Politics

Politics

Sexual harassment, Egypt, and the hijab

This is a really interesting post for a number of reasons, by Jack Shenker in the Guardian: Women in Egypt get hi-tech aid to beat sexual harassment: A hi-tech weapon has been unveiled in the battle against sexual harassment in Egypt, where almost half the female population face unwanted attention from men every day. HarassMap, a private venture that is set to launch later this year, allows women to instantly report incidents of sexual harassment by sending a text message to a centralised computer.

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9/11, Politics

On 9/11, Listening to Muslim womens’ voices

Much has been said about Imam Abdul Rauf, the Imam behind the proposed Park 51 Islamic Cultural Center in New York City, which would stand a few blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks nine years ago today. In the intense controversy surrounding the construction of the community center, he has been called a “radical,” despite ample evidence of his longtime efforts to do interfaith work and bridge misunderstandings between Muslims and other communities.

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Politics

Putting texts in context

Earlier this month, CNN Expansión reported that the Saudi government aimed to prohibit the Blackberry Messenger service, since it is considered a threat to national security because the service doesn’t allow the government to intercept messages. Blackberry has become very popular among single young people, who use it as a way to connect with men or women in a society where gender segregation is strictly imposed. Although negotiations continue between Blackberry and the government, the government itself is “modernizing” its control tactics.

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Politics

Not such a small world after all: Disney’s latest discrimination

In the latest hijab shake-down, Imane Boudlal was taken off the schedule as a hostess at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel because she insisted upon her right to wear hijab to work. Boudlal, a Moroccan-born Muslim woman, already wore the hijab at home, but said that she learned of her Constitutional right to wear it to work while studying for her U.S. citizenship exam a few months ago. In accordance with Disney’s notoriously stringent employee agreement, Boudlal asked her manager in June whether an exception could be made for her religious expression.

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Politics

The plight of Pakistani women at the height of disaster

With one-fifth of a nation under water and sluggish donations to fund relief efforts for flood victims, there is a fragile element within a drowning, disenfranchised population, a group that has historically and categorically been cast as a lower-grade victim in times of disasters – women. The Association for Women’s Rights in Development notes that “Gender-biased attitudes and stereotypes can complicate and extend women’s recovery, for example if women do not seek or do not receive timely care for physical and mental trauma experienced in disasters.”

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Politics

Malaysia moving forward in matters of Islam and women

In early July this year, the Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak announced that two women had been appointed judges in the country’s Syariah Courts. One of two court systems in Malaysia, these courts rule on cases that are subject to sharia law, which is based on Islamic principles. Women’s groups, including Sisters in Islam (SIS), the group I belong to, hailed this as a long awaited move given the many problems that women face in the Syariah Courts, especially in matters related to the family. Long an advocate for justice and equality for Muslim women, SIS has been calling for female appointments since at least 1999.

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Politics

The face we can’t ignore: Women in Afghanistan

What to do about the war in Afghanistan is posed as a question of military strategy, of defense expenditures, of logistical technicalities; of political climate, secret safe havens and effective counter- insurgency… but almost never a question of women. In the meeting rooms on Capitol Hill, in seminars held at think tanks and universities around the U.S., and on talk shows where experts dissect the latest in the saga of American warfare, a resolute silence has surrounded the issue of Afghan women.

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Politics

From jahiliyya to Muhammed to fatwa chaos

“Women are the complementing halves of men,” said the Prophet Muhammed, who believed that a woman’s role as a daughter, wife and mother doesn’t presuppose her absence from the public sphere. The quest for strict gender segregation in many Muslim societies today is led by religious hardliners who view women only as a source of temptation, and who see no virtue in dignified male-female interaction. The Orientalists are often blamed for their sexualized depiction of Eastern women (especially in their portraits of harems), but some religious clerics go as far as to portray women as a source of temptation.

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Politics

The victims of Pakistan’s sex trade

It’s another evening in one of the red light districts of Pakistan. It never seems to be quiet here except for the very early morning hours when the customers are home with their families or at work. The rickshaw drivers pound impatiently on their piercing horns, people shout at one another in Urdu or Punjabi, while stray, emaciated dogs bark and Bollywood music blares from the mujra dance halls. The humidity is relentless even though the sun has set several hours ago.

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Politics

My first time with Salman Rushdie

I attended a Salman Rushdie lecture with a made-up mind about him, hoping that he’d be able to somehow prove me wrong despite all that I had read. And during the lecture itself, he grew on me. He was quick, charming, and eloquent. But I left feeling completely to the contrary, completely disappointed with Salman Rushdie. Not as a writer, talented as he may be, but as a person.

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