What has been so profoundly stirring about the tributes to the black feminist cultural critic and scholar bell hooks, is the breadth of the lives that her words and teaching touched. Each tribute, a hand held to the heart, or perhaps a wave, across generations, distance and experience. hooks’s talks, essays and books confirm her… Read More
Femonationalism: White saviour feminism in Afghanistan
“Western” feminists often discuss and offer solutions for the position of women in Afghanistan, however as Munazza Ebtikar writes, these viewpoints are often stripped of the context of decades of military devastation and silence the voices of Afghan women who are fighting for change Featured image – member of Aghan parliament Fawzia Koofi Cheryl Benard… Read More
White feminists’ views on Shamima Begum are a failure for all young women of colour
Reaction to the news of Shamima Begum’s loss of her son are still lacking in humanity and empathy, even from white feminists, and as Shaista Aziz writes, that has a real impact on young women of colour A young 19-year-old teenage mother born in Bethnal Green London has lost her third child in the space… Read More
Why Janelle Monaé’s Grammy loss was unsurprising yet significant
Janelle Monaé’s critically acclaimed Dirty Computer lost out on Album of Year award at this year’s Grammy awards. Ayika Tshimanga revisits the album and its significance to marginalised people At the Grammy Awards ceremony on February 10th, Janelle Monaé lost the coveted Album of the Year award to Kacey Musgraves. And so, the Recording Academy… Read More
Book Review: It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race
Mariam Khan’s It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race is an anthology of seventeen British Muslim women speaking frankly about their lives, from the hijab and wavering faith, to love and divorce, feminism, queer identity, sex, and living in a hostile environment. Asim Qureshi reviews the book that showcases voices too often… Read More
South Asian women in Britain: Finding a voice, 40 years on
“If we remember our rich collective past, we will find ourselves stronger in the battles ahead” Gouri Sharma talks with journalist and activist Amrit Wilson, forty years after her influential feminist book Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain. Featured photo: Amrit Wilson speaking on behalf of Awaz at International Campaign for Abortion Rights rally, Trafalgar Square,… Read More
The Rise of Pussy Envy
Aisha Josiah asks why some of the men around her are starting to wish they were a member of the ‘fairer sex’ Read More
FGM as spectacle: the dehumanisation and commodification of the black girl
Warning: the following post contains images that readers may find graphic or disturbing. by Firdos Ali Last week, FGM campaigner Hibo Wardere broke the news that Sky had filmed the mutilation of a little girl in Somalia and intended to broadcast the footage in the UK. FGM campaigners who had seen the footage were in… Read More
Beyoncé and Resistance
by Désirée Wariaro In the autumn of 2001, photos of the stoned, dirty-looking white guys in the Strokes are plastered across my bedroom wall and I brag about getting great tickets to see their sold out show. In art class the TV is on mute while we paint and glance with teenaged disbelief at the… Read More
If Muslim women’s clothing makes them consenting slaves, who are their slave masters?
by Shohana Khan Last week French Women’s Rights Minister Laurence Rossignol likened how Muslim women dress to being in collusion with slavery, roundly offending a vast number of groups. Quite an achievement. She was closely followed by the co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Berge, who claimed that the fashion world should not get their hands… Read More
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