Research and publications

Questioning the veil, questioning the questioner

First published at Muslimah Media Watch. An edited version is published on altmuslimah.com Today we witness postcolonial Orientalism coming to grips with its obsession with the hijab. While the white French elite seem fixed on debating its symbols, the British media are asking why women choose to wear it. Once, the obsession was an obvious… Continue reading Questioning the veil, questioning the questioner

More on men and feminism

Men and feminism: the next frontier on feminism’s agenda. Underrated, under researched, but quite possibly one of the most important issues surrounding our engagement with the source of female oppression. Gareth at Ad Fontes has some thought-provoking views on this: Patriarchy forces men and women to play gender games that damage both of us. The… Continue reading More on men and feminism

Published
Categorized as Feminism

Big Love: Appropriating feminism in advocating polygamy

Originally posted at Muslimah Media Watch Stories about polygamy tend to surge and ebb in the media, but they never fail to intrigue people. Recently in South Africa, a Zulu man married four women–all at once–making the most popular story on the BBC news website (you can watch the clip here). In the video, a… Continue reading Big Love: Appropriating feminism in advocating polygamy

Reconstructing the deconstructed: some thoughts on transnational feminist activism

The genetic material that connects us people with pre-historic creatures are the hox genes; genes that determine the basic shape of the body – signalling where the front and back, top and bottom of the body of more complex organisms (this includes worms I’m afraid) would be, essentially. Now, the discovery of the hox genes… Continue reading Reconstructing the deconstructed: some thoughts on transnational feminist activism

Jamie Oliver, food, and Eurocentrism

If you follow Jamie Oliver’s cooking programmes, alternatively known as The Naked Chef, you’ll notice that his cool and effortless boyish attitude to cooking strikes a chord with the young, mostly male, upwardly-mobile, and aspiring members of the British middle class; it’s about an obsession with fresh, locally-sourced or grow-your-own ingredients, and recipes firmly grounded… Continue reading Jamie Oliver, food, and Eurocentrism

Selamat Hari Raya! Maaf zahir dan batin

Cycads would like to wish you Eid Mubarak! Posts will resume shortly when I finally have internet connection in my new (but very empty) house. For the rest, a wonderful rest-of-the-weekend to you!

Published
Categorized as Feminism

Ramadhan book club: Our Stories, Our Lives

Originally published at Muslimah Media Watch, with thanks to The Policy Press. Our Stories, Our Lives is an anthology of a diverse group of women in Bradford, England, offering a glimpse into their lives and their issues with reconciling their Muslim identities with being British. With the media’s daily onslaught on the image of Muslims… Continue reading Ramadhan book club: Our Stories, Our Lives

Hegemonic masculinities can mess up your kids

Apologies for falling off the face of the blogosphere. I’ve been buried underneath research papers over the past week – reading and reviewing articles on masculinity and its influence on gender disparity in education – part of my slave work until the end of this month, thankfully. From reading so many of them I’ve been… Continue reading Hegemonic masculinities can mess up your kids