A couple of weeks ago, I received a letter from a friend of mine who I studied with last year. He made the effort to write out a physical letter and send it my way in a bid to check up on how life was going and also rekindle the lost artform of letter writing. It struck me when I was working on my reply that it had been a very long time since I wrote a personal letter to anyone at all. We tend to express ourselves and convey messages to one another within a restricted space of either 140 characters on Twitter, or a few lines on Facebook.

It could be just a regional issue, however I wanted to pose the question anyway – When was the last time that you either sent or received a personal letter to someone? Are you emailing more than sending letters these days?

Let us know by leaving a comment below >

Hello all,

As you might have already heard, we are currently workng on the Eid issue (it’s a little strange like that, we work over a month ahead). Our editor (Sarah) has sent our messages in the past asking people to send in stories that we are looking for. Right now, we are hunting for stories from couples to go into our marriage section.

Come back, don’t run away yet!

The marriage feature is written in the first person format, with each spouse taking about -

The lead-up to the marriage - The feelings and emotions prior to the marriage, how it all came about, what each person was looking for

What each person was looking for - Any advice for others, any unusual points, funny and unexpected events or occurences that happened and how life has changed since the marriage?

If you want to look at some good examples of how the stories read, check out our marriage section on the site here

Ask your friends and family members if they are interested in being featured. It’s a popular part of the magazine and the website and sets out to inspire people looking to get married, as well as young couples.

When they are interested, drop us an email at editorial@emel.com and have the subject header as MARRIAGE and leave us your contact details.

Thank you once again!

Robi

The Ramadan issue has just come into the office and it is looking amazing! We don’t want to spoil it for people but we think that you’ll really like it

cleverly hidden under a bunch of emel business cards

Our Facebook page has become quite popular recently as we are trying to interact more with our readers. The page is seeing a lot of hot debates, discussions and competitions on there. If you haven’t joined by now, please do so here, and invite your friends over too. We have a lot more in store in the coming months.

A lot of people are now out for their Summer holidays. We have compiled a number of top places to go with friends and family and a list of things you can do. We really think you should check that out here and then let us know how it went by leaving us a comment or two below.

This coming Monday, Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford will be hosting a major conference on the global Muslim Market. We ran a feature on it for the current issue when Allen Lai discussed with us on what trend spotters are calling ‘the next big thing’. You can read the feature here. Our editor, Sarah will also be speaking at the event too. She’ll be talking on ‘Reaching the Muslim Market – Opportunities and Challenges’. We’ve asked her to tweet throughout the day to let us know what is going on, and you’ll be able to listen in by following her @SarahIJoseph.

Anyway, Fatema, Steven and Tamsin are about to do the food shoots for our Eid issue and we are being told to stay away from the meringues! Could you have resisted?

yum

origami boxes

Narges, one of our designers created these very awesome origami boxes out of crafted paper for the food photoshoot. We are hoping to shoot a small video tutorial on how you can do that in time for the issue when it comes out. Watch this space.

]]> http://www.emel.com/blog/2010/07/friday-round-up-ramadan-issue-teaser-and-resisting-meringues/feed/ 0 http://www.emel.com/blog/2010/07/competitive-internship-programme-at-emel/ http://www.emel.com/blog/2010/07/competitive-internship-programme-at-emel/#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:26:14 +0000 admin http://www.emel.com/blog/?p=417

Are you a dynamic, fast thinking, hard working individual with a passion for media? Then emel’s Competitive Internship Programme could be for you. The Programme will potentially lead to paid work / a full time editorial position.

emel is a Muslim lifestyle magazine. Based in North London, the small but dedicated and friendly team put together this high quality glossy magazine with a global reach.

Task wills include writing text, research, interviewing, assisting in photo-shoots, obtaining press images and dealing with PRs.

The role is varied and requires a candidate who is flexible, committed, competent, and who pays attention to detail. The candidate is required to have an open-minded approach and be willing to undertake whatever task requires completion.

The successful candidates will be able to meet strict deadlines, have an eye for detail, write with fluency and able to cope with pressure.

Training in the relevant Design packages will be given but you will be expected to be conversant with standard Office packages including Word and Excel.

If you want your foot in the door of media, then come to us for your internship, but be warned: it looks glamorous, but it is very, very hard work!

This internship will involve coming to our Swiss Cottage office for five days a week for three months.

We will offer expenses of up to £250 per month for this internship and there is the potential for paid work and a full time position for the right candidate.

We have four internship openings beginning 2^nd August 2010.

Successful candidate(s) for the full time position will begin 1^st November 2010.

