Ahmed Marcouch, chairman of the heavily immigrant Amsterdam neighborhood of Slotervaart, is taking it upon himself to fight persistent homophobia in the locality, including presenting a memorandum with measures to make the neighborhood more gay-friendly. Name-calling, being spit on, and harassment are common experiences for gay persons passing street corners – and a number of…
Ahmed Marcouch, mayor of the Slotervaart district of Amsterdam, decided that a local Gay Pride parade will pass by establishments in the town. According to the Union of Moroccan Mosques in Amsterdam, local mosques are not happy about the decision, but are not publicly opposing it either. “We have no opinion about it. It is…
The Royal Court Theatre in London presents a play that is being praised ‘a Muslim Bridget Jones’s Diary’. In Shades, the audience accompanies liberal Muslim Sabrina on her quest for Mr Right in London, joining her on an Islamic speed dating event and meeting her gay flat mates. She finally has to decide between the…
Kathy Chin, while a senior at UCLA majoring in Psychobiology and Women’s Studies, originally published an article on the hijab in Al-Talib, the newsmagazine for the Muslim Students’ Association at UCLA. In the article, she notes her experiences in adopting the hijab and the responses concerning importance society places on female hair. Originally cutting her…
A Turkish couple is fighting the placement of their three children in Dutch lesbian foster family, saying that they do not want the children to “learn homosexuality” because it does not fit with their Islamic notions of sexuality. The children were taken out of custody after suspicion of child abuse. Their mother allegedly let a…
