With all the stories on the Internet it can be difficult to always stay in the know. To help, we’ve searched the web for interesting pieces of news, videos and tips to help you start off your week on the right foot.
1. Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad can sway perceptions leading up to Rio Olympics
Ranked second in the U.S. and No. 8 in the world by the International Fencing Federation, Ibtihaj Muhammad told USA Today that when she steps under the bright lights of the fencing strip “her competitive instincts kick in.”
Muhammad will compete this summer in Rio de Janeiro as the first American to compete for Team USA who wears the hijab.
“I’m very competitive, and this is the space where I felt most comfortable,” Muhammad said. As an African American, Muhammad said she embraced fencing because she could wear the hijab and remain covered in her uniform without looking any different from her teammates or competition. “I wasn’t going to allow other people’s misconceptions to change my journey.”
[tweetthis]Ibtihaj Muhammad, second ranked fencer in the U.S. and eighth in the world, heads to Rio as a strong, Muslim woman who just so happens to wear the hijab.[/tweetthis]
2. Job seeker told scarf has to go
Mona Alfadli was turned away from Stewart Dawsons jewellery store in Auckland, New Zealand for wearing a hijab. New Zealand Herald/Greg Bowker
A Muslim woman was told that she shouldn’t bother applying for a position at a local jewelry store because she wore the hijab.
This is the second time this has happened in New Zealand at a store run by James Pascoe Group.
25-year-old Mona Alfadli applied for the job of retail assistant position at the store. She told The New Zealand Herald that she was told “it was a ‘waste of time’ if she wouldn’t remove her hijab.”
“I felt embarrassed as it took a lot of courage to walk into the shop and speak to the manager regarding a job, especially since I was afraid of the rejection,” she said.
Alfadli has been looking for a job since finishing her studies in applied computer system engineering in November. She says that she sends about five applications a day but has been unable to find a job.
She and her family resettled as refugees in New Zealand from Kuwait in 2008. Her desire for her new life in New Zealand was to simply find a safe place for both herself and her family.
“I can do any job, I don’t mind, but I will keep my hijab, I will keep my identity, and respect my culture and my religion,” she said.
3. Project 841 – Gender & Islamophobia
Yasmin and her mother in Iran, where it is obligatory for women to wear scarves. Photo/Yasmin Evans
As a young Muslim-American journalist, Yasmin Bendaas says she pays attention to how Muslim women are represented in the media.
With media coverage continuing to spotlight often inaccurate stereotypes, Bendaas said she began to wonder how these representations of Islam impact the daily lives of Muslim-American women.
To find out, she conducted a series of interviews, called Project 841, with Muslim women from the South to learn more about their experiences and perceptions of violence due to Islamophobia.
[tweetthis]Muslim-American journalist Yasmin Bendaas asks Muslim women in the South how they think the media represents them in a series of interviews called Project 841.[/tweetthis]
4. This Syrian-American Designer Is Making Waves with Fashion
Designer Lena Harbali (left) stands next to a model (right) wearing one of her designs. Photo/Muslimgirl.com
Syrian-American fashion designer Lena Herbali talks with MuslimGirl.com about her unique bohemian chic designs, pattern making skills and what it’s like to be an indie designer.
“My strong sense of feminism, from a young age, led to a deep dissatisfaction with the representation of women in the fashion industry,” Herbali said. “I wanted to wear things that made me feel epic and funky as hell, not overly sexualized and objectified.”
5. How Trump Nod Could Cause Record Muslim-American Voter Turnout
A woman with a Muslim headscarf walks past a voting sign on April 19 in Brooklyn, New York. Stephanie Keith / Getty Images
According to NBC News, now that Trump has secured the Republican presidential nomination, his ticket could propel Muslim-Americans to head to the polls to combat his anti-Muslim rhetoric.
“The rhetoric that Trump is putting out there is creating a lot of mobilization,” Amaney Jamal told NBC News. Jamal is a politics professor at Princeton University who has studied Muslim American political participation and voting behavior.
Muslim organizations have already begun working together to hold national voter registration days at local mosques and community centers. Their goal is to register one million new voters as well as provide transportation to the polls.
“Trump’s rhetoric has awakened the Muslim American community to their obligation and their right,” Jamal said.
According to Jamal more than 300,000 new Muslim Americans have registered to vote.
[tweetthis]altM’s weekly roundup of news[/tweetthis]
This list was curated by Kaitlin Montgomery, altM News Editor
