Egypt has been the latest in a series of countries to see women-only transport services as a means to prevent sexual harassment. Pink Taxi, despite its name, is a limousine service marketed as a safe means of travel for women in Cairo, Egypt — where sexual assault and harassment has become an increasing problem. A…
#1in5Muslims Will Share This Post
The Sun received a fair amount of ridicule yesterday for claiming on its front page that 1 in 5 British Muslims have “sympathy for jihadis.” This isn’t the first time the Murdoch-owned British tabloid has blatantly printed inaccuracies, but for Muslims, this is another blow in the recent onslaught of Islamophobic headlines following the Paris attacks…
This Is What It’s Like to Be #BlackInMSA
Muslims are one of the most racially diverse faith groups in the United States, despite common misconceptions. Black Muslims account for about a quarter of American Muslims, making them the largest racial group within the American Muslim community. While most of these black Muslims converted to Islam within the last 70 years, Islam’s history in…
ISIL Targets Hezbollah-Run Residential Area
This past Thursday, two bomb blasts in a residential district of southern Beirut took the lives of at least 43 people and wounded over 240 more, according to Reuters. The area is a controlled by Hezbollah, a Shi’a Islamist militant group, and the suicide bombs responsible has been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq…
#BoycottStarWarsVII is Really a Thing…
Apparently, white boy nerds aren’t ready to give up their monopoly on science fiction. Well, not all of them. But enough to start a #BoycottStarWarsVII movement on Twitter in protest of the diverse main cast of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, deeming the act of casting the two main characters as a woman…
Is Egypt Really Banning Schoolgirls from Wearing Headscarves?
Last week Egyptian education minister, Moheb Al-Refai, caused a bit of a stir when his comments regarding the hijab in primary schools were interpreted as a sign of an upcoming ban for girls. While Al-Refai may not have explicitly called for a ban on the hijab for prepubescent schoolgirls, his sentiments were clear. Stating that…
The Zionist Narrative of Muslim-Jewish Conflict
On February 21, a group of more than 1,000 Muslims gathered around a synagogue in Oslo, Norway to form a kind of protective shield in an act of solidarity and condemnation of an attack on a Danish synagogue the weekend before. It’s wonderful. It’s Islamic. It’s everything the ummah should be doing. It’s also everything we’ve…
Sana Saeed: Producer, AJ+
When we were deciding who we wanted to be MuslimGirl’s FIRST EVER Baddie of the Month, we realized that it had to be someone that represented the fire we hope to inspire among our readership. If we’re talking the true definition of “badass,” a game-changer that’s stirring things up, and a real force in the…
A Letter to Bobby Jindal: Even the Most Insensitive Words Can’t Whiten Your Skin
Dear Mr. Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, You baffle me. I can’t tell if you’re truly unaware that you’re Indian or if you’re hoping that all the old white men around you will forget. Do you honestly believe that if you take on their names, champion their bigoted views, and loudly proclaim their religion, that they will…
Divorce Doesn’t Make Muslim Women Inferior
I don’t think many of my friends realize how tough it is for a Pakistani kid to have divorced parents. For those of you who are Pakistani themselves, take a good, hard look at how your parents react to divorce and you might understand what I mean. The fact is that my divorced parents and…
Taking Back Islam
I write this post from the Karachi newsroom of The Express Tribune, a daily English newspaper in the “Islamic Republic” of Pakistan where Shias are being killed daily during Muharram, women are getting raped, robberies are an every day thing, and at least six people were killed daily here in Karachi in 2012. In all…