Mideast Culture

Parkour life: Iranian Women Get Physical

On any given Friday, groups of young women across Iran can be seen jumping from rooftops, scaling the graffitied walls of apartment blocks, and catapulting themselves over stairways. They are not being chased by riot police, but merely practising their parkour moves, especially the ground roll, tricky to execute while wearing a headscarf.

READ MORE AT The Guardian

‘Indecent’ ballet? Egyptian Islamist lawmaker angers dancers

An Islamist member of Egypt’s Shura Council has stirred controversy for describing ballet dancing as “the art of nudity,” prompting objections from a number of dancers.

Council member Gamal Hamed, of the ultraconservative Salafist Nour Party, said ballet dancing promotes “indecency” in society.

READ MORE AT Al Arabiya

LGBTQ Muslims: A Diverse, Dynamic and Confident Community

On Friday May 31, 2013, the Washington Post published an article about a retreat for LGBTQ Muslims and their partners that had taken place the weekend before. Along with five other individuals who were present at the retreat, the article included a section about me. Amidst positive reactions coming my way from friends and long lost acquaintances, I struggle with my own mixed reaction to the article. For a community whose identities, needs, and struggles are too often invisible within society, it is indeed a cause for celebration to be featured by a high profile media outlet. Yet, I worry that the article misrepresented me, and presented the LGBTQ Muslim community and the LGBTQ Muslim Retreat through a narrow lens.

Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About Arranged Marriages

To most westerners, arranged marriages are an extraordinarily confusing concept. Of course, in some areas of the world, not only is it perfectly acceptable, it is the norm. It even occurs in areas of North America. In fact, many people around the world may think that the western idea of marriage is strange, especially given the high divorce rate.

Here are a few things you should know about arranged marriages.

Persepolis: Too Graphic to be Taught?

Persepolis, the novel, may ring a bell, as does its subsequent Oscar-nominated animated film and co-winner of the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Marjane Satrapi’s name has recently made headlines as Chicago Public School (CPS) CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett announced that Persepolis, Satrapi’s popular 2000 coming-of-age memoir set during the Iranian Revolution in the 1970s and 80s, has been removed from school curriculum as of March 15, for its “graphic language” and “inappropriate images.” (It will still be taught in grades 11 and 12 and in Advanced Placement classes.)

“Give me a break,” Paris-based Satrapi told DNAinfo Chicago. “The book is ten years old. This is the first time I hear about it traumatizing children. No one has been traumatized until now.” Protests and read-ins were held in response to the decision, originally set to take hold district-wide; over 100 students and teachers in Chicago stood outside Lane Tech College Prep to protest what the Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) calls “Orwellian doublespeak,” “pedagogically unsound and constitutionally suspect.”