This post was written by guest contributor Rana Nazzal (@zaytouni_rana). I attended a talk last month by Palestinian woman and activist Yafa Jarrar as part of Israeli Apartheid Week at Carleton University. She spoke on a panel entitled “Indigenous and Palestinian women,” which addressed the struggles Aboriginal women in Canada and Palestinian women faced living under […]

Two years ago, Mohammad Bouazizi’s self-immolation set an inferno across parts of the Middle East and North Africa, changing the course of the region’s assumed history. We know what happened and we know what has been happening since. Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, despite having removed the bodies of dictators, continue to struggle to maintain control […]

This post was written by guest contributor Arwa Aburawa. Back in December 2011, gender-based violence hit the headlines in the Arab world when soldiers brutally attacked a hijab-wearing Egyptian protester. Following the incident, there was widespread outrage that a woman would be treated in such a violent manner. And rightly so. However, it got me […]

This June, one of the first all-women radio stations in the Arab world was launched from the most unlikely of places, the West Bank. Appropriately titled NISAA FM, (nisaa means “woman” in Arabic) this station is by women, for women. Maysoun Odeh, founder and manager of NISAA FM, describes the aims of the station: “NISAA […]

This past week a woman was murdered in an apparent honor killing in the Gaza Strip. She was beaten by her father who thought she was having an affair. May Allah have mercy on the soul and forgive the sins of the woman, named Fadia, and may there also be justice for her death. Unfortunately, […]

Two women, Khuloud Faqih and Asmahan Wuheidi,  have become judges in Islamic courts in the West Bank. This is such a great milestone, not only for Palestinian women, but for Muslim women, too. We often have our ability to be judges questioned because we’re seen as too emotional and irrational to be judges. This bias was evidenced by […]