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 Saturday, February 04, 2012 | 10 Rabi al-Awwal 1433
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Uzma Mariam Ahmed
Uzma Mariam Ahmed is an attorney in Chicago and works at a large national law firm, where she focuses her practice primarily on securities and commodities regulation. Mariam has helped many clients seek asylum and other immigration relief under the Violence Against Women Act on a pro bono basis. She graduated from Northwestern University's School of Law in 2005, where she participated in the Bluhm Legal Clinic and represented detained women and children seeking asylum. During law school, Mariam also did substantial research and writing on issues surrounding Islamic feminism and prostitution.

Parenting
The myth of gender equality among Muslim Americans
<< From the AltMuslimah Archives >>
When my husband and I leave for work together every morning, we have completely different experiences. I keep thinking that I am making a choice to go to work and leave my child. My husband walks out with the satisfying knowledge that he is fulfilling his duty as a father and husband by going out to provide for his family. (24 comments)

American Muslims
Women behaving badly in mosques
Women in American mosques are loud and messy. They allow their children to run free. They socialize and chatter during khutbas. They rush out after the prayers and don’t participate in cleaning or re-organizing the space. They wear inappropriate clothes, allowing their scarves to slip off their heads, and dousing themselves with strong perfumes. They insist on coming to the mosque while menstruating, and pollute the consecrated space with their unclean presence. These stereotypes about women in mosques are commonplace and especially prevalent in American mosques. (52 comments)

Clothing
Naomi Wolf takes on the hijab
Until the Western world stops obsessing about the clothing choices of Muslim women, we need to continue explaining the social and religious reasons for the hijab. The fact that a noted American feminist like Naomi Wolf wrote an article on the issue is highly encouraging. Now let us hope that many more will follow in her footsteps, and include the nuances of these issues so that the arguments can be truly persuasive to a highly skeptical Western audience. (10 comments)

From the Altmuslimah sex-trafficking series
Connections between sex trafficking, prostitution and polygamy
One of the primary reasons why Islam was revealed was to guarantee and clarify the important basic rights of women, and particularly their rights with regards to marriage, divorce, alimony, custody and related issues. We should not allow horrors such as sex trafficking, prostitution, and other sexually exploitative unions to hide within the guise of Islamic marriages. (3 comments)

Book "Mother of the Believers"
A warrior and a woman
There is much to recommend about Kamran Pasha's powerfully and sensitively written new novel Mother of the Believers, where Pasha proves his mettle as a writer representing the voice of a fiery and controversial female protagonist who lived fourteen hundred years ago. (5 comments)

From the Altmuslimah sex-trafficking series
Do sex taboos contribute to sex trafficking?
As much as we'd like to deny it, sex trafficking and forced prostitution of women and children is rampant in the Muslim world - in large part because Muslim men demand these services. The fear of discussing sexual relationships openly and constructively may explain the unwillingness to rout out these evils. What will break the silence? (16 comments)



           

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