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.

Mid-MLT Conference Thoughts

I am humbled and inspired by my surroundings. Not just the history, immensity, and diversity of New York City, but more importantly, the Muslims I am meeting here. The conference is full of energy and warmth.

I am a little “starstruck” with all of the big Muslim names that are wandering around. But more than these passing celebrities are the people I am getting to know. I have met and spoken with some of the most intelligent, inspiring, and just-plain-wonderful people, from all over the world. These people work hard at being good parents, being good friends, being good lawyers, doctors, artists, journalists, you-name-its.I will shamelessly name drop after I’ve had a chance to digest this conference (as well as write out any critiques), but for now, my heart is filled with the beauty of friendship and a kind of familial warmth that doesn’t usually come easily after only a few hours of knowing each other.

I also learned tonight, in the cab ride home, that Bea Arthur has died at the age of 86. I bring this up not only because I grew up watching The Golden Girls, but because she was one of my first feminist role models from television. Her work on Maude and The Golden Girls helped make take-no-crap femininity part of my idea of womanhood, and though she leaves plenty of no-guff sisters behind, her death definitely leaves a gap. May God keep her.

Quoted!

I spoke with Wajahat Ali about Obama’s first 100 days in office and Iran in his recent article for the Emirate’s The National:

As Fatemeh Fakhraie, an Iranian-American editor of the popular website Muslimah Media Watch, told me: “Obama’s Norooz message last March was a bright spot in Iran-US relations. But decades of big talking – from both sides – leave many Iranians sceptical about whether the US really plans on changing its policies in Iran. If Obama wants to get anywhere with Iran, goodwill actions are worth more than goodwill words.”

My response to Jim Hoagland’s WashPo Article

Earlier this week, Jim Hoagland wrote a piece for The Washington Post that got my dander up. So I critique it at Racialicious:

While Hoagland attempted to differentiate between Islam and the political entities he discusses in last Sunday’s article by using specifics (“the Taliban’s version of Islamic law”; “Fanatical Islamic sects have framed their battle in holy terms and seek to destroy their faith’s mainstream values.”), any delineation is lost in his judgment-laden words and mischaracterizations of Afghan and Pakistani men.

A colleague and friend, Hussein Rashid, takes issue with my use of the term “Islamophobia” and critiques it here.

My religious beef with Oprah

On the RD Blog: The Devil’s Advocate, I discuss Oprah’s interview with FLDS girls that aired on her talk show earlier this week, and why I hated it:

Oprah’s interview with Betty, an FLDS woman who was taken from the YFZ Ranch by her mother when she was 16 and who moved back to the Ranch when she was 18, highlights this part of the dominant narrative on religious women. Betty states that her mother assumes she is “brainwashed”, but she says she “rejoined FLDS because she wanted to return to her old life, family and religion.”

Reflections on WAM!

I’ve been thinking about the WAM! Conference for a few days now, attempting to wring out a post or two about it. I wrote a little bit about  before and after the conference at MMW.

I met some wonderful people at the conference, including Latoya from Racialicious, Samhita from Feministing, and Jill, Cara, Jack from Feministe. I met a lot of feminist writers whose names I’ve seen over the years, including Jennifer L. Pozner, Lisa Jervis, and Rebecca Traister. It was fulfilling and exciting to put faces and voices to people I’d “cyber-known” for years, and exhilirating to meet new faces. I met some wonderful activists, writers, and media makers, including Jean Stevens of Code PINK, Rebecca Spicuglia from Women’s Media Center, and Linda Kay Klein from The Sister Fund.

But it’s not all rainbows and ice cream cones. Since WAM! is about feminism and analyzing privileges and oppressions, I appreciated Renee Martin’s criticism of the conference at GlobalComment:

When women seek to come together we need to consider if the conditions allow for a multiplicity of voices to be heard. In the end, what happens is that you have women of privilege speaking about the marginalized rather than speaking to them and this only serves to support the hierarchy of bodies that has existed since the beginning of feminism.

Renee has a great analysis of class and ability issues; definitely check out her critique.