Author: Fatemeh Fakhraie

Founder of Muslimah Media Watch. Content marketing nerd who likes figuring out how stuff works and writing about it. I learned everything about being an adult from The Golden Girls.

Is this what it feels like to be name-dropped?

I appear in an article in The Star about burqas and “Islamic” influence on French design houses:

Polls have shown that while the Western world debates the burqa, our image in the Middle East is less than favourable. As feminist media critic Fatemeh Fakhraie has pointed out, while governments work to change the Muslim world’s perception on the West, we do little to improve our own perception of the Muslim world.

This tickles me a little, as I was never asked for an interview. I think they’re referencing the article by Nicole Neroulias that appeared in The Huffington Post last month.

The Star article is an interesting one, especially if you’re interested in fashion. Give it a read!

It’s been awhile, I know.

But, friends, I’ve been busy catching up on Dexter and visiting friends and family!

I’m incredibly proud to say that Muslimah Media Watch was featured in the German Zeit Online, in an article about how blogging words as “social disinfectant” against “lies and racism” (link in German).

Using Google translate, I learn that we’re referred to as “Arab women.” The irony that my writers and I are all referred to as “Arab” (rather than “Muslim”) in an article about blogging breaking down stereotypes is not lost on me. The reality is that we’re from several different ethnicities and are located all over the globe. But, hey, they’re trying…right?

If you speak German (or enjoy reading disjointed Google Translated docs), head over and give it a read! There are lots of other wonderful websites mentioned in the article.

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves…

Check out a great profile of Muslim women in the media (including me!) in Elan magazine!

On a more global scale, the rise of the internet has meant that many Muslim women can now setup a blog or website and speak their mind without fear that their words are going to be misrepresented. News sites tackling inaccurate portrayals of Muslim women such as Muslimah Media Watch (MMW) and Altmuslimah are going from strength to strength. MMW which started life as a one woman blog in 2007 was recently re-launched as a website with a 21 plus blogging team hailing from places as far afield as Egypt to Switzerland.

See the entire piece here.

On U.S. cultural imports and global Muslim perception

I’m in The Huffington Post discussing Sex and the City 2 (along with other U.S. “cultural imports” like TV and movies) and how they effect our perception of Muslim-majority countries:

One problem is that the Obama administration has focused mainly on changing the Muslim world’s perception of America, rather than America’s perception of the Muslim world, said Fatemeh Fakhraie, editor-in-chief of Muslimah Media Watch, a feminist Muslim website.

Check out the entire article here!

Hollywood, politics, and U.S. Muslims…

Haroon Moghul (who will be visiting the Pacific Northwest this weekend), Amir Hussein, and I discuss political and Hollywood representations of Muslims with Nicole Neroulias of BeliefNet:

Recent pop culture representations of the Middle East and Muslims sort of highlight the fact that Muslims and Muslim-majority countries are increasingly high-profile, both in politics and in the mainstream American media. There have been several TV shows, books, and movies in the last 10 years that include Muslim or Middle Eastern characters.

Check out the entire thing at BeliefNet.

Did you sit through SATC2 this weekend?

I did.

And the ladies of MMW and I wrote about it!

The film reinforced the standoffish attitude westerners have to Muslim-majority countries. Samantha’s middle finger isn’t a valiant push against conservatism, it’s a big “Eff you!” to intercultural respect. Rather than realizing that they were guests in a country that has different rules from their own, the fearsome foursome acted like Abu Dhabi was a sandbox at the playground where they could play “Arabian Nights” themed-dress up.

Check it out!

A tall glass of haterade, anyone?

Last week, in a guest post on MuslimMatters, Hena Zuberi attempted to confiscate my Feminist Membership Card with her take on Rima Fakih’s Miss USA victory. She (and others) did not like my personal reflections on Fakih’s win.

Ironically, articles like Zuberi’s and comments on Muslim message boards are the very reason I wrote those articles. It’s easy to bring the haterade on Fakih. For many of us, it might be second nature to point fingers and judge Fakih: CNN is doing it, lots of Muslims are doing it, conservative right-wingers are doing it.

But it’s a lot more difficult to accept Fakih and her choices, even if they don’t mirror how we think Muslim (or Arab) women should act. It’s more difficult to show support for her as a member of our communities, even if we don’t agree with the premise of the Miss USA pageant.

Furthermore, the Miss USA story isn’t much of one, and yet Fakih is denounced from all sides as if she’s a stain on Muslim America’s reputation. This woman isn’t an extremist who preaches hate and should be censured by the community–she’s a beauty queen.

Everyone and their mothers has already hated on her. I wrote my articles to bring some positivity to the discussion. This does not qualify as “letting go of [my] values.”

My Cif post on Miss USA

On today’s Comment is free, I write about the positives in Miss USA’s win:

Although Fakih has won the Miss USA crown, she’ll never win everybody over. American conservatives are foaming at the mouth about her spurious connections to Hezbollah, and many feminists are disapproving of her win because it came from another sexist doll factory. Women like Fakih face double trouble when they achieve any type of success: she’s a win for Arab-Americans, but a loss for women in general. She represents the diverse facets of Muslim Americana, but she also represents the impossible cultural standards that women in this country are supposed to live up to.

Check out the entire piece!