Two teenage girls in Morocco face up to three years in jail on homosexuality charges after they were caught kissing. According to Article 489 of the Moroccan Penal Code, any person who ‘commits an unnatural act’ with an individual of the same sex may be sentenced to six months to three years of imprisonment. In […]

Transgender identities and trans* embodiment are topics that are generally ignored within many communities, and the Muslim community is no exception, and transgendered people are oftentimes pushed to the margins. Art, film, music and other forms of artistic expression, unlike more fixed modes of understanding, can often open up a conversation that communities and individuals […]

So the whole thing turned out to be a hoax. Throughout the last few weeks, I have been a regular reader of the blog “A Gay Girl in Damascus,” especially during the current unrest in Syria. As Sara wrote in her post, “A Gay Girl in Damascus Tells It Like It Is,” the presumed author […]

In the last few years, the international emphasis on locating social rights within the Qur’an has primarily been driven by and for women. NGOs in Morocco, Malaysia, Jordan, Afghanistan, Tunisia, and countless other Muslim countries have rallied communities, encouraging them to look critically at the patriarchal structures that have dictated Qur’anic interpretation to date. Through […]

The film “Bijli” opens with an off-key rendition of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s haunting Sanu Ik Pal Chain Na Aave.  The poetry of the song describes a man who cannot find a moment’s peace without his beloved.  Some might consider this analogous to Bijli’s predicament as a woman trapped in a man’s body: constantly ill […]

On Thursday, Eren published a great piece on the marginalization of lesbians in Indonesia. As with all MMW pieces, it received mixed feedback. Because we are fairly diligent regarding comment moderation, no comments that violated MMW’s comment moderation policy were approved. On our Facebook page, however, there is no initial comment moderation. Thus, several hurtful […]

Debates in the Muslim world regarding the LBGT community are rare, if not non-existent. However, Indonesia’s community has been raising its profile lately. With a legal system that does not criminalize homosexuality, the LBGT community may seem to face fewer challenges than communities in other countries. However, even with the only Gay film festival in […]

Rabble.ca, an alternative news source in Canada, recently posted a podcast that was originally broadcast on Co-Op Radio in Vancouver, on their show “The F Word,” which looks at feminist issues.  Entitled “Islam, women and feminisms,” this segment features interviews with two Canadian Muslim women, Itrath Syed and Farzana Doctor. The host of the show […]

Last Thursday, I went to the launch of AQSAZINE, a project that describes itself as “a grassroots publication open to 16-35 year old women and trans people who self-identify as Muslim.”  The theme of this first issue is “resistance & self defense,” and it includes poetry, rants, articles and artwork on themes including war, occupation, […]