Articles by Roberta D:

Roberta hails from California, where she was heavily involved in local and national Muslim student activism during her college years. Since summer 2007 she has enjoyed the enlightening opportunity to contrast her experience of the Muslim American dynamic with new observations of the interactions between Islam, women, and culture in Muslim-majority Turkey, where she works as a journalist in İstanbul. Roberta volunteers as a teacher of women’s ESL classes and as a translator for Turkish charities.

No Love Lost

I know the second glance is sinful, but it was instinctive, and I could hardly have helped a double-take as Dawud Ali walked right past me, headed straight back into my life. It was the fall of 2006, and I hadn’t seen Dawud in the two years it’d been since I’d left high school. We were in the same homeroom all four years, but moved in different circles and rarely spoke, outside one conversation senior... Read More →

Who are your role models, really?

If someone asks us who our heroes are, we’ll perhaps name the Prophet Muhammad — sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam — or one of the Sahaba, or Salahuddin, Zainab al-Ghazali, our parents, etc. But in terms of our daily lives, who is it we really model ourselves after? Choosing a role model isn’t always a conscious decision. Sometimes we look to people as role models without even thinking about it. Not... Read More →

Beyond Palestine: Where the Ummah has Failed

The Prophet Muhammad sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam said: “You see the believers as regards their being merciful among themselves and showing love among themselves and being kind, resembling one body, so that, if any part of the body is not well then the whole body shares the sleeplessness (insomnia) and fever with it.” Narrated by An-Nu’man bin Bashir (Bukhari, Muslim) This time, it seemed like something... Read More →

Drive-by Desperation

I came down from my apartment with my friend Sarah, and just as I was about to get into her car to go to class, a woman in a minivan parked a little ways behind us pulled up alongside Sarah’s car. She rolled down her passenger side window, and said: “Excuse me, sister, can I just ask you a question? I’m sorry, but I just really have to ask you something.” “Sure,” I said, as I walked... Read More →

Sibling Rivalry: Muslim sisters and Muslim brothers

Can a white person teach African American studies? Can a man teach Women’s studies? Does a Muslim man have the right to speak about the rights and responsibilities of Muslim women? I weigh in with a “Yes” to all three! You’ve seen it happen before. After prayers on Friday, after the MSA gender relations halaqa, at the conference you carpooled to attend because Shaykh So-and-So was speaking. A simple... Read More →

An Eid gone awry

I’d ironed my abaya and scarf the night before, and set multiple wake-up alarms on my cell phone. About half an hour after fajr ended, I headed out of the apartment to the cozy mosque up the street where I often pray on weekends. I was extra excited because although I’d been living in İstanbul for over a year, I had been out of the country for the last few Eids, meaning it would be my first Eid prayer in Turkey. As... Read More →