MuslimahTube: The Truth About Mozlems

The Muslim woman always seems to be represented in the media, or should I say, misrepresented in the media.  Ever since the War on Terror, Muslim women have been the constant source of justification.  We have been the subject of discussion when it comes to the liberation of women and women’s rights in the Muslim world.  We have been used to justify illegal warfare in the Middle East in the disguise of “saving” Muslim women.  Typically, Muslim women are seen to be oppressed, subdued, submissive, silenced, etc.  However, this notion is far from the truth.  The Muslim woman demands correct representation and an opportunity to voice her thoughts when it comes to religion, politics, feminism, or even just life.  Muslim women are tired of misrepresentations of themselves in the media.  This is why I’ve created a YouTube channel to promote real Muslim women and what they want the world to see.  MuslimahTube is the name of the channel I’ve created.  I hope to constantly upload content that pertains to Muslim women, religion, and feminism.  This form of media will prove to be a channel where one could find the genuine voices and opinions of Muslim women.   

I will upload content every Friday, and when my views and subscribers pick up, I will upload content every Monday and Friday.  My videos will consist of a series of interviews by Muslim women and of Muslim women that will feature genuine accounts that give voice to prevalent issues in our society surrounding Muslims and women in general.  I don’t want to limit my channel to just issues regarding women.  I plan to include interviews and accounts of Muslim women about any important topic or social issue.  Some other videos will simply be DYI projects, homemade skin care, recipes, or any other craft that we have to offer as multi faceted women. 

 There will be many opinionated vlog style videos, where I myself will discuss topics that intrigue me or topics I think need more attention. 

MuslimahTube is a platform where you will find the various and distinct voices of Muslim women in regards to everything.  Even within the Muslim community, Muslim women are absent when it comes to discussion regarding women in Islam.  This channel will provide an outlet for these voices, so that women can discuss their own issues within the religion.  This channel will hopefully dispel illogical misconceptions about Muslim women and will provide a colorful face to an often silenced entity in the media. 

The first video that I have uploaded and posted is part of my series called, “The Truth About Mozlems.”  This series will contain accounts from various Muslim women about any topic that interests them.  In this video, I’ve featured Ferida Osman, a young woman that experienced Islamophobia on her way home in New York.  Her story was featured in a New York Times article about growing Islamophobia post the Paris bombing.  This account is her opinion on Islamophobia and her opinion as a Muslim woman.  Enjoy, share it, and do subscribe!

Final Project: Bodies of Water

I have been writing poetry for a few years now and have wanted to put together a book for some time. So for the final project, I decided to create a poetry chapbook and Bodies of Water was born.

The title of this chapbook came about when I stumbled upon a quote by Margaret Atwood. "Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient... If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does." This quote from The Penelopiad speaks of women as water and how soft but diligent and determined they can be. 

As a South-Asian Muslim female, I relay in this book my experiences and observations of growing up in a desi environment as well as an immigrant in America. Loss speaks of the hijab and islamophobic harassment while Bones addresses the issue of skinny shaming. Then pieces such as Obhiman and The Country in my Mouth mourns the neglect of one's mother tongue. 

I remember being in high school and just beginning to grown an interest in poetry but couldn't understand them. I couldn't relate to any poems or find anything that represented me. It is only recently that I've started to see a rise in poetry written by women of color, which is absolutely refreshing. Teaching my mother how to give birth by Warsan Shire and milk and honey by Rupi Kaur are just two books that I've read and connected with. As these poets have done, I want to reach out to young girls and women of the South Asian community and give them a voice. Right now, this chapbook is only a mock-up of the real thing. My goal is to one day publish the real thing and also create a literary zine for women of color (starting with a page on tumblr).

So far, I've advertised Bodies of Water on my tumblr, instagram and facebook. I'm going to look into online literary magazines and other publishing places to submit more of my works. I used Microsoft Word and Adobe Indesign to create the chapbook and Adobe Illustrator to design the cover image.
To read this chapbook, click here!
Click to hear my reading of Loss and Bones. 

EDIT: I've taken out the word 'wannabe' out of the about me page in the book and added my email address. Also, I've attached the audio files heard during the class presentation in this post.

Final Project - Women and fitness

After weeks of indecisive suggestions to create a project, I came up with the idea of creating a piece related to something I enjoy doing in a daily basis, creating videos and working out. As a woman who spends at least three days a week at the gym, I have been asked many times "Who are you trying to look good for?". This questions was the base of this project. 

To produce/edit this short advertisement I have created a survey where women that are actually active and work out on a daily basis have been able to answer and gave me the answers to prove that in this century we live in, women are able to want to feel healthy and look great, and not necessarily there is a male behind the decision of wanting to have a nice body. 

