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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<< From the AltMuslimah Archives >>
“He is educated, Mashallah …a lawyer, and the age difference is just right. I talked to his mother, too. She was absolutely delightful, she agreed with me on everything! She is sending his picture through the e-mail right now.” Barely able to contain her excitement, my mother grabs her reading glasses and positions herself before the monitor. It is the Moment of Truth.
Can religious Muslims choose to wait for love or must they settle down with the most practical match? We all grapple with this question, especially if we hit our late 20s and have not yet married. What is it that I really want? We all desire both love and marriage,…
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Ask M answers your questions about online courtship and wedding night anxieties.
My girlfriends and I talk constantly about how difficult it is for us to find suitable husbands nowadays. “We’re amazing,” we reassure ourselves, half-jokingly, half-sincerely. “Anyone would be lucky to nab us!” Maybe we are all amazing, but there is something a little extra that I bring to the table–I…
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We turn to screens for nearly every decision. Where to eat. Where to vacation. Where to eat on vacation. Where to get treatment for the food poisoning you got at that restaurant where you ate on vacation. Where to write a negative review calling out the restaurant that gave you…
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“I’ll have a tall, half soy, half 2%, no foam, with one pump please.” Have you heard (or ordered) something similar at your local coffee shop? Will that “perfect” order – so detailed because we are given so many choices – make every sip all the more satisfying or…
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The Urdu phrase “bus bohot hogiya hay” sends chills down Umair Khan’s spine. Roughly translated as “enough already,” it’s something Mr. Khan, 34, a Manhattan lawyer, has heard uttered by his mother, his aunt and their Pakistani-American friends on several occasions, lately with increasing exasperation. The frustration stems from Mr….
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Tinder and Osama bin Laden. Those are two words you wouldn’t expect in the same sentence. Cue mixture of horror and curiosity. Gawker writer Sam Biddle did a social ‘experiment’ on Tinder. He used an unconventional source for his flirtatious remarks – Osama bin Laden’s ‘love letter’ to one of…
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Dear Salma, I am currently a second-year college student. I used to say, “Oh, I probably won’t get married until I’m like 30,” because I assumed I likely wouldn’t find someone who I would fall head over heels for. This refrain changed when I joined the Muslim Student Association at…
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