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MANAGING EDITOR
Zehra Rizavi Mount Laurel, NJ
Zehra Rizavi is a writer and Managing Editor at Altmuslimah. For the past two years, Zehra has worked as Associate Editor, and now Managing Editor, for Altmuslimah, writing nearly a dozen original pieces, and editing close to 100 articles for the magazine. Her responsibilities range from developing story ideas and soliciting relevant pieces for publication to revising submissions, including those of academics and award winning authors, for content, style and grammar. Zehra also guides both writers and editors by leading workshops and creating reference material for internal and external use.
Zehra has extensive editing experience, having edited brochures, academic journal articles and magazine articles. She completed her Bachelors in Public Relations and International Relations from American University in Washington D.C., and has a Masters degree in Communication. She has worked at a D.C.-based public relations firm which served non-profit organizations, and served as the associate editor for a book titled, "Strategic U.S. Public Diplomacy in a Global Communication Era."
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 | | Female imams Searching for American “nu ahongs” By Zehra Rizavi, December 6, 2011 << From the AltMuslimah Archives >>
A quiet Muslim community known as the Hui that has long been buried among China's Buddhist majority has recently been receiving attention for its nu ahong - female spiritual leaders. While the spotlight is new, the concept is not. As early as the late Ming dynasty (around the 17th century), the faithful set up Muslim schools catering exclusively to young females and by the arrival of the late Qing dynasty in the 19th century, these schools had transformed into mosques operated by and serving women. In the coming decades, the practice of female Imams, if you will, permeated all Chinese Muslim societies. ( 6 comments) |
 | | Film: "Deaf Sisterhood" Face to faith By Zehra Rizavi, June 22, 2011 Among a row of pretty young girls wearing both dark and pastel colored head scarves, and making furiously quick and deliberate movements with their fingers, all the while mouthing the words, we see the profile of a pensive 27 year-old woman. Seated in this lecture hall, she stands out from the others, with her silent demeanor and her curly, chestnut hair unrestrained by a scarf. Aran Slade is the star of “Deaf Sisterhood,” a documentary made by Redbird Productions for British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust (BSL) and available on BSL’s website. ( No comments) |
 | | Egypt protests Women rally against Mubarak By Zehra Rizavi, February 2, 2011 Wearing a bright pink hijab and contrasting blue sweater, a young woman who appears to be in her mid-20s leads a male dominated crowd in a piercing Arabic chant. “What does Mubarak want anyway? All Egyptians to kiss his feet? No, Mubarak, we will not! Tomorrow we’ll trample you with our shoes!” Since January 25, hundreds of thousands of young Egyptians have taken to the streets in Cairo and other major Egyptian cities, pounding the pavements in what has become the largest challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's regime in a generation. ( No comments) |
 | | Marriage Stories The One By Zehra Rizavi, October 22, 2010 I sat cross-legged on the thick carpet in my parents’ bedroom making my way through a bowl of watermelon slices. Creases had formed on my embroidered tea pink shalwar, and had my mother or great aunt walked into the room, they would have reproached me for lounging on the floor and ruining the crisp, freshly ironed lines of my outfit. As it were though, they, along with my father, sat downstairs in the formal living room meeting with a potential suitor for me. I could make out the faint voices, some familiar and others foreign, as the two families carried on polite, stilted conversation. ( No comments) |
 | | French burka ban What not to wear: Outlawing the face veil By Zehra Rizavi, October 13, 2010 Three weeks ago the French Senate passed a piece of legislation 246 votes to one to outlaw the face veil worn by a small number of the country's Muslim women, with President Nicolas Sarkozy stating, in no uncertain terms, that the face veil is "not welcome" in France. The law follows at the heels of the Belgian parliament's ban on the full face veil--known as the burqa or niqab--in public places. ( 8 comments) |
 | | Tribal law The “witches” of Pattharghatia By Zehra Rizavi, November 6, 2009 The Muslim cleric and the village women in India who recently labeled five widows as witches played the role of self-appointed judge, jury and executioner, condemning their victims to a savage beating. Widows are popular targets because they may possess money or property, however paltry, which their neighbors have a covetous eye on. And the law fails to protect them, leaving their fate to be determined by local patriarchal interpretations of tradition, custom, and religion. ( 2 comments) |
 | | Book "Islam Needs a Sexual Revolution" Two views of a sexual revolution By Zehra Rizavi, November 2, 2009 In two recent reviews of an interview with Seryan Ates about her book, "Islam Needs a Sexual Revolution,"one reviewer found Ates' suggestion that the Muslim world could mimic the West’s sexual revolution both inaccurate and implausible. The other felt that Ates should fall back on more than just her personal experiences when trying to persuade the reader of the imminence and importance of a sexual revolution. ( 2 comments) |
 | | Family Ramadan: A wife’s perspective (and a husband’s) By Zehra Rizavi and Yusif Akhund, September 11, 2009 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. ( 11 comments) |
 | | TV Show: "Kalam Nawaem" A new “View” of Arab women By Zehra Rizavi, August 21, 2009 “Kalam Nawaem,” a sixty-minute Middle Eastern talk show based on the American TV show "The View," has capitalized on the popularity of satellite television to reach the nearly half of women in the Arab world who are illiterate, offering viewers, particularly women, an opportunity to listen to sharp discussions on salient issues. ( 6 comments) |
 | | Movie "The Mosque in Morgantown" Questioning authority questionably By Zehra Rizavi, June 15, 2009 Asra Nomani's new documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown - airing tonight on PBS - exemplifies the great American and Islamic tradition of questioning authority. But although Nomani is certainly one such challenger, Nomani seems to undercut her own objective and isolate herself as an outlier in the community by imposing her approach on others who share her views. ( 13 comments) |
 | | Architecture The woman behind the Sakirin Mosque By Zehra Rizavi, May 27, 2009 The modernist Sakirin Mosque, designed by Zeynep Fadillioglu, is the first mosque in Turkey designed by a female and comes at a time when Turkey remains deeply divided over the role of religion within society. In such an environment Fadillioglu hopes the mosque will become a symbol of unity. ( 15 comments) |
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