The last five words of Mona Eltahawy’s Headscarves and Hymens are “words say we are here”. Sure enough, her courageous words shout, from every page, raging against the oppression and subjugation of women of the Middle East. Eltahawy broke with numerous societal taboos; she drew on the experiences of Latino and African-American women and their struggle for equality to bring into the open the full scale of the suffering endured by women in the Middle East. Eltahawy walks the talk and painfully recounts her own experiences at the receiving end of sexual molestation and violence by random men in Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, as well as by Egyptian authorities. The book moves back and forth between Eltahawy’s rich personal experiences, the accounts of the many women she came into direct contact with, the various patriarchal religious teachings, and the legal and political realities of the region. Contrasting the personal narratives with the public must have been painful to write, yet it makes the writing more accessible. Certainly the words easy to read are completely out of order in a book of this sort; easy to follow and appreciate the extent…
Words Say We Are Here: Mona Eltahawy’s Cry For Ending Women’s Inequality
January 30, 2017
