Salon.com > Rozina Ali

In defense of Muslim women’s choice

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:01:00 +0000

When my mother turned 12, she started wearing a burqa in her hometown of Multan, Pakistan. More than a decade later, she got married and moved to Karachi, then a thriving capital of modernity, where few women wore hijabs, let alone all-encompassing veils.

Growing up in Central Valley, Calif., I had no qualms about showing off my legs in shorts and skirts, and I was shocked to learn my mother had covered every inch of her body. Even more unbelievable to me, though, was that my mother felt pressured when she moved to Karachi to suddenly give up the burqa, a blanket of fabric that had at that point been part of her identity for more than half her life. It provided her with a sense of comfort, it helped define her identity as a Muslim and a woman, and it was gone virtually overnight.

It angered me that she hadn’t protested. What had she wanted to do, I asked her. “It doesn’t matter,” she told me. “We must do what we can to fit in our community.”

Twitter feud: Ebert vs. Breitbart

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:08:00 +0000

Tweet wars are not exactly the stuff epic battles are made of, but they do make for entertaining reads, especially when they occur between two strong personalities like Roger Ebert and right-wing media controversialist Andrew Breitbart. The two were caught up in a tête-à-tête on Tuesday over Timothy Treadwill, the bear enthusiast whose life and death was explored in Werner Herzog's 2005 documentary "Grizzly Man." The squabble started when Ebert tweeted his review of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God," Herzog's 1972 film, which prompted Breitbart to bait the great critic:

Release of Guantanamo detainee has everything to do with torture

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:24:00 +0000

On Monday, federal Judge James Robertson ordered the release of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, a Guantánamo Bay detainee who had petitioned for habeas corpus back in 2005. The explanation for the decision is now classified, but Robertson stated he would make it public in the next few weeks. Slahi is the 34th prisoner to be released from Guantánamo since the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that detainees could challenge their detention in U.S. courts.

But Slahi is also what authorities called a "highly valued detainee." He is suspected of helping recruit the 9/11 hijackers in Germany and of involvement in the attempted millennium bombing in Los Angeles. He has also been held illegally in Guantánamo for eight years without criminal charges.

Like most things pertaining to the war on terror, Monday’s ruling produced some gross misinterpretations. Several Fox News hosts, for instance, suggested that Robertson's decision was a result of President Obama's push for civilian trials for some Guantánamo detainees. But the chain of events that brought the Slahi case to Robertson actually began years before Obama's presidency.