Society

You’re going about your day normally when all of a sudden, as you’re sitting on the bus trying figure out who “Becky with the good hair” is on Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” album, you witness a hijabi become the victim of Islamophobia. Just two feet away from you, a man is yelling “You’re a terrorist!” along with…

THIS JUST IN: Eid-ul-Adha will be on Sept. 12, Daesh has claimed responsibility for the lunar cycle, and a basket of flowers is running for the upcoming Jordanian parliamentary elections. That’s right, ladies: a whole basket of them. But that’s not even the worst part… Personally, I am deeply offended by the fitnah these flowers are…

The word jihad has been negatively known for it’s lesser meaning for a very long time — to wage a holy war against the unbelievers. But with the possibility of Donald Trump these days, a Muslim Girl commenter truly put the word into perspective — jihad stands for the act of exercising your Constitutional right…

When people hear the words “inter-faith dialogue,” they often have thoughts of singing “kumbaya” around a campfire and fluffy conversations with people you don’t even agree with. But in reality, it is so much more. With Islamophobia casting its ever-luring shadow into almost every part of Muslim lives today, inter-faith understanding could not be more…

Let’s take a moment to consider the possibility of the Eid falling on a day that the world (including us) marks as a sad day in history — 9/11. Here are four recommendations I have compiled to help you if this should happen: 1. Don’t apologize, don’t pander, don’t posture. Eid is, first and foremost,…

Allah (SWT) tells us in the Quran: “Indeed, those who have believed and those who were Jews and the Sabeans and the Christians and the Magians and those who associated with Allah — Allah will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed Allah is, over all things, Witness.” (Qur’an 22:17) and, “Indeed, to…

A young woman sits on a beach bothering no one, she’s there to enjoy the sun like those around her. But what she doesn’t know is she’s about to make headlines all around the globe. This young woman is wearing the burkini, a swimsuit designed to protect the modesty of Muslim women who wish to go…

“Why aren’t we putting our military retirees on that border or in TSA? Get rid of all these hibi-jabis they wear at TSA?” asked an audience member at a Trump rally. Itemad “Angel” Almatar was arrested by Chicago police while trying to catch a train in Chicago. Both stories, among scores of others, highlight the…

As a woman of color, I am often complimented on the pigmentation of my melanin. Surely, it is something that is out of my control, trivial to say the least, but has always been the crux of many of the conversations in most of my life. How wonderful it must be to wear bright colors — which…

Several years ago I decided to travel to Egypt to visit a friend that lived there. She mentioned planning to take me to Dahab, a place in Egypt on the Red Sea. So I decided to buy a Burkini. After a lot of research, I finally purchased one from a company out of Australia. This…

At this point I don’t think there is a person on the planet that has not heard of the “Brexit” palava of June 2016 that got us Brits freaking out about our future. It left a lot of us scratching our heads in disbelief that more than half of our country voted against something that…

I’ve been playing organized sports since I was seven years old. From tennis to soccer to basketball to swimming to field hockey to track, I’ve just about done it all. I don’t play because I yearn to be a rebellious teenager; I don’t play because I seek attention; and I don’t play because it’ll enhance…

At six years old, I used to sit on a stool in Mama’s room while she slowly sectioned off my hair and saturated it with grease. I would wail and try to escape but Mama always managed to wrestle me to the ground so she wouldn’t lose the braid she was working on, all the…

Let’s face it: gender equity and women’s empowerment is quite an alien concept to some of our middle eastern societies, where some Muslim girls are dauntingly deprived of their common rights, among the most common and important one being education. The Deputy Secretary-General Of the UN noted that “in almost all countries, women continue to…

Let me start out with a disclaimer. I love going away with my 4-year-old son. He’s great fun, not much bother, and carries a big chunk of my heart around with him. A few months ago, we went on an awesome family adventure into the Sumatran jungle to see orangutans. Despite having a wonderful time,…