Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution - Hardcover

Eltahawy, Mona

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297609009 ISBN 13: 9780297609001

Publisher: W&N, 2015

Synopsis

Headscarves and Hymens is a clear reminder that unless the political revolutions we've started in the Middle East and North Africa are accompanied by social and sexual revolutions - that have gender equality nestled in their heart - they will fail. If we just keep replacing one man with another at the top without paying attention to what that man and others do to women, on the streets and at home, we will never be free. I want everyone who reads this book, regardless of where they live, to understand that the revolution must cross the threshold into the home - Mona Eltahawy
In November 2011, Mona Eltahawy came to worldwide attention when she was assaulted by police during the Egyptian Revolution. She responded by writing a groundbreaking piece in FOREIGN POLICY entitled 'Why Do They Hate Us?'; 'They' being Muslim men, 'Us' being women. It sparked huge controversy.

In HEADSCARVES AND HYMENS, Eltahawy takes her argument further. Drawing on her years as a campaigner and commentator on women's issues in the Middle East, she explains that since the Arab Spring began, women in the Arab world have had two revolutions to undertake: one fought with men against oppressive regimes, and another fought against an entire political and economic system that treats women as second-class citizens in countries from Yemen and Saudi Arabia to Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya.

Eltahawy has travelled across the Middle East and North Africa, meeting with women and listening to their stories. Her book is a plea for outrage and action on their behalf, confronting the 'toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend.' A manifesto motivated by hope and fury in equal measure, HEADSCARVES AND HYMENS is as illuminating as it is incendiary.

About this title

Review:

So we have a winner for book-title of 2015 @monaeltahawy's 'Headscarves & Hymens - Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution.' BRAVO (Caitlin Moran)

Now Eltahawy has written this fearless roar-to-arms, which sets her own experiences - including how she was groped while on Hajj in Mecca - alongside those of dozens of other women. She illustrates the misogynistic and sometimes downright barbaric attitudes towards women in the Arab world; from the Hobson's Choice of the hijab and the Saudi cleric who declared that women shouldn't drive because it damages their ovaries; to FGM and Rawan, the eight-year-old Yemeni "bride", who died of internal bleeding after being violently penetrated on her "wedding night". Sometimes we need books that will make us angry enough to want to change things. This book will certainly disturb you, and possibly make you very angry indeed - but you must read it. (Caroline Sanderson THE BOOKSELLER - Editor's Choice Book of the Month)

Shocking, heartfelt and well-researched (NEW STATESMAN)

This feisty Egyptian lady made headlines after she was arrested by police, beaten and sexually assaulted in 2011 during the Egyptian revolution. Her subsequent article for Foreign Policy magazine, Why Do They Hate Us?, was a no-holds barred attack on the treatment of women in many Arab countries. "When it comes to the status of women in the Middle East," she wrote, "it's not better than you think. It is much, much worse" (Camilla Cavendish SUNDAY TIMES)

'Headscarves and Hymens is an impassioned, deeply felt and affecting memoir that confronts a very real problem. (Tahmima Anim THE TIMES)

Brave and impassioned . . . A shocking book, and one that will make anyone who has seen veiling as a cultural issue think very hard about what is really going on (MAIL ON SUNDAY)

Inequality, state brutality, resentment, sexual frustration, religious indoctrination, shame culture and struggle for power . . . Eltahawy holds a match to this combustible mix . . . A brave call for gender equality (GUARDIAN)

(What are you currently reading?) Headscarves and Hymens by Mona Eltahawy. I was lucky enough to interview Mona recently and she is enormously inspiring and very, very funny. (Laura Bates THE INDEPENDENT)

This is a fascinating, can't-look-away, whistle-stop tour of the Middle East through the eyes of an angry but lucid observer. Eltahawy is brave as well as perceptive: her reports cause outrage and controversy. She blames the West as much as Middle Eastern attitudes for the lack of change, especially Western liberals who criticise imperialism and yet turn a blind eye to the cultural imperialism that doesn't push misogyny to the fore, as if there might time to sort that out later when more important matters have been "fixed". (Viv Groskop DAILY TELEGRAPH)

This a call to arms against misogyny in the Arab world is furiously plain-speaking. (Viv Groskop SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

Book Description:

A ground-breaking call to arms against misogyny in the Arab world by award-winning journalist Mona Eltahawy, author of WHY DO THEY HATE US?, the article which went viral and was debated around the globe.

About this edition

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0297609009
• ISBN 13: 9780297609001
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256