This article was written for Muslimah Media Watch by Anny Gaul. Yesterday, The New York Times ran an article about what Iraqi women are wearing these days. It paints a picture of a once-secular society’s pluralism run amok: “Vendors around the Kadhimiya mosque in northern Baghdad sell all manner of women’s clothing, from drape-like black […]

Few people would agree that pornography has hardly been an indicator of freedom or political stability. Some more would also agree that it is not a universal symbol of advancement or female empowerment. Nonetheless, this week Tarek El-Tablawy, an Associated Press writer, affirmed that pornography availability mirrors Iraq’s improvements in security and politics. More surprising, […]

Yet another cartoon controversy has hit the Muslim world. This time it’s not in the West, but rather in Iraq. In their September 14th issue, the weekly Iraqi magazine/newspaper, Al-Isbouiyah (or The Weekly), published a cartoon depicting a female suicide bomber holding a lit bomb fuse in her left hand, standing, left arm raised, like […]