By Zoha QamarTargeting a gay nightclub, the shooter behind America’s most fatal mass shooting is reported to have engaged with various platforms and interacted with several individuals of America’s queer community. Omar Mateen has been identified by several as a frequenter of gay bars (including his crime-scene-to-be, Pulse, multiple times as early as three years before early…
By Zoha QamarThere is a stand. Maybe it’s marked by a booming black mic, a large maple podium, some tape on the carpet, an etch in the dirt. Perhaps it’s nestled under chandelier tears, framed Arabic verse, low sullen ceilings, or brisk open breeze. There is a voice. Maybe it’s English, Arabic, a combination, or none of…
By Zoha QamarJust earlier this week, Iran enforced a strict ban forbidding any of its citizens from participation in Hajj, the annually offered and once-in-a-lifetime required major Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. This proceeds a ban placed in April on the minor pilgrimage Umrah, which can alternatively be performed by Muslims any time of the year….
By Zoha QamarIf there’s one thing that my Islamic Sunday School and middle school sex ed had in common, it’s that they split classes by gender. The overlap just about ends there. While the former looped through CDs to attune our ears to the correct pronunciation of the Arabic alphabet as we labeled maps that sketched out historical…
By Zoha QamarHistorically, mainstream media has never fostered a home or haven for Muslim women. Our relationship with the entire media industry–from pop culture to breaking news–began as a one-way street of observance: A chance for Muslim women to glimpse into a spanning world where we thought we belonged, yet a world we learned did not bother with…
By Zoha QamarThree coordinated blasts–two in Zaventem Airport and another in the Maelbeek metro station–struck the Belgian capital of Brussels Tuesday morning, March 22. A death toll of thirty-four and climbing clearly classifies this incident as another major attack on European soil, among the general ranks of the attacks in Paris that struck November 2015. Yet such…
By Zoha QamarAfter Stephanie Kurlow freely decided to convert to Islam in 2010, she immediately faced a much more suffocating choice. Despite a dance career that stemmed all the way back to her second birthday, the aspiring ballerina unwrapped the silk ribbons of her pointe shoes and tucked away her professional dreams after realizing no local studious…
By Zoha QamarThe first cold dab of mehndi as the paste hit my skin always tickled. As the following swirls continued to be drawn across my palm, I drew in heavy breaths filled with the aroma of bitter henna. I was never a huge fan of the smell — very few people are, really; and some, like…
By Zoha QamarAs Germany inaugurates 2016 with 100,000 new refugees taken in from Syria this past calendar year, the Western lens lunges ever so slightly closer to a firsthand account of just what exactly an effective migrant support system entails. Beyond the plainly perceptible needs like food, water and shelter, an exploding concern is surfacing among the…
By Zoha QamarIn 2008, Samantha Iman did what any other young American usually does — she applied for a job. However, what began as an interview at her local mall flourished into a national movement, and it showed us that the now 24-year-old is anything but a “follower.” What happened to Samantha on that day 7 years…
By Zoha QamarGiven the recent rhetoric spewing from the political pandemonium sometimes referred to as the United States Presidential Election, as well a spike in hate crimes and alarming attacks on our communities, it feels increasingly difficult and dangerous to be a Muslim in this country. Intolerance is on the rise, and any shred of logic once…