The following is the final product, after gathering information from ten women who answered the survey.

Kozmohs the Blog.

My final project is called “Kozmohs”. It will be a blog site that will live on tumblr.com. I decided to do a blog because I realized that I learned a lot of feminist ideas from tumblr when I was 15/16 years old. I didn’t know everything, and I still don’t. However, after taking this class I can confidently say I know more about feminism than when I first came in through the doors in February. I believe there has always been this stigma about getting your information on the Internet because it might not be factual or it has a skewed point of view. While this can definitely and most certainly be true, I don’t think this happen 100% of time. Unfortunately kids are not offered feminists courses until they are in college, and not everyone takes a feminist course. I want to take what I’ve learned from just being on the Internet and from this class and turn it into a blog to help young kids, primarily freshman in high school; who are probably not familiar with feminism or only the “bad parts” of it.

I wanted to do different types of “topics” for this blog, to keep sort of a theme going. I focused primarily on the Body Image and how they can relate back to feminist ideas. Young girls and boys are not insecure about themselves just because they decide to be like that one day. They have been crushed into this box and most kids don’t fit that box, one way or another they come to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with them. When in fact, there is nothing wrong with them; it is society that’s all screwed up. I chose to start of with Body Image/Representation because that is what I personally have had the most experience with. I wanted to stick with what I know and I wanted to write about something that I am really passionate about. I hate that there are so many little boys and girls who hate their appearances. They haven’t even lost all their baby teeth and are worrying about diets and looking a certain way. I want kids to be kids. I want young teens to explore themselves without feeling like they have to change every single aspect about their looks to feel like they are worthy.

I feel like you shouldn’t have to wait to take a woman studies course in order to learn about feminism. It should be taught everywhere. I also included links on every post written so far with extra material or a place where they can buy the book I mentioned. If there was a pdf version of at least a chapter, I included links to it because I want whoever stumbles upon the blog to not just read my thoughts on the subject but also further enhance their knowledge by getting to know the pieces I quote.

Like I said, I don’t know all the answers. But this is a start for young teens to learn about feminist writers and the way society has really screwed up our point of view of our bodies and the “standards” we should live by. It is never to early to learn.

Presentation

Kozmohs

Final Project - Dear Friends

The word feminism is a dirty word nowadays, but then again it has always hasn’t it? Anti-feminists shout that us “new-age” feminists disgrace the original feminists and the meaning of feminism. They say we are mysandrists, made bitter by our liberal education that taught us to expect things to be given to us on a silver platter and so we complain about our inequality because we’re jealous that man are just inherently smarter. We are entitled because the battle over sexism is over – women are equal, so there is no need for feminism anymore.

A lot of the superficial analysis that is made by people on feminism is taken from word of mouth or from unsubstantiated anecdotes. These are preconceived beliefs that roam the much patriarchal media outlets as well as popular internet websites (i.e. Reddit, YouTube, 4Chan). The loud cries of the “other side” that denotes feminists as whiny, white, privileged, tumblrinas, takes away from the real issues that feminism tries to address. The problem that exists in diminishing any problematic issue for a specific group as “complaining” and retorting with the argument to “suck it up” is that those who are making these comments have (probably) never experienced the group’s struggle to understand, make assumptions or to make direct claims about its legitimacy. This problem does not only apply to feminism, but is intrinsic to race, LGBQT, class, age, disability and socioeconomic discrimination.

In my final project I challenge the associations some people have with the word feminist, in a two part project titled Dear Friends. The first half of the project I've made a short video, a vlog response if you will, to all my friends, peers and relatives who over the years have been reluctant to use the term feminism. It is a personal piece that has brewed in my mind for a long time. The second half of the project is a more analog way of trying to change the negative opinion that society has towards the term. I've created 25+ cards that each feature one of my own personal reasons for why I am a feminist (and also what kind of feminist I am not). I think these cards are more intimate in that they can be shared person to person and so can start a conversation. In the future I hope a website could be set up where people can submit their own personal reasons for being feminists and turn receive such cards through the mail. 

Dear Friends from Sofiya Pidzyraylo on Vimeo.

Works Cited in Video and Cards

"Feminism is for Everybody" by Bell Hooks

http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/04/09/82-percent-of-americans-dont-consider-themselves-feminists-poll-shows/

 http://variety.com/2015/film/news/women-hollywood-inequality-directors-behind-the-camera-1201626691/

 http://fusion.net/story/250292/2015-movies-bechdel-test-sexism/

 http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/10/01/women-money-the-pay-gap/