At Racialicious, I give my thoughts about the #WhiteHouseIftar debate:
There are two ways of effecting change and they are both necessary. One way is working from the inside, as attendees of these events attempt, and another way is from the outside, by principled boycotts. Civil rights leaders use both of these tactics to advance dialogue and access to power structures; the American Muslim community must use both these tactics together to accomplish the same.
Samina Ali wrote a piece for The Huffington Post today in which she talked about how harmful media images negatively affect Muslim women:
A helpless Muslim woman seems to no longer be just a stereotype. “Muslim woman” has become synonymous with “helpless victim.”
Sound bites the media uses to portray Muslim women have been a large contributor in making this victim mentality a norm. For a recent infographic, IMOW partnered withMiss Representation to show the three common ways the media packages Muslim women: veiled, oppressed, and, most dangerous of all, homogenous.
She also briefly touched on the #MuslimaVoices Twitter chat we did earlier this month.
Today, the International Museum of Women (the people behind the online exhibition Muslima) hosted a Twitter chat in partnership with Miss Representation to discuss media portrayal of Muslim women. A bunch of wonderful Muslim women (myself included) joined in and had a discussion about media representation surrounding images of Muslim women. This was right up my alley, since it’s the entire reason I started Muslimah Media Watch in 2007–I was (and am) sick and tired of being portrayed through stereotypes.
Here’s a storify of the Twitter chat so you can catch up on all the good stuff you missed!
May and June have really flown by–it’s hard to believe July is in just two weeks!
Time flies when you’re having fun, and I’ve been hard at work. Our first-ever webinar was a great success and I had a blast doing it, so I’m working on another one for July! Stay tuned for details about that.
Our latest whitepaper came out today! It talks about the importance of local businesses (particularly credit unions) getting involved with local schools, and has some excellent tips that will take you from sending your first email to presenting in the classroom. You can check it out here.
And be sure to take a look at my blog post about social media best practices! It’s a great place to start if you’re trying to get your bearings on any social media network. Plus, I’ve been doing a monthly spotlight on credit unions with the best social media practices–check out the series here.
My first piece for Ms. magazine is a book review! I review Elif Shafak’s Honor for the magazine, which was a treat–I love Shafak’s writing immensely.
Things are going great at brass! On our corporate blog, I’m doing a series that interviews social media specialists at credit unions to look at how they’re getting their CUs involved. Check out the series here.
I’m also authoring articles for brass magazine as well. The summer 2013 issue is out, and I’ve written a feature on inflation. As soon as it’s up, I’ll post a link. But for now, you can check out some magazine articles I wrote on toy fads and becoming a business entrepreneur.
The most exciting thing is that I’m working on our new webinar series, which starts this month! The first broadcast is how to monitor your online mentions.
Be sure to check out brassmedia.com and brassmagazine.com to stay up to date on what we’re up to!
I was on Al Jazeera’s The Stream yesterday, talking about FEMEN’s naked protests.
I spoke alongside some very impressive ladies:
All amazing women doing fantastic work!
Check out the program:
I just finished a wonderful (though much, much too brief) conversation with HuffPost Live on hijab and feminism. Check out Ilana Alazzeh, Darah Rateb, Deina Abdelkader, and Fadia Badrawi, and me! Watch us here!
Hey, all! A few weeks ago I shared the corporate blogging I’m doing with you, and I wanted to share another first with you.
I worked with colleagues to put out brass Media’s newest white paper, about creating a social media policy for your organization. This is my first whitepaper, and I’m really proud of it–and had a great time writing it! I’m starting to suspect that I have a hidden talent for technical writing.
You can download the white paper here. I hope you enjoy it!
“Violence against women is violence against all society.” –El Salvador President Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena
This Friday is International Women’s Day, and I’ll be joining millions of other women, men, and organizations to participate in advocating for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and ending gender-based violence.
The CSW is a global policy-making body dedicated to gender equality and the advancement of women. They gather annually to evaluate progress on gender equality, set global standards, and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and women’s advancement worldwide. This year’s theme is the “elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.” They’re in session through next week.
I’m joining 70 other individuals, media outlets, and organizations to tweet on International Women’s Day to support and strengthen the CSW’s work to end violence against women. If you’d like to join us, sign up here.
I’ll be hosting the Tweet-a-thon during the 10 am hour (PST). Join us!
Fatemeh Fakhraie 