WO M E N SIHA Journal / Issue No. 7
The Burden of Shame
How Sexual Violence Is Fuelling Sudan’s Collapse
Intersectional Invisibility The Bias against African Muslim Feminism
Dignity in Exile
A Somali Women’s Shelter in Kuala Lumpur
DOSSIER: Male Guardianship
IN ISLAM
EDITORIAL 05 T hree Questions to: Shiroug Idris
PEOPLE 06 D efending the Defenceless: Hauwa Ibrahim’s Journey as a Lawyer Under Shari’ah Law
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10 “ Don’t Place the Lock of Silence on My Lips” Forugh Farrokhzad’s Poetic Resistance 15 H ania Mohamed: Leading the Change in Ethiopia’s Women’s Movement 18 M ama Nour: The Woman Who Became a Mother to Hundreds
EQUALITY 21 J eopardising Afghanistan’s Future Barring Women from Education and Employment 24 W omen’s Economic Empowerment in Somalia 27 H ow Guardianship Curtails Women’s Political Participation
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30 A Mother’s Right to Choose Reforming Algeria’s Custody Laws for Child Welfare
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS 34 T hree Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women A Book Edited by Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz, and Sunil Sharma 38 R eclaiming Space in the Outdoors 42 D ignity in Exile: A Somali Women’s Shelter in Kuala Lumpur
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THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL 46 T he Fight against Female Genital Mutilation A Testament to Collective Action in The Gambia and Ethiopia 50 W omen in War: Voices from Sudan and Ethiopia 54 T he Cost of Speaking Out Backlash to Activism and the Power of Solidarity 57 M en-struation A Poem by Alith Cyer Mayar 58 W here is Roqia? A Mother’s Search in the Shadow of Sudan’s Conflict 61 O pen Letter: A Survivor’s Message to Her Perpetrator
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PERSPECTIVES 64 N o One Heard Her Bleed Gender-Based Violence in the Ethiopia-Tigray Conflict 68 I ntersectional Invisibility: The Bias Against African Muslim Feminism 71 T he Burden of Shame How Sexual Violence Is Fuelling Sudan’s Collapse 75 F ilm Review: Dancing the Twist in Bamako
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DOSSIER: GUARDIANSHIP 78 A Feminist Reading of Wilayah and Qiwamah 80 W ho Was the Guardian of the Queen of Sheba? A Call for Reinterpreting Male Guardianship 83 “ Reforming the Law Is Not Enough” The Struggle to Lower Jordan’s Legal Guardianship Age 86 A Man Can Be a Feminist Too A Story of Guardianship, Justice, and a Father’s Love 88 I Know What the Watched Bird Posts Guardianship in the Digital Realm in Saudi Arabia 92 A Threat to Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Guardianship in Somaliland and Somalia
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96 M y Grandmother, the Guardian Rewriting the Role of Women in Islamic Families
98 T he Echo 99 S IHA Publications
97 Women in Islam, 2025
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