Fatima Bahloul is an Algerian-American raised in East Lansing, Michigan. She received her bachelor's degree in Telecommunications with a minor in Film Studies at Michigan State University. Fatima has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and lived in Amman, Jordan for two years. She was Features and Managing Editor at Islamica Magazine. She currently lives in Lansing, Michigan with her husband and son.
Hissa Hilal, a master of language, has inspired an exchange of words around the world. For the past several Wednesdays, Hilal has risen to the podium on Abu Dhabi TV’s Million’s Poet (also known as Poet of Millions) – a televised poetry contest in which people of all walks of life compete for $1.3 million. Hilal recently gained unprecedented attention throughout the world for one of her recent original poems, The Chaos of Fatwas, a 15-verse poem about religious clerics who are “angry and blind.” (6 comments)
News briefs for week of August 23, 2010 - This week, A Bangladesh court ruled that people cannot be forced to wear religious clothing, a youth organization in Massachusetts urges officials for more comprehensive cultural sensitivity training of teachers, Emirati women frequent hair salons less during the month of Ramadan, and the Christian Science Monitor describes the pro-women's rights stance of one of the leaders behind the proposed Islamic center near ground zero. (August 24, 2010) (0 comments)
News briefs for week of August 16, 2010 - This week, the government of Afghanistan releases statistics on alarmingly high suicide attempt rates by Afghan women, and an Islamic theologian recounts his experience on a nudist beach that led to his conversion to Islam. (August 17, 2010) (0 comments)
Ramadan: A wife’s perspective (and a husband’s) - When my husband finally makes his way down the stairs, my frustration abates and he and I sit across from each other and share our early morning meal. We speak intermittently and keep one eye trained on the clock to ensure we finish our food by the time dawn prayers begin. Despite the sparse conversation and the hurried meal, I enjoy the feeling that we are both beginning our obligatory fasts together, as a unit. (August 13, 2010) (1 comment)
News briefs for week of August 9, 2010 - This week in the news, why pregnant women exempt from fasting still fast, Taliban responds to TIME's cover story on Aisha, Satirist claims he is not joking about his plans to open an Islamic gay bar next to Cordoba Mosque, and a young American Muslim man abstains from alcohol and dating for the month of Ramadan. (August 10, 2010) (0 comments)
News briefs for week of August 2, 2010 - Brazil offers asylum to Iranian women sentenced to death by stoning, veiled women pass through Canadian airport checkpoint without being checked, Malaysian reality show crowns its champion imam, and a few British gay Muslims find support from their local imams. (August 3, 2010) (0 comments)
News Briefs for the week of July 24, 2010 - This week, Saudi clerics seek more Muslim maids and say its okay for women to uncover their faces in the presence of burqa bans. Two French women in burqinis were refused entry into a pool, and two Muslim women in England are not allowed onto a public bus. (July 27, 2010) (0 comments)
