• Reflections On 2024

    Reflections On 2024

    As 2024 draws to a close, Lajna members share their memories of significant times during the year. Ayesha Naseem Mirza 2024 brought all sorts of changes and experiences and strangely they happened in a pattern. The year started with a challenging time personally, a phase when I could say I was lost and uncertain about…

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  • Dr Amtul Kafi Bhunnoo, London   In recent news, Richard Holden, a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) has sparked some discussions with remarks about potentially banning cousin marriages with the guise that it will promote public health. 1 However, this proposal crushes personal freedom, cultural identity and scientific understanding. Richard Holden’s words clearly stem from us…

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  • Iffat Mirza Rashid, Bentley At seventeen, in the Reina Sofía Modern Art Museum, I stood before an 11 foot tall, 25 foot wide painting – the monochromatic, cubist work of art that depicted the brutal massacre of thousands in 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. A room dedicated to a singular painting,…

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  • Podcast 24: The Double Standards of Western Feminism

    Ayesha Naseem Mirza and Saira Bhatti talk about how biased and indifferent Western feminism is, especially considering its current silence on the suffering of Palestinian women. They discuss how feminists in the West position themselves as champions against patriarchy and misogyny but are part of a system that perpetuates those very things. Their brand of…

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  • ‘Come to Prayer, Come to Success’

    Unaizah Ahmad, Chester A quick search online reveals a lengthy list of productivity tips and several videos on how to be more productive. Some might promise the ‘recipe for success,’ others would claim there isn’t one. Some say procrastination is the culprit while others say procrastination might actually be a good thing. As this list…

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  • Arfa Yassir, Swindon Trees are such a beautiful, significant, and irreplaceable creation of God Almighty. This is the very reason the Holy Quran in various places gives examples of a tree in different contexts. For example: “Dost thou not see how Allah sets forth the similitude of a good word? It is like a good…

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  • Podcast 23: Who Will Save Muslim Women

    Iffat Mirza Rashid and Nooresahar Ahmad talk about how when discourse around Muslim women begins, everyone seems to have an opinion that deserves to get heard, everyone that is, except Muslim women. They explore how strange it is that critics isolate one group of women and point to any struggles they experience as stemming from…

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  • Ban the Burqa?

    A Response to Julia Hartley-Brewer’s Comments on Talk TV Iffat Mirza Rashid, Bentley It is reasonable for any civilised society to expect the journalists and spokespeople of their country and media to report with integrity and truth. When claims are made, that there is some sort of evidence to back any claims made, and indeed,…

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  • Everything Starts With Hello

    Danila Jonnud, Hampshire  When I found out about World Hello Day, funnily enough, the first thing that came to mind was a scene from the CBBC show Horrible Histories which I loved watching as a child. The sketch I remembered featured a fictionalised re-enactment of the first telephone call, where the recipient was so surprised…

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  • Our Children, Our Future

    Nooresahar Ahmad, Hampshire ‘There was a time,’ wrote Wordsworth (1) of early childhood, ‘when meadow, grove, and stream, / To me did seem / Apparelled in celestial light, / The glory and the freshness of a dream.’ Now that the poem’s narrator is an adult, the phase of childlike wonder and delight is gone forever:…

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