Sheima Benembarek

When Kim Jiyoung was born, her mother, Oh Misook, wept over the misfortune of bringing another girl into the world. “It’s okay,” her mother-in-law said. “The third will be a boy.” There was such pressure to produce a son that when Oh Misook fell pregnant again, she resorted to a secret sex-selective abortion. The practice was gaining popularity in South Korea at the…

Bilal asks his sister Samra Habib, in her new memoir, the same question I am often asked by well-­meaning friends who can’t completely conceal the dismay in their voices: “Why do you need to call yourself Muslim?” This question, I suspect now more than ever, is regularly asked of liberal or moderate Muslims living in the…