The glaring sun, the waves lapping against the shore, children laughing and playing, bodies displayed for all to see with only scant swimsuits for protection. These are some of the images that come to mind when thinking of the beach, but for many Muslim women, they are not able to enjoy the beach in the same way.

Many modest women avoid swimming in public areas because of the lack of any proper swimsuits that cover them according to Islamic standards. There has been a need for proper swimsuits that would make a woman comfortable enough to step out in as well as to swim in, but these needs had not yet been met. Many women who would swim, would either so do in large swaths of clothes or ingeniously make their own version of a modest swimsuit.  Read more>>

There has been a lot of visual changes in the Middle Eastern music scene.  More Arab women singers are
presenting themselves in provocative terms, as figures who express themselves through fashion, movement and
voice.

Nawal Zoghby appeared in a video dressed in a tight revealing leather outfit. She was backed up by a trio of
women dressed in leather.  Suzanne Tamim offered a video in which she spent most of the running time striking a
series of poses in tight outfits.  Haifa Wehbe video shows her dancing in a rain-soaked outfit while staring into the
camera with her sultriest expression.  Read more>>

We were lucky enough to interview Dalel Khalil, the author of From Veils to Thongs: An Arab Chick’s Survival Guide to Balancing One’s Ethnic Identity in America; her recent book that has everyone laughing and nodding their heads about the challenges and humor of culturally navigating between East and West.  The subtitle of the book says it all.

Here’s what she has to say about a whole range of interesting topics.  If you haven’t had the chance to read the book, we suggest you read it, read it now.  You will not regret it!  Read more>>