The elephant in every room Into which I stride All eyes on Miss Never the Bride Walking down the lonely aisle of life Holding a wilting bouquet of pride Faith in God, Hope in community lost Receiving judgment, hurtful thoughts, Wrecking ball stares Pity for a state no one cares…
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My friend Daanish is every rishta aunty’s dreamboat: a newly-minted emergency room (ER) physician in New York City. I gave him the rundown on the doctor at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) who was fired: “Two-time Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s sister went to the ER in Karachi. The doctor sent…
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Learning how to say the right things starts with learning what the wrong things are. I was about to start with, “It blows my mind…”, but I realize it’s actually not much of a surprise to be compiling this list. As a psychiatry resident, I have started to become acutely…
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For anyone who has experienced one too many setbacks in search of love, the question “Where am I going wrong?” is a familiar one. And if you have asked this out loud, you will find no shortage of opinions that scrutinize your character or the foibles of your long-gone suitors….
Read MoreAs a Muslim woman of South Asian descent, now living in the U.S., I have to admit that I have a certain curiosity about how Muslim women live in other parts of the world. I long to know others like me – yet unlike me: do they go through the…
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Last week, The New York Times published a Mona Eltahawy article with a sexy headline: Sex Talk for Muslim Women. The article chronicled the author’s journey to sexual freedom: growing up in a conservative household, Ms. Eltahawy always knew that sex outside of marriage was not an option, but the…
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I’m 33-years-old and still single. Well, the “still” is the lamentation some Muslims in the community add when they describe my status. The Muslim culture, not unlike most others, abides by a set of expectations when it comes to women, marriage and motherhood. A woman’s identity is strongly braided with…
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[tweetthis] What happens when you give up the love of your life for your love of God?[/tweetthis] This is not a question I ever expected I’d have to answer. As a young girl, I always assumed that I would not need to sacrifice one for the other, but rather my…
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Note: An introduction to this piece can be found here. Anyone born into a typical Muslim family cannot avoid the central place that marriage occupies within the concept of a good Muslim life. Popular Muslim culture invests marriage with such religious significance that it is often described as comprising…
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Note: This piece is an introduction to Dr. Mohammad Fadel’s scholarly article on Islamic marriage, temporary marriage, secret marriage and polygamous marriage. Sometimes even holy men have their wicked schemes. Over the past few months, my colleagues and I have learned from multiple sources about a set of Muslim celebrity-scholars…
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