Fatemeh Fakhraie Holds It Down for Muslimahs on CNN

by Latoya Peterson

Our own Fatemeh Fakhraie, the amazing editor of Muslimah Media Watch and a contributing editor to AltMuslimah, just showed up on CNN to talk about portrayals of Muslim women in the media:

Muslim women are more high profile than ever in 2010. However, a problem remains: news stories about them are fixated on appearance.

Most major stories about Muslim women revolve around how they look and what they’re wearing — not who they are and what they are doing.

A flurry of articles came forth in both repudiation and defense of the burqa ban, focusing on that little piece of cloth that covers some women’s faces.

Other articles lauded it as “a comfortable garment” and “part of our identity,” condemning the ban as an erosion of personal freedoms and counter to the principles of the French republic.

Very few of the articles included viewpoints of women who wear the niqab, and none of the articles included the perspectives of the French Muslim women who would be directly affected by the ban.

High visibility does not directly translate into having your voice heard.

Read the rest, and show her some love…