Man... having the mangni a week before the wedding sounds so stressful because then you've got to cram dholkis, the mayoun, mehndni, nikkah if you're Muslim, shaadi, AND walima (again, if you're Muslim) into one week. I don't know all the events that desis of a Hindu background traditionally do, but either way it's a…

lol, I'm half-Pakistani and married to a full Pakistani and I had no idea that people would have their engagement party (mangni) even a month before the wedding! That cray...but our people do love to party. I also thought it was a little unnecessary to have our mangni after my husband personally proposed and then his…

JELLY! But really, that sounds wonderful. Glad you got to meet her; I hope I get the chance too. Especially over bruschetta!

I actually did not know about that bombing so thank you for bringing that up. 18 people dead is terrible. :( And my wording did not mean to indicate that churches closing is not a big deal - I think it's atrocious to limit any religious freedom and close down important religious institutions.

BananStandby, it might do you some good to actually learn about the rest of the world before making generalizations like that. Since you've made this ignorant assumption that Indonesians terrorize non-Muslims, here is some reading that proves otherwise: http://www.pluralism.org/reports/view/3… and http://www.commongrou…

FGM isn't an islamic practice and is only commonplace in certain African cultures; many of the people who do this horrible act may be Muslims but they have no proof from the actual Islamic texts to support these acts. It is a despicable practice and needs to be stopped, so I am so glad that people have raised…

Oh, because Saudi Arabia is TOTALLY representative of all muslims. The country with the largest Muslim population is actually Indonesia. How about we stop equating all muslims with "right wing wack jobs" and the terrible Saudi government?

It's so offensive that they changed the size of Tiana's nose! WTF! They couldn't leave well enough alone. Way to reinforce the view that narrow noses (that are often associated with white people) are the standard for beauty. So disappointing. On a side note, rhinoplasty is still one of the most common plastic…

kaitzi, i think you are overestimating the extent and the impact of these supposed killings that occur that scare women into wearing hijab... By this logic, it only takes one woman who is raped while wearing "slutty" clothes to scare all American women away from wearing anything revealing! Obviously, most American…

Exactly! I was just in Dubai/Abu Dhabi and it's a major fashion accessory for most of the women I encountered. A lot of women I know who choose to wear hijab here in the US wear these too. They're actually kind of like "poofs" with lots of material on one of those claw clips. You clip it into your…

I LOVE THIS. Also, I just listened to Janelle's "Cold War" for the first time in a couple of years after watching this, it's so beautiful. Look at how expressive she is while singing!

This story was pretty amazing to begin with, but this gif just made it so much better. I have now saved this for the next opportune moment. Thank you, barleychew.

Hala, I wholeheartedly agree with reading Muhammad Asad's translation and commentary - it is fantastic and one of the only works out there accessible in English that incorporates numerous other scholarly interpretations while adding in his own cogent analysis.

agreed. I am so pissed that Amina Tyler had to undergo this trauma because of exercising her right to free expression on the internet. I'm also just so disappointed in how these european feminists managed to turn this into their own personal protest and attack Muslims in general. for some women trying to fight…

Ari Schwartz: Dark Lord of the Snark,

Refer to my reply to Mzmixalot to see a fuller list of sources, but here's a place for you to start to catch up on all the scholarship on Muslim feminists that you dismiss with your characterization of standard Mideast Studies 101: http://www.smi.uib.no/seminars/Pensum/Abu-Lughod.pdf

Try reading something written by Leila Ahmed. Or Elizabeth Thompson's Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon, which discusses early to mid-20th century efforts by Muslim feminists in the Middle East to assert themselves and gain rights but who found themselves…

Very informative, thanks!

agreed, I think you can only go up after your first (usually terrible) year of grad school!

First, I read apracticalwedding.com a whole lot. It's one of the only sites/blogs I've seen on that doesn't feed into the "wedding industrial complex" (which, if you read the site, you will discover is a very real thing!). It was a huge relief to read those articles and a great reminder that my true concern should be…