Typically, in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north, discussing personal and marital issues, like sex and domestic violence, is seen as going against the grain. However, an Instagram page is changing how Muslim women in Nigeria share personal problems. Hadja Lahbib’s insightful documentary, Patience, Patience, You’ll Go to Paradise!, focuses on Belgium’s Muslim community, where the older generation […]

The growing use of social media in recent years provides opportunities for Muslim women to speak truth to preconceptions. Wired lists 5 women quashing preconceptions about Islam on social media (including MMW’s own Sana Saeed). A group of Saskatoon Muslim women in Canada is trying to break through stereotypes by inviting other women to meet them, and […]

This week’s Friday Links were compiled by Eren and Samya.  Australia Racism and sexism is creating a toxic mix for the hundreds of thousands of Muslim women living in Australia, says Dr. Mehreen Faruqi as they have become the most likely targets of those retaliating and venting their anger in the aftermath of terrorist incidents. Dr. […]

Linda Sarsour is a woman in a hurry. Only 35, she has already helped to partly dismantle the New York Police Department’s program of spying on the city’s Muslims and has worked with officials in City Hall to close public schools for the observance of two of Islam’s most important holy days. The New York […]

Seven Muslim women from around the world are bicycling across Iowa as a way of “promoting female sports participation as a fundamental right“. The 470-mile ride, featuring 8,500 cyclists, began July 19 and finished July 25.   In the last year and a half, as turmoil in Ukraine has dominated the news media’s attention, a […]

Reading Hajiya Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s Sin is a Puppy That Follows You Home was to me like watching a Nigerian movie, in particular one on Africa Magic Hausa, a channel devoted to Hausa language movies. I could picture popular actors and actresses in the roles of different characters and imagined them bringing these roles to […]

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the easiest duties for me as a Muslim. Even though I’ve struggled with my faith and with praying five times daily, I always maintain my fast, and passionately too. This year I started fasting on Mondays and Thursdays, according to Sunnah, after considering it for a while. My mother […]

The plight of Nigerian girls recently caught the attention of the world after the kidnapping of several hundred schoolgirls in Chibok over a month ago. Another story did not garner as much attention from either local or international media: that of Wasila Umaru. Apparently forced to marry a man in his thirties, Umaru Sani, and […]

On April 15th about 300 girls were kidnapped from a Government Girls Secondary School in Nigeria by gunmen dressed as Nigerian army-men.  ABC News reports that some of the girls were taken to Chad and Cameroon for the purposes of forced marriage.  The news of the kidnapped Nigerian girls made it slowly to Facebook and […]

Radio Amina and Aisha’s Song are two documentary-style short films produced by Grain Media, a London-based production company, as part of the Girl Effect campaign, a movement that states that the 250 million adolescent girls who live poverty are the most powerful force for change on the planet. Following that theme, Radio Amina and Aisha’s […]