Culture

CultureJanuary 9, 2012

Circumstance: Gender, sexuality and the power of men in “fundamentalist” Iran

After reading a couple of reviews (on FilmJabber and Afterellen.com) about Circumstance, a recent film by Maryam Keshavarz, I decided to give the film a shot. Circumstance is a drama set in Iran, where gender and sexuality are heavily controlled by the political regime. The film depicts the story of Atafeh and Shireen, two sixteen-year-old friends, whose friendship extends to the sexual and romantic in an environment of underground adventure in contemporary Iran.

CultureDecember 29, 2011

Tattoo parlors and All-American Muslims

Many Americans ask, “Why aren’t Muslims speaking up about condemning terrorism?” I feel that this episode addresses this question through the various discussions that take place amongst the cast members. The main question that the episode rests on is how much more do they have to do to show that as third-generation Michiganders they really are All –American?

CultureDecember 22, 2011

Inside the head that wears the crown

<< From the AltMuslimah Archives >>
Let us be the ones who decide what is beautiful, what is free, what is oppressed, and what is spiritual. If you feel liberated in a scarf, keep it on. If you think your religiosity is impeded by an insistence on a wardrobe choice, move beyond the exterior of it all.

CultureDecember 2, 2011

(Not) All-American Muslim, but that’s okay

A young football coach and his team playing in front of screaming fans under the Friday night lights; a small-town cop and his high school sweetheart raising their four kids; an entrepreneur scouting out locations for a new business venture. These scenes are playing out across America, and judging from the sensational standards of “Toddlers and Tiaras” and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”, would not make a compelling pitch for a reality television show.

CultureNovember 23, 2011

Sisters are doing it for themselves

Muslim women are finally on prime time. With last Sunday’s debut of TLC’s All-American Muslim, five Muslim families joined the esteemed company of cat hoarders, toddlers wearing tiaras, and women having babies even though they didn’t know they were pregnant.

Culture, TelevisionNovember 11, 2011

TLC presents: “ALL AMERICAN MUSLIM”

TLC’s new eight-part series, “All-American Muslim,” is set to air this Sunday and follows the daily lives of five American Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan, the country’s largest Arab-American enclave. I spoke with Shadia Amen and Jeff McDermott, whose road to marriage is featured on the show. Shadia is an Arab-American Muslim and her family would like for Jeff to convert from Catholicism to Islam in order for the union to be valid in their faith.

CultureNovember 8, 2011

To de-tag or not to de-tag

Though not the most pressing issue when it comes to the daily practice of Islam, the steady stream of embarrassing photos on Facebook created an unexpected conflict in my mind. A question arose: to de-tag, or not to de-tag? The problem boils down to the fact that I’ve honed the act of public embarrassment into a fine art. One famous photo of what was supposed to be a group of friends frolicking in the snow instead features me rapping with unbridled enthusiasm.

CultureNovember 4, 2011

An interview with Ferial Masry

When I heard female activists pretty much ran the Arab Spring, I could not help but think that this was not a new phenomenon. Not only have Muslim women been active in the Middle East for generations, but they brought this same legacy with them to the West. However, the mainstream media does not highlight the efforts of these women often.

altMen, CultureOctober 14, 2011

Body-talk and the limits of Islamic erotica (Part 2: The artist)

Praise for Islamic Erotica is spreading throughout the blogosphere. Whether on liberal news sites or trash-talking hate blogs, the photographic and painted images of veiled U.S. icons and undisclosed Muslim women are circulating rapidly. Although the object of their discussions concern a variety of artists who, together, make up the phenomenon called “Islamic Erotica,” the central figure is Makan Emadi. Intrigued by his work, I visited the artist’s website to read more about his vision of Islamic Erotica. << From the Altmuslimah Archives >>

altMen, CultureOctober 13, 2011

Body-talk and the limits of Islamic erotica (Part 1: The fans)

In March of 2010, two popular blogs featured articles concerning a body of particular concern these days: the female Muslim body. Although the subject of discussion was “Islamic Erotica,” it was nevertheless the Muslim body that was speaking. Writing in The Daily Beast, for example, Betwa Sharma described how Muslim women’s bodies are talking about resistance. Exploring the prohibition of nudity in Muslim art, Sharma introduced her readers to a few aspiring artists whose representations of naked bodies have been branded as artistic acts of defiance against religious restrictions. << From the AltMuslimah Archives >>

1 Alim Live 17 Hidden Benefits of Niqab

Mashallah good post . Keep it up.
2 Sarah Briggs I am a Muslim woman and I chose to have an abortion—Part I

You don’t accidentally become pregnant, love. If you have sex, this = risk of pregnancy. Also. You can try and convince yourself otherwise, but you murdered your own baby. This…
3 marziya Choosing a childfree present

This is so insightful, is there any way i could contact the writer?
4 Muhammad Ali Part 1 of the debate: Muslim women should be able to marry non-Muslim men

May why do so many conver women particularly white femlaes. and its almost always women, try to come into the Musli mcommunity and change it to the very same liberalism…
5 muhammad ali Part 2 of the debate: Muslim women should not be able to marry non-Muslim men

if u dont stand with your community in its most troubling times nd simp for whit emales, 80% of who votd for a candidate that voted to ban you, it…