Asra Nomani’s new documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown – airing tonight on PBS – exemplifies the great American and Islamic tradition of questioning authority. But although Nomani is certainly one such challenger, Nomani seems to undercut her own objective and isolate herself as an outlier in the community by imposing her approach on others who share her views.
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Paula Lerner has been reaching out to the women of Afghanistan ever since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2002. As a photographer and activist, she has seen the unique challenges and triumphs of women’s rights activists there. I asked her about her involvement in Afghan women’s development, as well as her views on the recent Sitara Achakzai murder and the dangers Afghan women face when advocating for broader rights.
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Recently, AltMuslimah reviewed my novel Mother of the Believers, a book that follows the birth of Islam from the perspective of Aisha (RA), the wife of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS). I would like to thank the reviewer, Uzma Mariam Ahmed, for taking the time to read my book and for writing a very gracious and positive review. And I would also like to take a moment to comment on the points that Ms. Ahmed raises as small problems for her that detracted from her overall warm response to the book.
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Author and screenwriter Kamran Pasha shares with us an excerpt from his new novel, Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam, published last month by Washington Square Press. The novel centers around the life of Aisha, the Prophet Muhammed’s youngest wife.
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There is much to recommend about Kamran Pasha’s powerfully and sensitively written new novel Mother of the Believers, where Pasha proves his mettle as a writer representing the voice of a fiery and controversial female protagonist who lived fourteen hundred years ago.
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As someone who chose to “dehijab,” I respect all Muslim women regardless of whether they choose to wear hijab, not to wear it, or to stop wearing it. What is unacceptable, however, is Muslims being judgmental toward those who simply disagree with them.
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In this excerpt from her new novel The Writing on My Forehead, author Nafisa Haji describes an incident in the protagonist’s youth that lays bare the priorities set down by tradition, where the threat of serious injury is not abhorred for injury’s sake, but for prospects of a future marriage.
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Author Nafisa Haji has a story to tell. But it’s a story within a story – the journey she took while she was writing her first novel The Writing on My Forehead – in which she learned about her own identity as she was conveying, through fiction, the perceptions she had of herself.
Read MoreSaudi Arabia’s first women’s fashion show was held by the Nafisat Shams Al Biqa’ Academy in Jeddah last month, despite a restricted audience, clerical resistance, and a mixed reaction from the Saudi public. Nevertheless, it remains a breakthrough for Saudi fashion designers and for Saudi women in general.
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After a brief, identity-driven swell in the number of hijab wearers, there now appears to be a decline. Why did women who spent years, or decades, in hijab decide to dehijabize? What is it that women feel must be fulfilled in life without the hijab that is apparently missing while wearing it?
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