sister-hood is an award-winning digital magazine spotlighting the diverse voices of women of Muslim heritage.
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Whilst everyone was wishing her Happy Birthday, I suddenly realised that she was a married woman. She had just turned 18 but had been married off at the age of 16 to a guy who was over 35. My family…
Leaving Islam is hard, but leaving god is even harder. Imagine the night sky: filled with shiny stars getting closer to you. With each movement, one star appears brighter and bigger till you can no longer make sense of the…
It is legend, nay fact, that the skin-lightening treatment Fair & Lovely has drawn the Desi community into a spiralling storm. Since its introduction by Unilever in 1975, Fair & Lovely has always been full of promise. A promise as…
‘Just an orange juice please’, I said as I fumbled around in my purse for £2.85 to pay the bartender, which quite frankly was ridiculous. I could’ve bought an entire carton of orange juice for £2.00. I was at the…
I write my blog, mylifeasanimposter.com, using the moniker Nadia Hadid. I am not strictly anonymous, but when speaking so openly about my personal life and my dating experiences as a British Pakistani Muslim woman and my interfaith life with my…
The year was 2008. I was a 20-year old virgin starting my second year of university in Ontario, living on residence: away from my family, and in search of love. As a Pakistani Canadian immigrant, I had a checklist of…
I grew up in a conservative Muslim Somali family. But they hadn’t always been like that. Previously, Somali people were freer, and women had more rights, although now, looking back, it is hard to imagine. When I was young, my…
A few weeks ago, I went up to New York for a concert, a ‘show,’ really, in the middle of the week. I bought tickets to the event the day they went on sale, sitting in my office at 10am,…
Last week we enjoyed a whole week full of workshops, conferences and panels during the Pride Week in Istanbul. However, when it came to the closing Pride March , the most visible event, the government declared a ban just the…
In this time of post-truths, truths, gas-lighting, mindfulness, and manipulation, it can be arduously difficult to navigate our own paths let alone guide our children. We spend so much time getting them tutors, ferrying them from club to club, buying…
My earliest memory is lying sleeping on my father’s chest; safe, loved and cherished. I must have been around three. This is where my consciousness starts. I remember being told as a little girl that even before I was born,…
i) remembering. ramzan nine years ago. getting ready for an iftar party where the palao served was too salty, even for me. ma, pinning my duppata on my left shoulder with the brooch nani ami gave her. baba, teaching his…
I was born to a family of feminists in the subcontinent where a culture of women’s subordination persists, including female infanticide. Women are left behind in all development indicators: in Pakistan the literacy rate is 55%, which includes those who…
My sweet and beautiful mother passed away. May her soul rest in peace. It shook my whole world. Never again will I hear her voice, or be able to hug her. That one irreplaceable person is not here anymore. As…
‘Where are you from?’ ‘I grew up here, actually.’ ‘No, but where are you really from? Like really?’ I pause and take an uncomfortable look around. ‘Well, my ethnicity is Afghani.’ A short silence usually follows the last part of…
sister-hood is a digital magazine and a series of live events. We create platforms for women of Muslim heritage to speak for themselves, rather than being spoken for or spoken about. sister-hood challenges stereotypes and promotes the fearless, progressive, creative voices of women of Muslim heritage.