August 23rd: Women's Magazine examines Islam and women in Iran, families and homophobia as a pathology and a tribute to Abbey Lincoln

Minoo Moallem, professor of Women's and Gender Studies at U.C. Berkeley, challenges the mainstream stereotypical representation of Islam and Muslims as backward, fanatical, and premodern by showing how Islamic nationalism and fundamentalism are by-products of modernity. Using magazines, novels, and films, she offers a feminist transnational analysis of contemporary Iranian culture that questions dominant binaries of modern and traditional, West and East, secular and religious, and civilized and barbaric.

In this interview with Iranian American Simin Yahaghi, Moallem explains that veiling, like other signifiers of national and cultural identities, needs to be understood in the context of both Iran's own nation-building traditions and Orientalism and colonial attitudes toward Islam and feminism. She discusses how the Iranian women's movement has navigated complex identities, and calls on us to challenge both religious and secular forms of absolutism
Simin Yahaghi talks with Minoo Moallem, author of the book Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister: The Politics of Patriarchy in Iran. Audio, 22:39
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Well-known lesbian author and activist Sarah Schulman speaks with Lisa Dettmer about the possibility of recognizing homophobia in families as a pathology, rather than pathologizing gay people. They also discuss the relationship between familial homophobia and the demand for same-sex marriage.


Interview with Sarah Schulman, author of Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences. Audio: 16:16



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Singer, songwriter, actress and civil rights activist Abbey Lincoln died last week at the age of 80. She was best known for her collaboration with Max Roach on the Freedom Now Suites in 1960, but she also wrote the song "Caged Bird" which inspired the title of Maya Angelou's . This piece includes short selections of Lincoln's powerful music and an interview with KPFA's Gabrielle Wilson.



A tribute to jazz songstress Abbey Lincoln, with interview by Gabrielle Wilson. Audio: 11:43



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