The Muslim Girl Magazine

[Bent_Bladi]

Teens Not Terrorists: Muslim Girls Get a Voice in Muslim Girl Magazine
New Glossy Contemporary Lifestyle Magazine Targets American Muslim Girls

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--American teen Muslim girls are much like teen girls everywhere – so says a recent nationwide study of Muslim girls aged 14-18 years. The study was conducted on behalf of Muslim Girl Magazine, a new bi-monthly glossy magazine launched this month to give 400,000 American Muslim teen girls a lively and uniquely relevant perspective on contemporary living.

“Our study showed that these girls go to public school, watch a little too much television, read teen magazines, surf the Internet, use Google, enjoy YouTube, play video games, shop a lot, talk on the telephone and spend time just hanging out,” says Faye Kennedy, VP at execuGo Media, the publisher that commissioned the study. “In short, they are pretty much like most other American teenagers.” The study also highlighted some likely differences: for example, they get news at Al Jazeera, socialize at IslamiCity and count among their top hobbies, Qur’an study.

The research confirmed Kennedy’s hunch: teen Muslim girls in America would love a lifestyle magazine that does what no other teen girl magazine has done for them – give them a means of enjoying contemporary life within the values they love. Over 90% of the panel, when shown the initial concept, indicated that they liked it, thought it was what they need, would read it and would recommend it to their friends.

Ausma Khan, PhD, writer, human rights lawyer and activist, liked the concept so much that she left a teaching position at Northwestern University to become Editor in Chief. “Most representations of Muslims in the media are negative,” she says. “Muslim Girl Magazine challenges those perceptions by telling the stories of Muslim teens who are proud to be American and who contribute to American society in so many positive ways. This is a chance for their voices to be heard. Our editorial mandate is to ‘enlighten, celebrate and inspire’ them.”

Challenging stereotypes about Muslim girls in America, Muslim Girl Magazine re-defines the face of Muslim youth in America. Its innovative content showcases teen girls who are equally proud of their identity as Americans and Muslims, while not shying away from the conflict inherent in being both. It also shakes up the complacency of Muslims themselves by emphasizing the diversity of practice within American Muslim communities, typically a no-go area.

The premiere issue of the magazine features girls who have joined the Peace Corps and volunteered in Indonesia. Advice columns tackle everything from boyfriends to divorced parents to anti-Muslim discrimination. Regular departments range from Qur’an Notes to Hot List reviews of TV shows like The CW Television Network’s “Gilmore Girls.” And a special feature on the hit show “24” directly confronts the biggest elephant in the room — the association of Muslims with terrorism.

Khan says, “We’re showing hijab-wearing basketball players alongside contemporary fashion designers and artists. We want to dispel the notion that Muslim teens conform to one particular model. Veiled or unveiled, Muslim girls participate fearlessly in sports, the arts, international travel and their local mosques.”

Muslim Girl Magazine launched with a planned circulation of 50,000 copies per issue in the first year and expects to grow to 100,000 within two years. Dianna Hightower, Publisher and Director of Business Development and Advertising, expects advertising to grow quickly. “Today the Muslim market is where the Hispanic market was five years ago — on the verge of a major breakout. Households of Muslim girls comprise a valuable commercial profile with higher than average scores on income, education, occupation and size. Having Fox Broadcasting and Oxford University Press advertise in our first issue is evidence that prestigious and smart advertisers see strong potential.”

Muslim Girl Magazine is published by award-winning execuGo Media of Toronto and distributed worldwide by RCS of Los Angeles. The cover price is $4.95 US ($5.95 CDN). The annual subscription rate is $19.99 at www.muslimgirlmagazine.com.

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[Al-khiyal]

WASHINGTON, 3 June 2007 — A new publication is aiming to break negative stereotypes about Islam and to help young Muslim women feel confident and optimistic about being Muslim in America.

Muslim Girl was launched in January with the headline: “Enlighten, Celebrate, Inspire.” The bi-monthly magazine targets hundreds of thousands of Muslim teenagers in North America who want a magazine that reflects their values, ambitions and goals.

