Elaine Unterhalter, UCL In August 2021 the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, and since then secondary education for girls in the country has been banned. However, there have been reports of clandestine girls’ schools operating despite the ban. Teenage girls … Continue reading The history of secret education for girls in Afghanistan – and its use as a political symbol
Kambaiz Rafi, UCL and Scott Lucas, University of Birmingham In late August 2021, the US completed its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year occupation. The Taliban retook the country with shocking speed. The Islamic fundamentalist political group was … Continue reading What’s next for Afghanistan? Two experts make predictions
Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, Coventry University The two first British mosques were established in 1889 in Liverpool and Woking, and women played a major contribution to the communities that helped to set up these mosques. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it. Indeed, … Continue reading The forgotten women who helped to build British Islam
The occasion was an event held to mark International Women’s Day, a couple of days after it is celebrated on March 8 every year. The venue was a public university in Islamabad. The organisers were girl students and women teachers of a department within the university. The audience included mostly students and some teachers, both women and men. The participants, who presented a variety of performances, ranging from songs and poems to speeches and mimes, comprised bold and bright girl students from the university. The event had to conclude with a panel discussion on this year’s theme for … Continue reading Ah! The Muslim woman
Pantomime of the stooges – continueth Ayaz Amir Islamabad diary In box office terms this is already a roaring success, the longest comedy show currently running in the country. Three of the four characters tasked by the government to grapple with the Taliban and bring them round to the ways of peace stand retired, replaced by three performers whose names most people would not have heard of and who, I am fairly certain, would not be taken by the Lucky Irani Circus were they to apply there for an opening. These are the new Talleyrands, along with friend … Continue reading Dancing With Mullahs – Pakistan.
The CII ruling is wrong Imran Ahsan Nyazee The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has issued a ruling to the effect that a restriction placed on the unfettered Islamic right of a husband to take a second (or third or fourth) wife without seeking permission of the existing wife is wrong, and should be removed. The issue runs much deeper than a mere seeking of permission from the first wife. It involves the methodology of the CII in interpreting the texts of the Quran and the Sunnah. Theoretically, the CII should be following the Hanafi system of interpretation, which … Continue reading The Mullahs of Pakistan are WRONG!
Labour – deserves better? Ed Miliband seriously needs to start thinking out of the box – in fact he needs to throw away the box! That if he is serious about the leadership of the UK let alone New Labour. What has Ed done to make his party representative of the people of the United Kingdom as he promised in his last conference speech? Take the example of Birmingham: Near 50% of the people and 80% of the Labour Party ‘ground troops’ are what Labour regards as ‘Black and Ethnic’ minority – then you look at the larger picture in … Continue reading Britain deserves better?
Mohammed Abbasi 