Submit to AQSAzine Issue #3: My Islam

Dear friends, lovers, sisters, allies, revolutionaries

Submit and spread the word about the AQSAzine Issue #3 MY ISLAM "because Allah gave you the right to figure it out"

WHY SUBMIT

Because you’ve asked the question “what is my Islam and what does it mean to me?” Because you constantly explore it, navigate it, confront it, take it apart, or reject it. Because you’ve been excluded from it. Because you hold it close, embrace it, own it. Because you’ve been attacked for believing in it. Because you are tired of defending and defining it.

Because you feel Islam has been used misused and abused, helping some gain illegitimate power and others rationalize oppression. Because you feel that despite this, it is a quest for humanity and peace of mind, body, soul that is at its core.

Because your Islam is not divisive, violent, or exclusive, it is faithful, accepting, and compassionate. Because you’ve found that Islam exists in different forms, with various ways to interpret it, talk about it, and perform it. Because you feel these variations are not meant to divide us into sects. Because your Islam is about unity.

Types of Submissions:

Stories (fiction or non fiction);

Poetry;

Artwork;

Graphic arts;

Photography;

Visuals;

Media reviews;

Interviews

Any other form of personal art or writing under 1,500 words (we love and perfer short pieces).

Confidentiality:

Submissions will not be reprinted without the author's permission. You can use your first and/or last name, a pen name, or even remain completely anonymous. We want you to feel safe in making a contribution.

Send us your submissions, questions, resources, information to aqsazine at gmail.com

AQSAzine is a grassroots zine open to 16-35 year old women and trans people who self-identify as Muslim. It is a creative avenue for us to express ourselves, share our experiences, and connect with others. We strive to work from a feminist, anti-oppressive, feminist, pro-choice, queer and trans positive framework.

Peace, love and hugs

AQSAzine Team

Muslims Making Noise!

This summer young Muslim women and trans people came together to work on video shorts in a project called Making Noise! with filmaker Sidrah Laldin. The shorts will be shown at Profile This! event at the Art Gallery of Toronto on December 4th from 6 -8.

One of the classes was held at the National Film Board where the group participated in a stop motion animation workshop. This is the short video that they created during the workshop.




See you on Friday!

Launch of 2nd Issue of AQSAzine Dec 4th. We expect you there!

We've been working on the new issue for the past year and finally it is really to be launched. If you're in Toronto join us!

Profile This! A night of art and activism by young Muslim women and trans people.


Dec 4th, 6 - 8 pm
Art Gallery of Ontario
Anne Tannenbaum Gallery School
317 Dundas Street West Toronto

Join us at Profile This! the launch of AQSAzine Issue #2 Immigration/Migration & Sex/Love/Marriage
& Making Noise! Muslim women and trans people video project

With the the launch of Jasmine Magazine's 1st Issue - the first Palestinian Magazine in Toronto!

A FREE event hosted in partnership with The AGO Youth Council

Showcasing videos, visual art, readings by Muslim artists including Azza Abbaro, Golie, Sahar Rizi, Samira Mohyeddin, Shadi Eskandani and Shara Mohammed
and
Musical performances by
Farheen Beg & Arun Chaudhuri www.myspace.com/farheenmusic
Tanya Jacobs www.myspace.com/tanyamjacobs

With Silk Screening and Zine Making Workshops

This event is part of the 16 Days to THRIVE! Challenging VIolence Against Racialized Women and Our Communities http://bit.ly/3c0YSx

For more information on AqsaZine,
Check us out on Facebook: Aqsa Zine
Follow us on Twitter.com/AQSAzine
Or e-mail. aqsazine@gmail.com

AQSAZINE is a grassroots zine for 16-35 year old women and trans people who identify as Muslim. It is a creative avenue to express ourselves, share our experiences, and connect with others.

Making Noise! is an exciting hands-on media arts training that addresses the invisibility and negative portrayals of young Muslim women and trans people in the media, supported by the Urban Alliance on Race Relations.

With thanks to our generous funders: ArtReach Toronto, Freedonia Foundation, Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children, Ontario Women's Directorate and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations

Get Your Hands On It and AQSAZINE in the news

We're getting press! Thanks NOW magazine http://www.nowtoronto.com/books/story.cfm?content=167422 for picking up the zine and CBC radio http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/ontario/Radio/Sitems/Index.asp?pk_region=25&id=76&IDEmissionFR=219&IDCat=6&leMois1=2009%2F03&sub=..%2F..%2F.

What do you think?

If you want to get a copy of the first issue email us at aqsazine@gmail.com. We'll hook you up!

Call for Submissions AQSAZINE ISSUE 2! Let's Talk about Sex and Immigration Baby!

