God Is Not A Segregationist...

This month, local news stations in Washington D.C. reported on a protest by Muslim women at the Islamic Center of Washington, who demanded the right to worship in the Center’s main prayer hall. The police were called and the women asked to leave. But they say their struggle will continue. The source...

Honorary Harpies: Women of the Wall...

Breaking the law. Photo via Women of the Wall. In December 1988, a group of Jewish women calling themselves the Women of the Wall began what would become an over 20 year battle for women’s rights. Their mission? To pray together at Judaism’s holiest site, the Kotel (aka the Western or Wailing...

Can I Get a Witness?...

Last week, during one leg of my hellish commute, I picked up one of the free tabloid papers that are 50% ads, 23% sports, 23% celebrity gossip, and 4% “news,” digested into its blandest, most thoughtless form.   It’s one of the last places I expect to find counter-cultural messages....

Hanukkah, Now Available With More Orrin ...

Menorah cake! Nom nom nom. Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah! Well, ’tis the season to celebrate the festival of lights. Granted, we don’t have mistletoe, trees, and creepy elves wrapping gifts. Nor do we have a great stock of holiday songs. (I’m sorry, but Adam Sandler’s ditties just...

The Oxford Comma: A Good Idea...

Although I’m not immune to typos and certainly make my fair share of mistakes, I can be a pedant when it comes to grammar and usage, especially to my students.  But really, it matters, as I noted again this morning, while skimming an AP story on a new stream of evangelical Christians taking their...

Harpy Droppings: for Your Reading Pleasu...

Via don2g @ Flickr. Via Muslimah Media Watch, NOW Lebanon interviews Arab feminists Dr. Omaira Abou-Bakr and Hoda al-Saadi, after a conference for Arab women in Beirut. Both women are members of an Egyptian NGO called Women and Memory. An Amish woman has been charged with failing to report her husband’s...

Sauce for the Gander...

An article on CNN today gives us a rather stunning example of how Islamic modesty and anti-speech laws–the bete noire of womanity–can brutalize men as well. Even though Saudi males are just about the most privileged menfolk in the world, it turns out even they are not immune to the threat...

Muslim Ladies Exercising!...

I feel like Muslim women have been all over the MSM recently. Well, not Muslim women, obviously, but white women reporting back on what it’s like to live as a Muslim lady for a day or some such. I did find this piece by Abby Ellin at The New York Times sort of refreshing. She writes about the...

They really do see us as baby factories....

Now hand her over. Via Gimli_36 @ Flickr. I knew Crisis Pregnancy Centers were bad, but I didn’t know they were this bad. Here’s the deal: Girl (or woman) gets pregnant, girl turns to “Crisis Pregnancy Center” for help, CPC pressures her to a.) continue the pregnancy and b.)...

Honorary Harpy: Malalai Joya...

Her enemies call her a “dead woman walking”. But 31 year old Afghan women’s rights activist Malalai Joya says, “I don’t fear death; I fear remaining silent in the face of injustice.” Joya is a breathtakingly brave woman who deserves our praise and, more importantly,...

Honorary Harpy: Jimmy Carter...

Via Valerie Renee @ Flickr.I know, right?! My heart swelled as I read Carter’s recent statement condemning “discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition.” A member of an organization called The Elders, Carter is devoted to advancing human rights and promoting...

One For Your Summer Reading List...

Via drpritch @ Flickr. …if you don’t mind a somewhat scholarly discussion of history, theology, and misogyny, anyway. You know, a little brain candy. Yesterday, I learned of the just-published Does God Hate Women?, by Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom, who also co-authored Why Truth Matters...