1) Modesty mustn’t simply be defined in terms of what you’re wearing, but more importantly, how you behave I don’t know, I don’t think modesty should be as simple as a piece of clothing. I’ve seen women who are truly modest, and they don’t require a Hijab to be so. At the same time, I’ve…
Read MoreForced into the Hijab (Part I)
Ramadhan has always been a special time for me because it’s the time when I sit down and reflect about my religion more seriously. I don’t mean for this to look like a biography, but I thought that it’d be easier to write things chronologically. See, for as long as I can remember, the Hijab has…
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Who Speaks for Muslim Women?
By Diana Rahim I just finished reading “Who Speaks For Islam?: What A Billion Muslims Really Think.” by John L. Esposito & Dalia Mogahed. The book presents the data collected from a 6 year long study conducted by Gallup Organization. They conducted tens of thousands of hour long interviews with people from more than…
Read MoreAn Evening at Hong Lim
Photo cred: #sg2gaza I have now been to three separate events at Hong Lim Park, each with a different agenda and each, extremely close to my heart. The first event was held on March 8th, International Women’s Day. It was the first ever celebration for IWD at Hong Lim Park and it was my introduction…
Read MoreDifficult Questions
I had stumbled across the beautiful words of the Prophet’s (PBUH) last sermon this past week. This sermon was delivered by the Prophet during his pilgrimage to Mecca. The sermon contains universal values of justice, fairness and equality. It touches on, among others, the themes of ‘freedom, equality and human rights’. Finding the sermon was…
Read MoreMalay Ideas on Women
I recently attended a talk about Malay Ideas on Women. One of the participants raised a particularly interesting point. She mentioned the popularity of Malay novels nowadays and the ideas on Malay women that they promote.  This got me thinking. Malay novels are insanely popular. In the public libraries, you have to place a…
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Beyond The Hijab 