Gender Jihad

Thursday, November 09 2006 | Send to a friend

GENDER JIHAD

Asra with veil

Asra Nomani is an American Muslim.  She belongs to a mosque in West Virginia. In most mosques, women are separated from men, sometimes with walls, sometimes with curtains. Asra demanded the right to pray with the men in the male-only main hall, under the threat that the mosque may have to be shut down.

- Asra Numani

Dick talks to her about how she reconciles her Islamic faith and feminist beliefs.

Asra with her son

Asra is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and  who has written for The New York Times, the online journal  Slate, as well as Time Magazine. Her latest book, Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam, is now out in paperback.

• Read some of Asra's writings
• Read Asra's Dad's memories of that day at the mosque

AHMED'S DIARY

This was a big week in Iraq. Everyone was waiting for the verdict of Saddam.

Ahmed Abdullah recently visited his wife and children who now live in Syria. He returned to Baghdad shortly before Saddam Hussein received his death sentence. His reaction, like those of the people he talked to, is deeply ambivalent.

We already have Sunnis and Shiite killing each other. Now we will have pro and anti Saddam people killing each other. Now everyone has a chance to live or die. I guess this is some kind of democracy.

November 9, 2006

Thursday, November 09 2006 | Send to a friend

This was a big week in Iraq. Everyone was waiting for the verdict of Saddam.

Ahmed Abdullah recently visited his wife and children who now live in Syria. He returned to Baghdad shortly before Saddam Hussein received his death sentence. His reaction, like those of the people he talked to, is deeply ambivalent.

We already have Sunnis and Shiite killing each other. Now we will have pro and anti Saddam people killing each other. Now everyone has a chance to live or die. I guess this is some kind of democracy.