My eyebrows raised when I read this article on IslamOnline. The article, entitled Study: Men Objectify Scantily Clad Women, used a current study conducted by well-known Princeton psychologist, Dr. Susan Fiske, to promote modest clothing. I am familiar with Dr. Fiske’s work, and I couldn’t help but question whether IslamOnline was misrepresenting the study in […]

One of the most common questions that the media, and maybe even non-Muslim in everyday life, have for women who wear hijab is “how do you do [insert whatever said activity here] in hijab?” It is probably also a question that Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir gets often, since she is a star high school basketball player in […]

There’s a new Moroccan movie out that, on the surface, seems to tackle the issue of pre-marital sex in the country. They’re a dime a dozen these days, but this one is stirring up controversy like crazy. Why? I’ll give you a hint: The name of the movie is Amours Voilées,  Hijab al-hob, which translates […]

Okay, I’ll admit it. When I first heard the title, my immediate reaction was to roll my eyes. “Not again!” I thought. “Not another book with sad kohl-rimmed eyes peeping out from under a black niqab on the cover and which talks about a poor/ downtrodden/ oppressed (add your own adjectives) Muslim woman who is beaten/ […]

The results of a new study on Arab women in Dearborn, Mich., have been released. The study revealed that women who wear “traditional clothing” (code word for hijab) are prone to lower levels of vitamin D because of less exposure to sunlight. Two articles on the study (here and here) read like,  “Oh noes! Those […]

I spent this past weekend at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention in Toronto. In its seventh year, the conference brings together thousands of people from all over North America (I think someone said that about 15 thousand people came to this year’s conference), and some of the best-known Islamic scholars. This year’s lineup included […]

American hijabis often have a lot to think about when they step outside their doors. Will we be denied a job because of hijab? Will we be asked to take off our hijabs at work or school? Will our hijabs make us a target for racists and xenophobes? Will we be pulled out of line […]

I admit, the title put me off a little. Princess Hijab? But when I looked through her flicker albums, I was blown away. Princess Hijab is an anonymous 20-year-old guerilla street artist based in Paris, who began her “noble cause” of “hijab-ising” advertisements in 2006. She does this by using spray paint and a black […]

Ghada El-Tawil (pictured below) is an Egyptian anchorwoman who just recently returned to television. Six years ago, she was pulled from television after she began wearing a headscarf. The BBC has published a new story about El-Tawil in which she discusses her legal battle, why she wears hijab, and the struggles for Egyptian hijabis in […]

Normally, whenever I see anything with the phrase “Behind the veil” I automatically cringe and get myself ready for Orientalist stereotypes and generalizations about Muslim women. Na’ima B. Robert’s “Behind the veil: the online diary of a British Muslim woman” isn’t quite so bad. Although at first glance it does seem that way, especially considering […]