Anti-FGM crusade brings out the busybodies
The crusade against FGM is out of control – Spectator Blogs Brendan O'Neill wrote the above article on the incident reported recently in the British press, in which Baroness Jenny Tonge took a flight...
Category: Women
How France can really ‘protect all religions’
France 'to protect all religions' (BBC News) The French president, François Hollande, has announced that France "will protect all religions" and that Muslims are the "main victims of fanaticism" in a speech at the...
The dangers of racism in the anti-FGM crusade
The Thursday before last was apparently “Zero Tolerance of FGM day”, accompanied by widespread media coverage of various campaigns against it, a petition which apparently gained two signatures per second, interviews with anti-FGM campaigners...
World Hijab Day: DoA
Earlier this week, there was a so-called Day of Acceptance (of Disability), organised by a company called 3E Love, which markets a variety of merchandise, like T-shirts, stickers etc, bearing their logo of a...
Not the ‘ally’ Muslims need
In today’s Guardian, there’s an article by Laurie Penny attacking those who have been campaigning against the supposed gender segregation on British university campuses (meaning, the separate seating arrangements at some Islamic society gatherings),...
FGM and the fallacy of symbolism
Sarah Sands: We cannot lose the battle for liberal values – Comment – London Evening Standard Sarah Sands is the editor of the London Evening Standard, and this article by her appeared in yesterday's...
Dr Leon Moosavi on “white privilege” and converts
I just attended a talk by Dr Leon Moosavi, who some readers may know from Facebook, on the experience of converts from different backgrounds after they enter Islam. He mentioned the concept of “white...
Why don’t Muslims condemn every bad thing a Muslim does anywhere? by Cristina Odone
How many Muslim women martyrs do we need before Muslim leaders speak out? – Telegraph Blogs Cristina Odone is asking why Muslims didn’t loudly condemn the shooting of Malala Yousufzaid in Swat, Pakistan, as...
Niqab ban reflects Islamophobia and a security-obsessed culture
Lessons in Islamophobia (from CounterFire) This is an article about a Muslim mother who was barred from parents’ evening at her son’s school because the staff insisted on her removing her face-covering for “security”...
Are Muslim women being left up on the shelf?
Why British Muslim women struggle to find a marriage partner | Syma Mohammed | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Syma Mohammed is claiming that Muslim women find it significantly more difficult than men to...
Flather’s attack on Muslims is not brave
UK immigration: Polygamy, welfare benefits and an insidious silence | Mail Online This article by former Tory peer, Baroness Shreela Flather, appeared in the UK Daily Mail on Friday, and consists of a broad-brush...
BBC wants white female Muslims (again)
Wanted: Single White Female (Muslims) | iMuslim.tv The BBC issued an advert asking for “Caucasian” white Muslim women to contribute to a programme about their lives since 9/11. They say: The BBC World Service, Heart and...
Blast from the past: the “Islamic” marriage contract
The new Muslim marriage contract will help empower women | Tehmina Kazi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk About three years ago, I wrote a response to a new "Islamic marriage contract" which had...
Calls for apologies for 1970s virginity tests
The Guardian have been running various stories lately over files released which show the extent of virginity tests which were being carried out on Asian brides, either on arrival at Heathrow or before they...
Breaking stereotypes? How?
Muslim women: beyond the stereotype | Life and style | The Guardian G2 carried the above article, and it featured a number of Muslim women who claim they are challenging stereotypes and extremism; they...
On Virginia Ironside, suffering and pillows
This morning, I witnessed an extraordinary exchange on the BBC morning discussion programme, Sunday Morning Live (in the UK, you can watch it on iPlayer here), a somewhat cheaply produced affair in which various...
Retaliation and the story of Khidr
I saw an article today posted at Harry’s Place and also at Foreign Policy Journal, entitled “The Problem of Honor Killings” by one Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, described in his biography as “a student at...
Polygamy, “evolution” and mistreatment of women
The last week or so I’ve seen two articles about Muslim men who don’t respect women, one of them on Achelois’ blog, the other by Mariella Frostrup in last Sunday’s Observer, which Fareena Alam...
“Hijab gates” bring out the bigots
Various newspapers have reported that two sculptures to be erected at both ends of Brick Lane in east London, a narrow street which has become a trendy hang-out place and which is supposedly full...
Shelina Zahra takes on anti-hijabists
Last Friday and last Sunday, Shelina Zahra Janmohamed appeared on BBC Radio debating the issue of hijab with two foreign anti-hijab agitators. One of them is part of London’s small but well-connected Iranian exile...