Bring an ex-Muslim atheist speaker to your university or organization!
Hi guys! So I am now on the Center for Inquiry’s Speakers’ List, which means that your university or organization or conference can view my profile and biography below, along with a list of topics of expertise, and book me to come speak: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/speakers/berro_marwa I’m incredibly excited about this. …
“Why do Muslim women accept and believe these things anyway?”
There is this question I continually hear, when the inequalities and oppressions rampant in Muslim societies are being discussed, and it is this: Why do Muslim women accept and believe these things anyway? This is likely the most important question you can ask, but it can also be disappointingly …
No, Doc, you are NOT a hero for telling my daddy I’m a virgin
Hey! Guess what the subject of this blog post is! Virginity tests! Again!!! Joy! But first, here is a bit of a preamble talking about my tone in this piece and my approach regarding critique of Islam in general. If you don’t want to hear it, you can scroll …
The racism of the white wolf who cried Islamophobia
There’s a bee in my bonnet. Let’s talk about the racism of the white wolf who cried Islamophobia. I’m tired of a certain faction of Western liberals, especially white guys, Westsplaining about how anti-Muslim bigotry and Western colonialism and imperialism and international geopolitics provide *essential context* for understanding the …
A Tirade of Snark to My Clueless Muslim Critics
Herein I unleash the snark. I can’t always wax gently lyrical. Context: My last blog post was about having conversations regarding sex and virginity with family, a musing exploration of the disconnect in exchanging ideas while trying to understand each other. This morning I approved a new comment on the …
Sex and Virginity When Consent is Not a Consideration
[Content note: Sexual assault, rape] I’m trying this new thing where I blog more frequently, and allow myself to post shorter pieces. I’ve tended to stick to long-form essays because with them I can delve into an in-depth exploration, tussle with details, fan out layers of nuance. And I will …
Ex-Hijabi Interviews and the Underrepresentation of Ex-Muslim Women
[UPDATE: The Huffington Post has published the Ex-Hijabi interviews; find them HERE.] A few weeks ago, Valerie Tarico, a psychologist, author, and journalist, released a piece in the Huffington Post entitled “Is the Hijab A Symbol of Diversity or a Symbol of Oppression?” While I was glad to finally see …
Virginity Tests and the People of the Internet
People are obsessed with women’s virginity. AND HOW, are they obsessed. And it’s fucking disheartening. I wrote a blog post about the time I was tested for virginity and because of that, the highest single search term to lead people to my blog ever is “virginity test”. Multiple times more …
What it is like to be an Ex-Muslim woman
Life and love post-hijab… …wherein also I reveal a bunch of my faces [Content Note: Body image, dissociation, mental illness, also small spoiler from Disney’s Frozen] More from the ‘what it’s like to be a…’ series here, here, and here. Some nights, I wish for remnants of that old Muslim …
ExMuslim Women Bear Witness for International Women’s Day
Happy International Women’s Day, everyone! For the occasion, my friends and colleagues from the Ex-Muslims of North America have been working very hard to create a powerful, moving compilation of Ex-Muslim’s women’s voices, a category of voices often hidden, marginalized, and discounted. Read their words about how they view their …