Saudi women
Gender

Watching Women in the KSA

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. …

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Separate Is Never Equal
Gender

Gender segregation and rape culture

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 …

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Gender

Women – An Irresistible Force

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 …

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Gender

I am a victim and I feel guilty: This is for you, Reem.

Reem Abdel-Razek, this is for you, in honor of your supreme struggle and your vast determination. I love you, sister-in-arms: We feel guilt that it takes us a long time to ‘get over’, to process unspeakable trauma and violence. We feel guilt being around our colleagues and friends because we …

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Gender

“Separate Is Never Equal”

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 …

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Gender

The bigger lies you’ve been told in denial of Muslim women’s oppression

  I’ve apparently come across this article a few months late. It’s a piece in which a white Western woman, Lauren Rankin, attempts to make the case that it is not Islam that contributes to misogyny and oppression of Muslim women. It is instead patriarchy, and characterizing Islam as a …

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GenderHuman Rights

The bigger lies you’ve been told in denial of Muslim women’s oppression

I’ve apparently come across this article a few months late. It’s a piece in which a white Western woman, Lauren Rankin, attempts to make the case that it is not Islam that contributes to misogyny and oppression of Muslim women. It is instead patriarchy, and characterizing Islam as a violent, …

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Gender

In (further) defense of the title ‘What it is like to be a Muslim woman’

I wrote a two-part personal account of my experiences as a Muslim woman, and they are experiences of horror, oppression, suppression, and pain. I have titled both parts of this “What it is like to be a Muslim woman”. In both pieces, I stressed that my experience is not presented …

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Gender

PART TWO: What it is like to be a Muslim woman

For Part One, see here. For more from the ‘what it is like to…’ series see here and here. A defense and rationale for the title ‘What it is like to be a Muslim woman’ can be found here. [Content Note: violence, abuse, abduction] Some nights, I wake up from dreams of …

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Gender

Why gender segregation might not be the solution.

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 …

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