Aziz has published my thoughts on Iran at his website at beliefnet.

I write for DoubleX on the positives:

In all this, there hasn’t been much said about what Obama did right. The fact that Obama even mentioned women’s rights is a big deal. And those three paragraphs were delicately crafted to contain subtle nods to both reformers and traditionalists.

For Racialicious, I write about UCLA’s current campaign to expand the ethnicity options for students of Middle Eastern descent:

Last March, several Middle Eastern UCLA student groups began a lobby to expand the University of California application ethnicity check boxes to include ethnicities such as Arab, Persian, Afghan, etc. It’s mind-boggling that the UC system would still not have up-to-date ethnicity representation on its applications, especially since California has high concentrations of West Asian diasporas in California (they don’t call it “Tehrangeles” for nothing).

Slate’s ladyblog, Double X, features a piece from me today. In it, I discuss what happens when non-Muslim feminists get involved in Muslim women’s issues:

Non-Muslim feminists look at Muslim women through a lens that ignores the historical reality of colonialism, occupation, and the importance of religion in public life. When they do so, they sometimes put women at risk. For example, take either of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. Several Western feminist groups joined the call for battle: “It is our duty to spread freedom! And we must liberate the women of [insert predominately Muslim country here]! Look at how their men treat them!” And voilà: Rudyard Kipling’s “White (Wo)Man’s Burden” is alive and well more than a century after it was written.

And I’m in it! I discuss Mukhtar Mai’s recent marriage and its reception in the Pakistani press:

In early April, Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistani survivor of a tribal-ordered gang rape who prosecuted her rapists rather than accepting a tradition of suicide after rape, married her bodyguard, Nasir Abbas Gabol.

Scathing condemnations of the marriage came from Pakistani writers, women’s groups, and news outlets. While the circumstances under which she married are troubling, the way that Pakistani media has discussed the Mai and her marriage is equally troubling.

Chay magazine is a much-needed and frank magazine about sexuality in Pakistan, so give it a read!

Wajahat Ali kicks off his “Muslims Talking Sex” series on GOATMILK with a piece I wrote about virginity! Check it out:

Notice both definitions admit that not all women are born with hymens. Hymens are as varied as women themselves: some hymens never come to be, some are so delicate that they tear without cause, some are so stubborn they must be surgically removed for a woman to have intercourse or give birth.  Despite the fact that hymens are too varied and unreliable to serve as an indicator of virginity, this is precisely how they are used.

My critique of Jim Hoagland’s Washington Post piece, first featured at Racialicious, is now running at AltMuslimah and Islam on My Side.

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.

Today, I join in a conversation with the Racialicious crew about the recent Ricci v. DeStefano case, in which several firefighters are alleging racial discrimination against the city. The case is on the Supreme Court’s docket, and in today’s roundtable, we discuss the case, its effects, and have a few laughs. Check it out.

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.”