Closing Date

26^th July 2010

Salary

Expenses of £250 per month, with a chance of full time employment at the end of the three month programme

Contact

Please send your CV, a brief cover note, and an example of your written work to info@emel.com with “emel Competitive Internship Programme” in the subject line

Website

www.emel.com

The Times, one of the UK’s largest and oldest newspapers, has finally raised its much speculated Paywall today. The Paywall will only allow selected users to read articles from The Times website. This could very well bring out the dawn of a new age in online experiences. Rupert Murdoch promises us that the scheme will help readers pay for ‘quality’ content as opposed to what’s already available online.

Would you be willing to pay for online content if you knew you were getting more?

We want to know what you think Leave your comments below >

Interesting posts relating to the story -

The Guardian – Paywall? What paywall? Times site still free

BBC article – Times begins charges for online readers

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Just thought I’d drop you a line this lovely Monday morning. I’m looking ahead to… Ramadan!! Thinking about all the things I want out of this beautiful month, and reminiscing of previous years.

I’m also working towards the Ramadan issue of emel, looking at the lifestyle aspects. Here at emel, we thought we’d look at some elegant Abaya’s and hijabs, from timeless cuts to edgy newer designs. What are some of your favourite stores? Where did you buy your favourite abaya from?

With summer upon us, I’ve also started wearing more colourful floral scarves and figured, what better time to feature an array of different prints, colours and styles of hijab than in this issue. So what are your favourite colours or styles, and why? Where do you buy your hijabs?

Back to work… Over and out

Fatema

Greetings All,

After the popularity of Sarah’s post last month on 10 tips to show our love for Muhammad (PBUH), we have been inundated with emails and calls from people who have requested for the idea to be extended to printed t-shirts.

We are pleased to say that we are launching our limited edition ‘I love Muhammad’ t-shirts.

The t-shirts cost £10.00 plus postage and packaging* for advance orders. Orders must be made by 5pm GMT on on the 23rd of June 2010.

For orders placed after this date, t-shirts will cost £15.00 plus postage and packaging*.

To order yours, drop us a line at +44(0) 207 328 7300 or email us at info@emel.com with your name, preferred shirt size and telephone number.

Get yours now, whilst stocks last!

This summer sees round two of embox hit the shelves. We’re looking for enthusiastic writers to join our team. Are you a young Muslim and think you know a thing or two about student life? We’re looking for you.
embox covers many of the issues important to new students, from health to finance to simple everyday lifestyle tips such as ‘what to wear’, and ‘where to eat’…embox covers it all.

To have a look at the last issue, click here.

If you want to join the team, all you have to do is to respond to the following question below -

If we were developing ‘A quick guide to Muslim student life’, what would be your one essential tip for a Muslim student?

Drop us an email to info@emel.com, (FAO:embox), 100- 150 words.
Deadline: 23rd June 2010.
We look forward to hearing from you soon!!
Good luck!

Have you spotted these posters all over London?

Have you spotted the posters across London?

Inspired by Muhammad is a brand new campaign launched by the Exploring Islam Foundation that is designed to improve the public understanding of Islam and Muslims. The campaign sets out to demonstrate how Muhammad inspires them to contribute to society, with a focus on women’s rights, social justice and the environment. emel’s editor, Sarah Joseph is an Ambassador of the campaign and you can see a clip of her discussing animal welfare in Islam here -

]]> http://www.emel.com/blog/2010/06/inspired-by-muhammad-pbuh/feed/ 3 http://www.emel.com/blog/2010/05/friday-round-up-fashion-shoots-zain-bhikha-and-ipads/ http://www.emel.com/blog/2010/05/friday-round-up-fashion-shoots-zain-bhikha-and-ipads/#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 09:59:58 +0000 Robi http://www.emel.com/blog/?p=349 Salams and Greetings All,

First of all, Jummah Mubarak and we hope that you have a blessed day today! The weather so far appears to be holding up here in London as the sun has come out to welcome us to the weekend.  Ayman (our Assistant Editor) has brought in a few things for Fatema (our Lifestyle Editor) to use today for a day of photoshoots that are going into the eco-special July issue.

The June issue of emel has just hit the stores and you can find out more information about it in our monthly e-zine here. In this month’s issue of emel, we interview  Zain Bhikha who is touring the country with Families Relief, plus cover a feature on a summer of sport that includes interviews with Anelka and other Premiership footballers.

Zain Bhikha and Friends – Families Relief UK Concert Tour

Zain Bhikha and his friends will be kick starting the first leg of his UK concert tour for Families Relief. He is in Manchester tonight and emel are attending as media partners at the event. If you will be attending the event, come over and say hello to us. We will also be attending the rest of the events in London, Bradford and Birmingham and you can still catch us there. Click here if you haven’t booked tickets yet.

The dawn of a new age?

Apple’s acclaimed iPad went on sale in the UK today, with many industry experts calling it the dawn of a new age. I still have my personal reservations on the product, however I can’t help but imagine the possibilities -

Will you be lining up to buy an iPad soon? If you did, how would you like to read emel? Would you download and read an emel iPad or iPhone app if we offered one?  Please leave your thoughts and comments below