sister-hood is an award-winning digital magazine spotlighting the diverse voices of women of Muslim heritage.
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Many Eid moon-phases ago, I was a new Muslim convert. I have gone to several Eid events during those lunar phases. And like the moon changes, time has changed some of my views on such joyous events. I still attend…
Pashtun women receive an inferior education and no share in a family’s inheritance. Marriage contracts do not entitle them to any money. Women must depend upon men. Men must do everything: a man provides all the shopping and household goods,…
For more than 10 years now, I’ve been pretty much obsessed with what I consider to be the ‘half-adult status of women in Jordan’. I wrote this post with a lot of anger and passion! I feel I need to re-stress…
In a prayer room at an Islamic Center in Downtown Manhattan, 20 women sit in a circle. They’re a mix of housewives, high school teachers, graduate students, mothers. Some wear headscarves and some don’t. Some are recent converts; others were…
I just got back from speaking at a prestigious event organised by one of the most powerful organisations in the world. They invited me to talk to students as a role model for young people and a change-maker in my…
This isn’t an article about Islam. It’s about Good Morning America in the 1980s. It’s about perceptions. It’s about the media. It’s about time. It’s about space. It’s about my mother. Joan Lunden and David Hartman were the co-hosts of…
I was born outside my original village. Because of ‘ethnic cleansing’, I have never smelled the rain on the shore. I have never seen our house. I have never tasted the bread that my grandma used to bake every sunrise;…
During the time I lived in India as an Iranian, not a single day would pass without reports about women being raped or killed in newspapers. A flip of a page; a stomach-churning report on honour killings. A glance at…
I was just seven years old when I had an experience which people would now call a #MeToo moment. That makes it sound so ordinary, but what happened to me should never be seen as normal. It was terrifying and…
Women and girls are killed each year by members of their own family, often their fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands and cousins – and sometimes mothers and other female relatives. So-called ‘honour killings’ are usually premeditated murders intended to restore a…
I was born into a typical middle-class Pakistani family which adhered to some basic traditional values but was otherwise relatively moderate in its religious practices. My father, a general medical practitioner who was born and raised in poverty, moved to…
I was 22 at the time. I was on a road trip in North Sulawesi when I met this guy. He was the most charming individual. His sparkling eyes clattering joy every time he talked. We were seated side by…
The other day I sent a message to my mum on WhatsApp: ‘Mum, were we in Iraq during the Iraq-Kuwait war?’ She answered right away: ‘yes’. I paused. I thought of how crazy it is that I can lose track…
‘You can’t understand Punjabi?!’ Rishma* said, mouth open in a grin stuck on pause that evolved into rolling laughter of disbelief. ‘No,’ I smiled, clenching my fists to prevent them from instinctively floating up and punching her in the jaw….
Sometime in late 2011, we sat in the office of a government official in Jordan, discussing plans to support small enterprises in a town in the south. I still remember my elevated heart-rate when I was told that the government…
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.