Dear friends, lovers, sisters, allies, revolutionaries, haters and everyone in between.

Submit and spread the word about the AQSAZINE Double Issue on Immigration/Migration and Love/Sex/Marriage. Deadline for submissions May 15th 2009.

Submit if:

*Immigration and Migration: If you feel like a minority wherever you go…if your heart longs for somewhere you’ve never been but that’s burnt into your memory…If all your parents ever talk about is “back home”...If you spend your life trying to find your place… if your physical home is occupied, forgotten, or far away… if your life consists of various checkpoints, “visas in yo’ name”, lawyer consultations, applications, rejections… If you’ve been expelled, deported, refugized, rendered illegal, or erased by your “non-status”… If you’ve found a new "home away from home" that is warm, welcoming and REAL…If you’re searching for “home”—the place and the meaning…If you’ve found home in a person, community, people or state of mind… if you’ve found strength in your displacement…If you were never really given the choice…your expression is welcome here


*Love/Sex/Marriage: If you ever wonder what order the three words should come in, but often have no choice in the matter…If you believe in any or all of them and know Islam gives you the right to enjoy, even savor them… If you feel like you’ve failed your parents...If sex has been scary and filled with guilt for way too long…If you’ve stained your sheets and now you wonder what’s next?... if you have forbidden loves…if your body is someone else’s battleground…if you have (or think you have) been sexually assaulted…if fear, sex, and guilt have been twisted in your heart for far too long… if you risk so much of yourself and your safety to express love…if wherever you turn people try to marry to you off to a “handsome doctor/lawyer/engineer”…If your heart is in the right place, but your mind and body wonder……If you’ve asked many questions to which there were no answers...your expression is welcome here

Types of Submissions: Stories (fiction or non fiction); Poetry; Artwork, Photography, Visuals; media reviews; Articles, profiles, interviews; Self help booklets, tip sheets, flyers and pamphlets; Any other form of personal art or writing

Confidentiality: Submissions will not be reprinted without the author's permission. You can use your first and/or last name, a pen name, or even remain completely anonymous. We want you to feel safe in making a contribution. Send us your submissions, questions, resources, information aqsazine@gmail.com

Peace, love and hugs

AQSAZINE TEAM

Identity Uncrisis

Aqsazine identity


In our feature issue we claimed that this is a place for us to inspire each other and to simply be. We’ve received many inquiries as to who the “group behind the AQSAzine” is. Perhaps we can begin to answer that by stating who we are NOT.


AQSAzine is not an organization. We have no mandate. We thrive in chaos, have clashing personalities, and have differing opinions on just about everything.


AQSAzine is an idea, a forum, an entity created by individuals who have MANY histories and many futures. We each speak for ourselves, united by our individuality. We could never define ourselves because we wouldn’t know where to start. Even the words, images and ideas reflected in these pages belong to those of their authors, and push the limits of those physically putting the publication together. That is the point. WHO WE ARE is what you are holding in your hands as you read this. It will change, it will evolve, it will grow into many different things.


We reserve the right to hold ephemeral ideas. We reserve the right to be scatterbrained and contradict ourselves. We reserve the right to disagree, even with each other. And it is in the mess of this chaotic indecisiveness that we unite ourselves in our differences, and allow each other equal weight. THAT is the true nature of equality.


So, who are we?


Well…You’ll see us if you look hard enough.
You’ll hear us if you listen hard enough.
But you’ll never capture us because we’re not all the same thing. We’re not all in one place. We’re certainly don’t all hold the same ideas…


And as such, we refuse to pigeonhole ourselves under any circumstances. That is diversity. We speak for ourselves individually under the umbrella of the idea of “aqsa”….pushing beyond limits to discover who we are. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a journey, not a conclusion. And we all get a say in where we’re going.

AQSAZINE Issue# 1 Launch - Be there!!

Come Celebrate Resistance and Self Defense at the Launch of the Premiere issue of AQSA Zine

We're holding a launch party for the zine on Thursday Feb 27th from 7 - 9 at the Toronto Women's Bookstore located at 73 Habord Street.

Join us for a night of readings, spoken word, poetry by Muslim women in Toronto and beyond from the forthcoming AQSAZINE Issue #1: resistance and self defense.

Artists include: Shadi Eskandani, Rosina Kazi, Golie and many more.

Please note that the use of camera, audio and/or visual recording devices will not be permitted during the launch. 

If you want a copy of the zine but cannot make the launch - contact us at aqsazine@gmail.com, we'll hook you up. 

Donations are welcomed, proceeds will be used for forthcoming AQSAZINE issues. We regret that the bathroom is not wheelchair accessible.