Gender

Question: What do you know now about your self worth or self image as a woman that you didn’t know when you followed/believed in Islam?

To mark today’s International Women’s Day, I have invited ExMuslim women, from EXMNA and everywhere, to tell their own stories in their own voices. For too long, women from Muslim backgrounds who no longer follow Islam and related cultural norms have remained silent. Sometimes they are kept silent by force. …

Sometimes a news article doesn’t come close to the startling insights and drama of the responses it elicits. The recent Arab news piece on the surveillance of Saudi women gives us the best of both worlds — objective news reporting with a smattering of yellow journalism woven into the comments. …

Last week, the row over gender segregation in UK universities blew up and became a national story with international interest. You can read the details about what transpired there on the website of the London School of Economics Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society. I also recommend the videos on Channel …

I watched the Maryam Namazie interview with the lady who was defending gender segregation. It is intriguing how she made MSA events look like feminist projects that will end up being abandoned because of the “Separate is never equal” movement. According to her line of reasoning, muslim women can only …

A case study by universities in the UK has sparked opposition and a good deal of attention in social media sites. It explores gender segregation as a practice to accommodate speakers from ultra conservative religious groups. People are rightfully upset. I have been to a bunch of MSA events on campus and …

Gender segregation: Reducing any and every interaction between men and women to sex since forever. Because, men and women being together in one room – especially public lectures – obviously always leads to a big fat orgy. Some days ago I was in a public lecture about Malala, and since …

Disclaimer: This post is a rant. I was extremely outraged when I first read the news that UK universities are pandering to the Islamists’ request of implementing gender apartheid in universities. It is the 21st century where we are supposed to have equality. And yet, we have to deal with …

“We will call your mom. We have to call your mom right now. We can’t afford such indecent behavior in our school.”  These words stabbed parts of me that can never come alive again.  My crime? Liking a guy. And I mean, just having a massive crush on a guy. …

It’s amazing how much Muslim cultures pride themselves for being anti-divorce and for having supposedly “low rates” of divorce. They tell you it is the case because “we know the value of family and family life”. In reality, it is the case only because of how stigmatized divorce is – …