NEWS: Hollywood Tackles Stoning of Women in Iran

While Iranian authorities have wasted no time accusing foreign powers, including United States, of plotting the recent protests in Iran, a new American film has taken issue with stoning of women in Iran. Last week saw the release of The Stoning of Soraya M., a movie adopted from the 1994 novel of the same name … Continue reading →

NEWS: MP Proposes Dowry Ban

While India currently has an anti-dowry law, prohibiting grooms’ families from requesting money and gifts from brides’ families, the United Kingdom has no comparable law. Virendra Sharma, a labour MP, is proposing such a law, arguing that women of South Asian heritage are vulnerable to domestic violence and abuse if their marriages operate on a … Continue reading →

NEWS: Afghan Women Challenge the Shia Family Law

Yesterday Kabul witnessed an unprecedented event in recent Afghanistan history. Marching towards the Afghan parliament, about 200 women protested against the Shia Family Law passed by the national body. The law, which seems to legalize child marriage and marital rape, applies to Shia Muslims who constitute 15 percent of the population. Demonstrators soon found themselves … Continue reading →

NEWS: An Interview with Muhammad

Ehsan Jami’s An Interview with Muhammad is the latest in a series of controversial works about Islam made in Netherlands. A co-founder of the Central Committee for Ex-Muslims, the Iranian-Dutch politician has already sparked controversy by showing the film to journalists in the parliamentary press centre in Hague. While many Muslims and Dutch politicians have … Continue reading →

NEWS: Pope to Receive Muslim Scholars

Pope Benedict’s highly controversial 2006 Regensburg address, which revealed the heightening tensions between the world’s two largest religious traditions, prompted 271 Muslim scholars to ask for a Muslim-Christian dialogue in a manifesto called A Common Word. Next week twenty-four signatories of the manifesto meet with Pope Benedict and some other high-ranking officials of the Roman … Continue reading →

NEWS: International Conference on Islamic Feminism

Barcelona is hosting the third International Congress on Islamic Feminism, where a group of prominent Muslim scholars have gathered to discuss some pressing issues facing Muslim women. Making a distinction between the particular socio-cultural contexts within which Islam was born and the universal principles of the religion, Muslim feminists seek to articulate new interpretations that … Continue reading →