A Malay poem for Black History Month

Since it’s Black History Month in Britain, I’d like to feature an unlikely poem by Malaysia’s greatest poet and dramatist, Usman Awang (1929-2001). Written in 1971, ‘Suara Blues’ (Voices of the Blues) is a critique of Western hegemony and racism. It is also a kind of clarion call for the return to ‘the centre’, the [...]

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What is Islamic feminism?

There seems to be a lot of confusion about what Islamic feminism is for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Many who aren’t Muslim are quick to label Islam as a repressive religion especially to its womankind, and so essentially any kind of feminism a Muslim espouses can’t be real feminism. Many Muslims, however, don’t see the [...]

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It’s a great time to be a feminist and a Muslim

Originally featured on the BBC today:
Some of the world’s leading Islamic feminists have been gathered in Barcelona for the third International Congress on Islamic Feminism, to discuss the issues women face in the Muslim world.
Some of the women taking part in the conference explained the problems in their home countries, and where they hoped to [...]

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Shame and stupidity: a brief history of Malaysian womanhood

Malaysian women of different cultures and ethinicities welcome visitors from abroad in their colourful traditional costumes. They all smile benignly, and they all look beautiful. This is the ‘Malaysia, truly Asia’ tourism campaign. But wait – the lady in the sari (second from left) does not look Indian at all; she’s very light-skinned unlike the [...]

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More posts coming shortly!

I’ve been a little busy sorting out a few things here and there, and trying to find a part-time job. I will return very soon with more postings! Sorry for the unbearable wait!

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On menstruation

This Friday will be an exciting opportunity to participate in the first ever (in the UK) woman-led mixed congregation, and being all for equality in religion that I am, it’s something I would hate to miss. Growing up in Malaysia, I had always felt that segregation in the mosque meant that men were reserved the [...]

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A little more on feminist porn…

The article at the Guardian today perhaps further substantiates my previous article on feminist porn and its growing influence in academia and the arts:

It could only happen in the country that gave us Emmanuelle, Monica Bellucci in an anal rape scene and two young actresses romping through a hyper-violent bad-girl road movie with real-life sex [...]

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Blurring the lines between social critique and pornography

I’ve come to terms with the idea that women have negotiated with age-old kinky fantasies, repackage them into female desire-driven works and named them ‘feminist porn’. And by ‘feminist porn’ I mean erotica made by women for women while at the same time trying everything in the postfeminist handbook to dispel the bad conscience of [...]

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Where I’ve been the last two weeks

Here. At my desk slaving away on my fiendish proposal and sweet-talking my editors via e-mail. More posts will return in good time, but in the meantime, feel free to explore my desk on flickr. Oh, the joys of today’s technology!

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