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Mona Eltahawy

Mona Eltahawy Biography

Journalist

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“White supremacy, whether in the US or Europe, is absolutely patriarchal—those far-right parties offer no gender equality...white women who vote for those parties are examples of women who accept crumbs thrown to them in return for limited power in the form of protection and privilege gained via proximity to powerful white men. They whip up xenophobia among white women voters by pitting immigrants against white families, portraying refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants as a drain on resources that should go instead to those white families. They want white women to have more white babies.”

FeminismPatriarchyWhite SupremacyWhite Feminism
Book:The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls
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“If a woman had a right to wear a miniskirt, surely I had the right to choose my headscarf. My choice was a sign of independence of mind. Surely, to choose to wear what I wanted was an assertion of my feminism. I was a feminist, wasn't I? But I was to learn that choosing to wear the hijab is much easier than choosing to take it off. And that lesson was an important reminder of how truly "free" choice is.”

FeminismChoiceClothingFree ChoiceHijabHeadscarfFeminist Dilemmas
Book:Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution
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“I understand the need to defend one's headscarf -- I did it for years, even as I was privately struggling with it. It's an important defence in the face of Islamophobes and racists. I get that. But if it's done without cognisance of the lived realities of women who do not have the privilege of choice, then my interlocutors end up doing exactly what they accuse me of doing with my support of a niqab ban: silencing other women. Why the silence, as some of our women fade into black, either owing to identity politics or out of acquiescence to Salafism?”

FeminismFree ChoiceBurqaFeminist DilemmasHijab BanNiqab Ban
Book:Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution
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“Slavish obedience to the clerics, who know how to squeeze every last drop of advantage out of religion, is killing our girls. We must speak-blaspheme, if necessary; be accused of being apostates, if that is what is required. Muslims are taught that Islam put an end to the Arabian practice of burying alive newborn baby girls because they were considered worthless and a burden, but as long as we stay quiet in the face of the abomination of child marriage, we are effectively burying our girls alive today.”

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Author:Mona Eltahawy
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“My own feminist revolution evolved slowly, and traveled the world with me. To this day I have no idea what dissident professor or librarian placed feminist tests on the bookshelves at the university library in Jeddah, but I found them there. They filled me with terror. I understood they were pulling at a thread that would unravel everything. Now that I am older, I can see that feeling terrified is how you recognize what you need. Terror encourages you to jump, even when you don't know if you will ever land.”

IfsKnowsWorldNeedsI CanIdeasFeelingsFoundMy OwnLandRevolutionUnderstoodTestsFilledLibraryUniversityTerrorFeministNo IdeaThis DayProfessorsThreadPullingTraveledTerrifiedLibrarianBookshelvesDissidents
Author:Mona Eltahawy
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