In the past week, a young woman, Mahsa Amini, died in Iranian custody after allegedly being arrested for wearing improper garments. The government reports that she died from heart failure or stroke; her family maintains she was beaten to death by police. We ask Allah ﷻ to have mercy on her soul, and reunite her and her family in the lush gardens of the afterlife. Continue reading Hijab Laws and State Violence in Iran
Recently, deadly protests have broken out across Iran after authorities supposedly detained a woman, Mahsa Amini, and eventually killed her for violating Iranian laws regarding the Hijab. The killing of this woman and the brutal nature of Iranian authorities is surely horrifying and detestable — if it indeed happened as they say. Initial reports stated she died in police custody and soon escalated to state that she was brutally beaten. Continue reading Musings on Iran, Hijab, and the Western Muslim
Diese Reise, mich so zu bedecken und zu verhalten, dass es entsprechend meiner Annahme Gott gefallen und die Tatsache ehren würde, dass mein Körper nicht mir gehört, sondern etwas von Gott Anvertrautes (amanah) ist, war und ist nicht einfach: Millionen von muslimischen Frauen ringen damit. Continue reading Hijab: Nicht mein Körper, nicht meine Entscheidung
Sin embargo, parece cada vez más que esa distancia con el hiyab: ya sea rechazando abiertamente a ponérselo, llevándolo de una manera que todavía muestra los partes sustanciales de la forma de uno, o eventualmente quitándoselo después de practicarlo una vez, se expresa no solo en sentimientos de indiferencia, sino en rectitud moral. Continue reading El Hiyab: ni mi cuerpo, ni mi elección
The narrative journeys of Muslims in fiction are shoehorned into a pendulum of tradition versus modernity, Western versus strange. Stories illustrating the journey to reconcile the two necessarily entails subsuming Islam under discount Netflix theology with the sirens of self-as-god. Continue reading Representation Culture: Negotiating the TV Muslim
In March of 2022, the Indian High Court in Karnataka upheld the government ban on Hijab in schools as constitutional. Continue reading India’s Hijab Ban, Part I: Limits of the Democratic Constitutional Order
Q&A with Afreen Fatima about the rising injustices against Muslims in India and the hijab ban protests in Karnataka. Continue reading Islamophobia and the Hijab Ban in India: Q&A with Afreen Fatima
Developed in light of various Dharm Sansads (religious conferences) organized in several Indian cities by Hindu religious leaders, who called upon Hindus to arm themselves for the wholesale massacre of Muslims. This is no recent development: the agenda for genocide has been gaining traction for a long time now. Most people mistakenly believe Hindu nationalism is the sole proprietorship of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In reality, however, Islamophobia is embedded within India’s dominant political lingua franca, including the nation’s opposition parties. Hence, it is not surprising that in the latest attack against Muslims (regarding hijab and niqab in colleges and educational institutions) not a single united front of support has emerged from the majority community. Continue reading Muslim Women vs. the Hindutva Project
In December 2021, a Muslim woman in Quebec, Canada lost her teaching position because she refused to remove her hijab in the classroom. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, despite his personal disagreement with the law that cost her a job, would not intervene in this “touchy subject,” as the bill under discussion was voted in democratically. This is the latest from a multi-year saga of the formation of the law aptly titled, An Act respecting the laicity of the State. [1] It is important to challenge the very premise that laïcité is a force for a just and plural society. Continue reading Religious Symbols, Liberalism, and Laïcité in Quebec
بدأتُ ارتداء الخمار (غطاء الرأس الإسلامي، ويعرف بالحجاب) عندما كنت في العاشرة من العمر. كنت قد تأثرت بصديقاتٍ متحجبات أكبر مني سنًا، وآمنت حينها بأنه الوقت المناسب لارتداء الحجاب أيضًا والعمل بما يقتضيه. وبعد مضي أكثر من عشر سنين مَنَّ الله تعالى عليَّ بالاستمرار في الارتقاء في مسيرتي نحو الامتثال لمقتضيات الحجاب ظاهرًا وباطنًا. إنها سير باتجاه الستر والتصرف بطريقة أؤمن أنها ترضي الله عز … Continue reading الحجاب: ليس جسدي، ليس اختياري
