Other than getting lots of random friend requests on Facebook from people I don’t know, my CNN piece has gotten a few other reactions.

Racialicious and Muslim Voices highlighted the piece. Much love to Latoya and Liz!

My colleague Hussein Rashid also mentioned that CNN’s headline, “The media is obsessed with how Muslim women look,” appeared in the Metro under the “Adorable Headlines” section. *giggle*

It looks like the Metro is a little behind on their graphic updates, but I’ll post a screen shot when I get a chance.

Update: Metro screenshot below:

“Fact: The media are obsessed with how women look. Period.”

Wholeheartedly agree. As did many of the commenters at CNN.

But here’s the thing: I was asked to write about being Muslim in 2010, not being a woman. Context, friends.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

The USC Knight Chair in Media and Religion website trans/missions profiles me, along with the amazing Edina Lekovic and the exuberant Linda Sarsour, as Muslim women who provide a counterpoint to Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

I’ll be on a  live webchat this Wednesday with Muslim Voices about Muslims and the media.

Stop by and say hello!

You can find out this week!

I’ll be on the Jeff Farias Show today at 4.30 pm PST! I’ll be talking about everything from South Park to Belgium’s recent face veil ban.

You can listen to the show online. I’ll post the podcast link once it’s up.

Tomorrow, I’ll be on the Accent of Women program on Australia’s 3CR community radio, discussing Muslimah Media Watch, the veil ban (again), and feminism. Once the podcast is up, I’ll post a link to that, as well.

Happy listening!

While in Vienna, I spoke with Ingrid Steiner-Gashi from Austria’s Kürier newspaper. The interview has not been posted on the Kürier website, but I have a .pdf for you in case you didn’t bother to look at it the first time.

I finally got around to getting a translation! For those of you who don’t speak German, my friend Dianna Fisher was kind enough to provide me with an English version:

Muslims are increasingly victims of discrimination and violent according to the report published by the US Foreign Ministry.

As examples, the Minaret ban in Switzerland and the scarf ban at German schools. Also Austria does not come through unscathed. Public discrimination toward Muslim women who wear the veil and who are treated with hostility is no rarity, the judgment is Islamophobia. Media critic Fatemeh Fakhraie says in the Kürier conversation– on the other hand that the USA also has problems with hostility to Islam.

On her website Muslimah Media Watch (the watcher of media reports of Muslim women worldwide), Fakhraie judges the representation of Muslims in western media is shown negatively. “[The media] gives very few positive pictures. The prevailing picture is unfortunately always negative: the dangerous, insidious Muslim woman, the suicide bomber. The large majority of the western media draws a bad picture. Many stereotypes have changed–but the picture that Muslim women are strange and different, that did not change.”

The representation in the media does not improve with contact with Muslims in Europe and in the USA certainly, believes the young American with Iranian roots. “Muslim men often are also represented in stereotypes: either as with terrorism or as an oppressor of women.”

The USA is self-critical and compares with Europe. In one place in the report, it is stated that many governments use “wide interpretations of terrorism and need ordinances in order to restrict” rights of prisoner and to curtail human rights.

A disputed law the fight against terrorism-the so-called “patriot Act” – was extended when it expired in February. The anti-terror laws were established under George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks. It gives the government and the justice authorities’ larger latitude to the detainment of terror suspects.