About four weeks ago Aziz Ansari in one of his sold out shows in Houston, broached the topic of our social etiquette in modern-day social media obsessed world. I couldn’t help but uproariously laugh at some of the scenarios Ansari threw out, but his jokes also left me thinking seriously…
Read More
A journalist writing an article about Muslim feminism recently asked me what I thought about secular Egyptian Aliaa Magda Elmahdy and her performance art, which involved menstruating and defecating on an ISIS flag, and the broader tactics of FEMEN, whose mostly non-Muslim members have bared their breasts to protest the…
Read More
Whenever the epidemic of rape in Egypt makes the news, I am destined to think of Joyce Carol Oates. Last summer, the author took to twitter to question whether Islam was responsible for the widespread incidence of sexual assault in Egypt, an argument people continue to make today. As…
Read More
Question #1 Dear Salma, I have a teenage daughter and am concerned about how to explain interfaith marriage to her. We have a growing number of Muslims in our community–both men and women–marrying outside of Islam. She and I will talk about these sorts of things and I’ve explained to…
Read More
[infobox maintitle=”CLICK HERE for schedule of events” subtitle=”” bg=”yellow” color=”black” opacity=”off” space=”30″ link=”http://www.altfemmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Alt-Fem-Schedule-Final.pdf”]
Read More
<< From the AltMuslimah Archives >>
Our journey began with the intention of ihram: “I’ve made my skin, my hair, and my nails sacred for You, Allah.” I had prayed to be enveloped by enough light to lead me all the way to Mecca from my bedroom in hilly Amman, Jordan. Qibla-bound, we first stopped in Jeddah. I tried to remain indifferent to the lavishness of the glitzy port-city. Instead, I was excited by the prospect of completing umrah under the clear, starry nights of Mecca.
“And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought” – Quran 30:21.
The video of Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice punching Janay Palmer, his then girlfriend and now wife, has practically been on loop for the past few days. It is a horrifying clip, one that I accidentally saw on some sports network my husband was watching.
Read More
“I’ve often felt that Robin’s blinding speed and flash of wit was an effort at concealment rather than revealing,” said Robin Williams’ friend Eric Idle to The New York Times in 2009, an astute observation that foreshadowed the beloved comedian’s suicide in August of 2014. Williams numbed his pain through alcohol, drugs and the laughter of audiences. His death sheds light on an interesting facet of how we, as a society, understand both happiness and depression.
Read More
I’m not one for humid, oppressively hot weather, but there I was standing on the grassy knoll opposite the White House, squinting into the noon-day sun. And I wasn’t alone. Roughly 10,000 people–give or take a few hundred—milled around me on Lafayette Square, spilling onto Pennsylvania Avenue.
Read More
For young Muslim women struggling with eating disorders, Ramadan can be the worst time ever. I know this firsthand.
As a teen girl, I would intermittently starve myself and vigorously work out. I would eat 500 calories a day–no carbs, no sugar.
Read More