Mona Eltahawy will be speaking in Toronto about her new book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution.

By: Sadiya Ansari
The Star.com

Controversy ensued after Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy wrote a piece in 2012 for Foreign Policy magazine declaring, “The real war on women is in the Middle East.”

It drew sharp criticism, with some accusing of Eltahawy of merely presenting a snapshot of a complex reality, and one that served to strengthen existing stereotypes by asking “Why do they hate us?” — “they” being Arab men and “us” referring to Arab women.

But in her new book, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, Eltahawy said her purpose wasn’t to fuel right-wing rhetoric but to take an honest look at what women endure without worrying about what used to restrain her — making her culture and religion “look bad.”

Informed by a 20-year career covering the subject and her own experiences, including being sexually assaulted by Egyptian riot police in 2011, Eltahawy argues that for a revolution to succeed in the Middle East, women need to fight alongside men against oppressive political regimes and also against those systems that have allowed high levels of street harassment, domestic violence and tacit tolerance for harmful practices like female genital mutilation.

Headscarves and Hymens was released this week; the author will read from it at the North York Central Library on April 27. She spoke with the Star from Cairo.

Why did you decide to write this book?

This really came to a head when the revolution began and I saw things like the virginity tests, i.e. sex assaults that were perpetrated by the Egyptian military against Egyptian women revolutionaries.

I wasn’t seeing as much anger being directed towards them as I thought there should be, especially during revolutionary times and it all came to a head personally for me when I was assaulted.

You write about the influence of Middle Eastern feminists, such as Huda Shaarawi, on you. Why were they so important to you?

A lot of the people who oppose women’s rights here often dismiss feminism as an import of the West that has nothing to do with our lives and it’s the West and the colonizers who want to destroy our way of life with it. I insist on reminding them that we have a very homegrown movement.

In the book, you write that you “insist on the right to critique both culture and my faith in ways that I would reject from an outsider.” In an era where there are many opinions on Muslim women’s clothing and the veil, why is this particularly important to you?

Women veil for different reasons. There aren’t just one or two reasons, there are many reasons. So I insist on the conversation starting and (remaining) centred around Muslim women. Even if we as Muslim women disagree, because it’s natural to disagree. But I don’t want it to be reduced to the racist right-wing and the left-wing trying to be politically correct and culturally relativist.

You write for change to happen there needs be sustained outrage, not just trickles of it when a news story comes out, for instance. How do you sustain not just the outrage but the energy to keep up what you’ve been doing all these years?

I’m a very angry person and a lot pisses me off (laughs).

For me, it happens to be feminism and gender issues and it really became highlighted to me when my family moved to Saudi Arabia. It was just so blatant and so obvious that was what was going on there was so unjust on so many levels.

In your book, you say there’s always a cost to women when they do this type of work. What has been the reaction to your work?

Since “Why do they hate us?” came out, I have lost friends because of that essay. Honestly, there are people that don’t talk to me anymore because of that essay and I think that is the price that anyone who wants to write something that really pushes the (limits) has to be willing to pay.

Especially when you write opinion pieces; especially when you write very personal pieces; especially as a woman.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.