Sailan Muslimah

  Oslo – Norwegian judges and other court officials are to be allowed to wear religious dress including the Muslim headscarf or hijab during court sessions, the board of the National Courts Administration said Monday. However, if a party in a case has objections to the use of such attire – which also includes the Sami national costume – the …

1. INTRODUCTION Five years ago, I read in the Toronto Star issue of July 3, 1990 an article titled "Islam is not alone in patriarchal doctrines", by Gwynne Dyer. The article described the furious reactions of the participants of a conference on women and power held in Montreal to the comments of the famous Egyptian feminist Dr. Nawal Saadawi. Her …

Skimming through my Advanced Placement world history textbook, I came to a section titled “Gender Relations in Islam.” The words that followed jumped out at me. “According to the Quran, women are to satisfy men’s sexual desires and to bear children …women are considered sexually seductive …” Confusion. Shock. Anger.  Although this was just a small section in a whole, more …

Photograph by: Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen Sheema Khan was just three years old when she emigrated with her family from India to Montreal. They wanted a country with a good education system, and work opportunities. But mostly, they wanted to leave behind the sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims in their Calcutta home. Canada was that land of promise …

Dr Hassan al-Turabi from Sudan is one of the world’s leading living scholars of Islam. In addition to a traditional Islamic education, he holds a Bachelors degree in Law from the University of Khartoum, a Masters from the University of London and a PhD from the Sorbonne, Paris.  He has served Sudan as Speaker of parliament, Attorney General, Minister of …

WHEN Imam Zuhri, a famous scholar of Sunna (Prophet Muhammad’s traditions), indicated to Qasim ibn Muhammd (a scholar of the Qur’an), a desire to seek knowledge, Qasim advised him to join the assembly of a well-known woman jurist of the day, Amara bin Al-Rahman. Imam Zuhri attended her assembly and later described her as “a boundless ocean of knowledge.” In …