Posted on: Thursday, 3 May 2007, 06:00 CDT
The glossy pages of most teen mags feature articles on dating, celebrities' jaunts to and from rehab, and the latest miniskirt trend _ topics of little relevance to girls who grow up practicing Islam, which frowns upon such things.
But inside Muslim Girl magazine, which premiered its first issue this year, readers will not find "Guys: Decode His IMs" or "585 Sexy New Looks." Rather, the magazine offers a profile of a professional woman (Mishal Hussain, a BBC broadcast journalist), a fashion spread in which models sport cute-yet-conservative clothes, and advice on dealing with crushes in a culture that looks down on dating.
Started by Ausma Khan, a former lawyer who taught international human rights law at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., Muslim Girl is aimed at 12- to 19-year-olds.
"I wanted to provide girls with an alternative to Cosmo Girl! and Seventeen, where they would see fun stories about popular culture but ... also provide guidance and information to boost their self-esteem, develop their self-confidence," said Khan, who lives in Evanston. "We wanted to tell the stories of real American Muslims."
Muslim Girl joins a growing number of publications _ on and offline _ catering to contemporary Muslims living in the United States. The comedy Web site Islamica News, for instance, pokes fun with satirical articles such as "Santa Myth Exposed: Muslim 2nd Grader Ruins Christmas for Entire Class."
The new publication also demonstrates how women are increasingly asserting themselves as Muslim Americans. A feature on the magazine's Web site asks girls, "What's going on in your mosque? Is it girl-friendly?" _ a potentially provocative question given that the topic of men and women sharing prayer space continues to be controversial.
In fact, one of the magazine's biggest challenges will be appealing to a diverse population. For example, not all young women in the magazine wear the hijab, or headscarf, which could be objectionable to some Muslims.
"We make an internal motto to be as inclusive as possible," Khan said. "The North American Muslim community is actually incredibly diverse, in terms of how they practice their religion. We work hard to represent girls from all these different backgrounds."
While in another country such a broad approach probably wouldn't work, the magazine is likely to thrive amid the cultural diversity and openness of American culture, said Mamoon Syed, executive director of the Nawawi Foundation, a nonprofit education organization based in Burr Ridge, Ill., that provides Islamic teachings to first- and second-generation Muslim Americans.
"If there's anywhere in the world where you have the opportunity to be able to agree to disagree, it's the United States," Syed said. "As they say, `I may not agree with your voice, but I'll defend your right to say it.' You can't do that in a lot of other Muslim countries."
Muslim Girl follows in the footsteps of the Atlanta-based Azizah magazine, founded in 2002 and aimed at contemporary Muslim women. The publisher and editor-in-chief of that magazine, Tayyibah Taylor, said Muslim Girl could fill a significant void for younger Muslims.
"Being a person who is not of the dominant culture has an effect on people who are absent in the mainstream media or have negative portrayals of themselves," Taylor said. "It's a very subtle but very powerful process by which you internalize a sense of, `Oh something's wrong.' Having your own media and being able to see a positive reflection of oneself is a very empowering thing."
The development of media directed at Muslim women is evidence of the group's growing influence in American society, said Taylor, whose magazine has a circulation of about 45,000. Muslim Girl currently claims a circulation of 50,000 and is hoping to double that number within the next few years.
While Khan and her editorial team initially envisioned the magazine for younger teens, "what we found is that college-age girls are really interested in the magazine," she said. "The issues we cover actually have a broad appeal."
Aneesa Arshad, 21, a junior at Northwestern University, said she has heard of the new publication and was excited that it focused on career and life goals rather than the latest Nicole Richie/Paris Hilton feud.
"Those are definitely the articles that I would want to read," Arshad said of the career features in Muslim Girl. "As I'm looking at what career decisions I want to make, those definitely relate to where I am in life right now, more than an article about a celebrity."
Muslim Girl doesn't ignore fashion, but the styles are conservative, unlike the short-short, midriff-baring looks flaunted in Seventeen. It's an aspect of the new magazine that Aamna Anwer, 19, said she found appealing.
Anwer, who was raised in Galesburg, Ill., and now attends Northwestern, said she used to subscribe to Allure and Vogue and loves fashion but couldn't always wear the clothes she saw on the models.
"It would be convenient if sometimes when we were looking through a fashion magazine, there would be more that would be available to Muslim women, or women who were more modest," said Anwer, whose parents were born in Pakistan.
For Khan and Taylor, one final goal in promoting Muslim media is to change the perceptions of Muslims in the United States.
"Oftentimes, because Islam and Muslims are reported on in the Middle East and politics, there is an association with terrorism and bombings," Taylor said. "It is painful to watch that and see that that's the definition of Muslims in the world. Creating our own media allows us the opportunity to say, this is who we are, this is what we've done, from our frame of reference."
Source: Chicago Tribune
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