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Headscarves and Hymens book cover
Headscarves and Hymens
Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution
2015
First Published
4.16
Average Rating
240
Number of Pages

A passionate manifesto decrying misogyny in the Arab world, by an Egyptian American journalist and activist. When the Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy published an article in Foreign Policy magazine in 2012 titled Why Do They Hate Us it provoked a firestorm of controversy. The response it generated, with more than four thousand posts on the website, broke all records for the magazine, prompted dozens of follow-up interviews on radio and television, and made it clear that misogyny in the Arab world is an explosive issue, one that engages and often enrages the public. 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 in countries from Yemen and Saudi Arabia to Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya as second-class citizens. Eltahawy has traveled 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.

Avg Rating
4.16
Number of Ratings
4,735
5 STARS
40%
4 STARS
41%
3 STARS
15%
2 STARS
3%
1 STARS
1%
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Author

Mona Eltahawy
Mona Eltahawy
Author · 3 books
Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-American journalist based in New York. She is a feminist.
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