I am tired of having to explain to grown men that random, unrelated women do not want your opinions and judgements on the choices that they make in their lives. Not unless they ask for it. That accosting and deriding a woman for her choices cannot be explained away as “enjoining good and forbidding evil”.
All 24 countries I either lived in or visited for a short period have exposed new personality traits in myself, revealed specific weaknesses or difficulties, and allowed me to reflect on the impact I have on other people’s lives.
In what feels like the twinkle of an eye, the topic of feminism amongst Muslims is fast evolving from an unpleasant slur into an empowering …
I don’t remember doing anything fun for Eid. Even when they would go for the Durbar (hawan sallah), we didn’t join them. Not once. I remember washing plates until my fingers wrinkled, climbing stairs with heavy trays until my thighs burned, getting cut by knives, getting injured by metal colanders, and burning my hands on hot pots. That is what Eid was for me.
…what about women from low-income families, who bear the brunt of disproportionate labor during celebrations? Shouldn’t they, too, be able to enjoy Eid without the weight of unpaid domestic work?
As a brown woman in a traditional South Asian Muslim home, there was much I bristled against almost constantly. The unacknowledged labour was not just expected but demanded from me. The requirement to keep my mouth shut in deference even if an older person, especially a man, was disrespectful, discriminatory, or just plain wrong in their frequent pontification. To always, always, always think of the collective – the family, the parents, the husband, the society, before my own needs or wants – because everyone matters. Everyone except me.
In Northern Nigeria, the intersection of cultural misconceptions and Islamic teachings often creates a paradox. While Islam advocates for women’s rights and equality, the prevailing cultural practices often stifle these very principles, relegating women to roles that deny them their autonomy.
There is a quiet, unspoken belief that a woman’s place in a man’s home is defined by her duties, not by her presence.
Marriage Contract conditions can safeguard women’s rights within and outside the home… Marriage contracts can become an easy tool to equalise power between partners.
I remember the first time I felt truly seen and heard by a friend. She listened to me without judgment, without interruption. She validated my feelings, even when she didn’t understand them. And in that moment, I felt like I could breathe again. I felt like I was home.
