This was written by Farah Banihali and originally published at Nuseiba. Last month a forum was held at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas focusing on Islam and feminism. Called “Beyond the Veil: Islam and Feminism”, it involved Dr. Gary Bouma, a sociology academic at Monash University; Zainah Anwar, founder of Malaysian group Sisters in Islam […]

This was originally published at my personal site. Phyllis Chesler and Naomi Wolf have gotten themselves into a battle royale over…the veil. And everyone seems to be concerned what two privileged non-Muslim white ladies think about this subject. Funny, considering Chesler picks fights all the time, and no one seemed to be interested in an […]

This originally appeared at AltMuslimah and was written by Uzma Mariam Ahmed. A recent headline article on CNN.com written by CNN correspondent John Blake entitled “Muslim Women Uncover Myths About the Hijab,” attempted to expose the “myths” surrounding the hijab. Though the title implies that the article contains insightful analysis of the popular misconceptions surrounding […]

When I first saw the book Muhajababes by Allegra Stratton in a bookshop in Beirut, I was intrigued enough to buy it. The cover boldly claims to have found, “the new Middle East–cool, sexy and devout”. I happily forked out the $14. On closer inspection however, the cover of the book is quite problematic (featured […]

A recent anti-discrimination campaign in the Netherlands is using a poster of a hijabi, whose face is hidden behind the photo of a non-hijabi, as part of an advertising campaign to fight discrimination. The poster appears at bus stops, and says “Do you have to let yourself at home when going out?” At first, I […]

The state of Georgia, which just last year infamously jailed a woman for wearing a hijab in a courtroom, is now under controversy again: this time Georgia State University is discriminating against a former student and visiting instructor. The start of the bullying began when Dr. Mary Stuckey, a senior faculty member in the communications […]

This was written by Mimi and originally published at threadbared. Because this is a fashion plus politics blog, I want to post some very brief thoughts about the protests rocking Iran after what some observers are calling a fraudulent election, reinstalling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against his main opposition, moderate reformer Mir Hossein Mousavi. (For news […]

The Fédération des femmes du Québec (Federation of Quebec Women; abbreviated as FFQ) recently had a special assembly in order to clarify its position on whether headscarves should be permitted for people working in the public service.  (The question of “reasonable accommodation” for minority groups has been the subject of intense debate in Quebec for […]

The March 2009 issue of Time magazine carried an extensive article about Islam, called “A Quiet Revolution grows in the Muslim world” by Robin Wright. While the article speaks broadly about Islam, I will focus on those passages and statements which deal with Muslim women. This is how Time describes the “soft revolution”: Today’s revolution […]

A two year old girl, Bhia Hadid, has been killed. The police have arrested and charged her aunt for the murder. Which of these things is more noteworthy? The Southtown Star and various other newspapers across Chicago and the U.S carried articles about the case which posits that the latter is more important: the accused, Nour […]