Micah Fletcher—the 21-year-old Portland, OR resident who survived a stab wound to the neck after intervening in a fight on the TriMet MAX train last week—posted a video to his Facebook wall on Wednesday, asking the public to shift their support from him to the two black teenage girls initially targeted with…
Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee who recently made history by winning a seat in the Minnesota House, wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon that she was “subjected to the most hateful, derogatory, islamophobic, sexist taunts and threats I have ever experienced” by a Washington, D.C. cab driver yesterday.
In 1974, the Iranian national women’s volleyball team competed in the well-recognized volleyball ensemble—shorts and a t-shirt—with their hair uncovered. Today they compete, heads covered, in long-sleeved jerseys and long pants.
This is the story of two Olympians wearing hijabs. One is U.S. fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, who is one of the faces of these Olympics, and a vocal stereotype piercer for black Muslim women. The other is Sarah Attar, an under-the-radar Californian who will cover her head, arms, and legs when she competes for Saudi Arabia…
Pierre Berge, who was Yves Saint Laurent’s business and life partner until his death in 2008, appeared on Europe 1 French radio Wednesday to lambaste Western designers for making hijab and abaya for their Muslim customers. “These creators who are taking part in the enslavement of women should ask themselves some…
In Sydney, Australia, a young girl named Stephanie Kurlow plans to become the world’s first ballerina in a hijab—despite haters, both within and outside the Muslim community, who say that Muslims shouldn’t dance.
Haute designers Dolce & Gabbana debuted its first abaya collection on Style.com/Arabia. The designs look like typical D&G, with campy florals and rich lace accents.
The puerile, nightmarish clown car of Republican presidential candidates has been choking on the sour, stale fumes of Islamophobia. Current frontrunner Donald Trump recently stated that he “wouldn’t be opposed” to literally creating a registry of Muslims in America, presumably so he can have a list of people to, uh, …
“We have freedom of speech, we have freedom of religion,” says Megyn Kelly, in this segment about the coalition-building impulses of an overripe pumpkin from Halloween 2007. “And we’re opening up a very dangerous door if we get the government getting to go into a religious institution and decide what amounts to hate…
President Obama and the First Lady visited Saudi Arabia this week to pay their respects after the death of King Abdullah. Predictably, that ignited controversy: Abdullah presided over some tentative human rights reforms, but Saudia Arabia also has a brutal history of executing homosexuals, abusing migrant workers,…
Nour Saleh wears a hijab, so when she recently took up a Tumblr challenge to draw herself as different fictional characters, she incorporated a headscarf into various superhero designs—often with very clever results.
About five weeks ago, Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist living in London, created a Facebook page entitled My Stealthy Freedom, encouraging women to Iranian women to submit pictures of themselves without wearing their mandatory hijab. The bold page is meant to challenge the idea of compulsory traditional dress,…
Artist flowercrownprincess envisions Wonder Woman as a hijab-wearing Muslim superhero, who is ready to battle evil in both armor and a headscarf.
In the post 9/11 world, where everyone loves to fall back on a clash of the civilizations explanation for Why We Don't Get Along with "The Muslim World," one group of people tend to get a lot of attention in the midst of the cultural debate: veiled women. They have become the focal point of countless debates on Islam,…
Just in case y'all were wondering, today is "World Hijab Day," a day meant to celebrate a woman's right to wear hijab. First created back in 2004 in response to the start of Sarkozy's war on covered ladies in France, it has become a day to make a statement against bans on veiling — particularly in the West.
Some of you may remember former Disneyland employee Imane Boudlal, who filed a discrimination complaint two years ago against the magical amusement park for saying she couldn't wear a hijab during Ramadan because the hijab, you understand, isn't part of Disney's "look." Actually, according to a Disney spokeswoman,…
Saudi judo champion Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani will wear a hijab after all when she takes part in the Olympic Judo competition. A Saudi National Olympic Committee spokeswoman said that the IOC and the International Judo Federation had settled on a version of the headscarf for Shaherkani to wear that was…
The growing trend for Iranian women to wear Western fashions prompted Iran's reactionary "morality police" to raid 87 coffee shops on Saturday. Tehran police official Alireza Mehrabi explained that the coffee shops "were shut for not following Islamic values, providing hookah to women, and lacking proper licenses,"…
TLC draws in viewers by offering a glimpse into the lives of unusual people. There are the Duggars, Freaky Eaters, Hoarding: Buried Alive, The Little Couple, the saving-obsessed ladies of Extreme Couponing, and, of course, the makeup-spackled youngsters of Toddlers & Tiaras. But last night, All-American Muslim…
In 2006, Souhair Khatib went to a jail in Orange County, California to ask for more time to complete her community service. She wound up being jailed for several hours, and deputies made her take off her hijab, though she told them it's against her religious beliefs to remove her head scarf in public. Her case was…
