, looks at several aspects of abuse and neglect in Muslim families: financial, psychological and emotional, physical, sexual and […]

Trigger warning for discussion of domestic violence. The author of this piece wishes to remain anonymous.   It’s difficult to write this. There are some things that are difficult to tell anyone. They seem too outlandish to be real to anyone else. There are perspective shifts involved that you know wouldn’t be possible unless someone had […]

This post was written by Laila Alawa (@lulainlife). A few weeks ago, the online world blew up in response to the allegations – and later, leaked video – of an American football player, Ray Rice, beating his then-fiancée into unconsciousness. Within the online Muslim American community, the topic was hotly discussed and debated. Nuances were examined, resources […]

Content note: This post includes discussions of domestic violence and of scholarly attempts to justify it. For a number of Muslim women I know (myself included), one of the most complicated Qur’anic passages to contend with is verse 4:34, a verse that, at least in many of the most straightforward translations, appears to establish men […]

Having survived a father who used religion to justify his violence, I’ve spent a lot of time grappling with faith. The process of grappling has taught me the value of difficult, uncomfortable questions and conversations, through which I’ve learned about myself, my ummah, and Islam. But Muslims in the West rarely have the luxury of […]

In light of several interesting comments to my previous post on the Rochdale “grooming” case, I decided a follow-up piece was in order. Much of the furore surrounding the case has been with respect to race and its alleged role in the attack, specifically: does the “Asian” (Pakistani and thereby Muslim) origin of the attackers […]

The post was written by guest contributor Maheen Nusrat. In the latest episode of Swedish television channel SVT’s investigative news programme Uppdrag granskning, ten Swedish mosques were visited, and in six of them, imams were caught on camera giving advice harmful to women and contrary to Swedish law.  (An unofficial subtitled version of the episode, […]

This post was written by guest contributor Arwa Aburawa. Back in December 2011, gender-based violence hit the headlines in the Arab world when soldiers brutally attacked a hijab-wearing Egyptian protester. Following the incident, there was widespread outrage that a woman would be treated in such a violent manner. And rightly so. However, it got me […]

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 […]