Muslim Girl is the latest of several new magazines catering to Muslim Americans. Each targets distinct demographics — teenagers, professionals, mothers, secular Muslims, but each also aims to take pride in who they are, and what they believe.

Muslim teenage girls have said they are delighted when they discover Muslim Girl, because it features young Muslim American women who stand out in academics, the arts and sports. It also gives them ideas for modest fashions they can wear. Being comfortable with Islam is certainly one of the goals of Muslim Girl, says editor-in-chief Ausma Khan. She describes the monthly publication as a magazine for young Muslim women whose faith means a lot to them, but who are just like other teenage girls in America. Khan created the magazine as a way to serve what she says is a huge community that needs more positive representation in the mainstream media.

Khan — a writer, human rights lawyer and activist — said in a recent interview that she left a teaching position at Northwestern University to become editor in chief of the new magazine. “Most representations of Muslims in the media are negative,” she said. “[I]Muslim Girl Magazine[I] challenges those perceptions by telling the stories of Muslim teens who are proud to be American and who contribute to American society in so many positive ways. This is a chance for their voices to be heard. We want to reach as many people as possible by telling the stories about American girls who are Muslim and getting other communities to see them as part of American life, as teens that they have something in common with and to clear away misunderstandings, and hope for a better dialogue,” said Khan.

The premiere issue of the Muslim Girl magazine featured girls who have joined the Peace Corps and volunteered in Indonesia. Advice columns tackle everything from boyfriends to divorced parents to anti-Muslim discrimination. Khan says, “We’re showing hijab-wearing basketball players alongside contemporary fashion designers and artists. We want to dispel the notion that Muslim teens conform to one particular model. Veiled or unveiled, Muslim girls participate fearlessly in sports, the arts, international travel and their local mosques.”

Regular departments range from Qur’an Notes to Hot List reviews of TV shows like The CW Television Network’s “Gilmore Girls.” And a special feature on the hit show “24” directly confronts a huge problem — the association of Muslims with terrorism.

For those beyond their teens, there is Azizah, which has been on the market for seven years, and calls itself the voice for Muslim women.

Azizah, which means “dear” in Arabic, offers articles on health, travel , food and spirituality, but also tackles tougher issues — from custody battles to AIDS in the Muslim community, to inheritance laws, to “how to spot men who marry for Green Cards.” Other recent stories in Azizah have dealt with issues like autism, breast cancer, leadership, fashion, marriage, and a whole gamut of subjects reflecting the diversity of Muslim American women.

Both Muslim Girl and Azizah were launched as a counter-balance to what most American Muslims feel is the stereotype of oppressed and uneducated Muslim women — fueled largely by reports on Islam and Muslims from overseas.

“Islam and Muslims are reported on in this country through the lens of Middle Eastern politics. So we see the Muslim woman as the Arab woman,” Tayyibah Taylor, 54, Azizah’s publisher and editor, told reporters.

A mother of five, Taylor studied biology and philosophy at the University of Toronto. She studied Arabic and Islamic studies at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, before working as an administrator at the Islamic School of Seattle, Washington. “Azizah is a forum for our voice,” she said of Muslim American women. “By presenting positive images and portrayals it gives us permission to aspire to things, to break out of self-imposed limitations.”

New U.S. magazines target Muslim women and teens

[Al-khiyal]

June 3, 2007 -- 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, 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, Illinois. "We wanted to tell the stories of real American Muslims."

Muslim Girl joins a growing number of publications - online and off - catering to contemporary Muslims who live in the United States. The comedy website 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 website 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 in Burr Ridge, Illinois, 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.

Filling a void

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 U.S. 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 their market as 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, said she has heard of the new publication and was excited that it focused on career and life goals rather than fluff.

"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, finds appealing.

Anwer, who was raised in Galesburg, Illinois, 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."

New magazine in vogue for American Muslim girls