Apologies, readers, that this was lost in my drafts somewhere! Here’s another response to the series on sexual abuse. This is the account of a male reader who shares the impact of his now 40-year-old brother’s abuse on both the brother and the family. God grant all involved innocent parties peace and strength. What a burden and pain to carry for so long . . . 9. What I’m pasting […]
Dear readers, The world has been blessed with yet another Ramadhan so that, hopefully, we may all look inside ourselves and ask ourselves what needs improvement in our own selves as well as in the things around us. May this month be a source of inspiration, light, and justice for us all, aameen! May we all have a feminist Ramadhan – i.e., one in which we recognize and stand up […]
On May 2-3, 2015, a “diverse group of contemporary Muslim educators” held a meeting at Cambridge Muslim College to discuss a contemporary curriculum for the Islamic Sciences and the future of the madrasa, the Islamic institution of learning. According to the individual who shared information and photos about this event on Facebook (and it’s been circulated widely now), “The goal of the meeting was to reflect on the curriculum of […]
“Forbidden” I have dug inside me, A well – a deep, infinite well. In it lives with me My God The God of both women and men, The God of the oppressed and the liberated, The God of the cursed and the blessed There with me, my feelings dwell, Far from the fondness of human thought, Unwelcome elsewhere The feelings I’m forbidden to relish, The secrets I’m forbidden to reveal, […]
The article below was published first on MuslimGirl.Net and is titled “Why Are Muslim Guys Responding to the ‘Short Shorts’ Article?” The title I’m using in this blog refers to the last line of the Hussain Makke article I’m critiquing below, since it completely contradicts his entire premise even though he’s giving the advice to the rest of us. I love it, though: In your worship, be free. It’s beautiful. […]
Just to clarify: the title of this post is referring not to survivers of sexual abuse but to those who hear about sexual abuse. The following are some things *not* to say when you learn that a Qur’an teacher, an imam, or other religious community leader is sexually abusing people. The post below is specifically in response to the recent sexual abuse by the Chicago imam, who — let’s all […]
This is a response to Yasir Qadhi’s statement on his Facebook page where he shows fake support for the women’s mosque. The saddest part is that he probably meant well; he was probably expecting a pat on the back, a nice, humble thank-you from Muslim women because he’s basically saying that “Hey, Muslim men! If y’all stop disrespecting women in the mosques, maybe they won’t go around taking matters into […]
As I’ve said in previous blog posts, when I raised this reality of sexual abuse by Qur’an teachers in the Muslim community on my old blog, many people responded by sharing their own experiences or at least something they’d seen. I’ve shared some of those responses in the last entries, and some are here.
Apparently, February 1st is “World Hijab Day.” I don’t support the campaign for many reasons, although I feel it incumbent upon me to say that I fully respect hijabi women and the hijab (and I wear the hijab myself, too, whenever I feel like it); I recognize the struggles that Muslim women–not just hijabis but non-hijabis too–face and these struggles, and Islamophobia more generally, definitely need to be recognized more […]
Continuing the responses to a post I wrote previously on my Qur’an teacher sexually abusing girls. The responses below came in the form of comments or short messages, not in the form of email. So I’m sharing them in one post here. Most of these were posted as comments on the old blog when I first raised this issue of sexual abuse in Muslim communities. (If you think this means […]
Freedom from the Forbidden 